Does it feel like it falls apart every time you set a goal? Do you start something new and run with it for a couple of weeks, but it becomes a challenge to get back into it after one slip-up? Whatever the reason for those slip-ups, I will tell you five tips that will help you achieve your goals without giving up, starting with SMART goals.
You’re So SMART
If you haven’t heard of the term “SMART goals,” they are the SMART way to achieve your goals. Well-defined goals help you clearly understand what needs to be done to stay on track.
‘S’ for Specific
The ‘S’ stands for specific. In this section, you ask yourself: What will be accomplished? And what actions will you take?
The more specific you are in describing your goals, the better.
‘M’ for Measurable
The ‘M’ stands for measurable. In this section, you ask yourself: What date will measure the goal? How much? Or how well?
Make sure you can measure success. Babies take small steps before learning how to walk.
‘A’ for Achievable
The ‘A’ stands for achievable. In this section, you ask yourself: Is the goal attainable? Do you have the necessary skills or resources to achieve it?
It may seem obvious, but to achieve your goals, you must make them… achievable.
‘R’ for Relevant
The ‘R’ stands for relevant. In this section, you ask yourself: Does it align with the broader goals? Why is the result significant?
These goals should help get you to an ultimate end goal.
‘T’ for Time-bound
The ‘T’ stands for time-bound. In this section, you ask yourself: What is the time frame for accomplishing the goal?
Ensure a reasonable timeframe. Don’t make it too hard or impossible, or you will eventually give up.
When I first created goals, they were basic. I would say something like, “I want to lose weight,” but not have a well-defined plan for achieving it. I ended up giving up pretty quickly. However, when I changed my goals to SMART goals, it helped me lay out a plan, kind of like an outline, which helped immensely.
My new goal started sounding like, “My goal is to lose 25 lbs by June by following a workout regimen and spending five or more hours at the gym weekly. This will increase my happiness by giving me the body I want before our summer vacation.” As you can see, it’s a lot more detailed.
Once you have your goal, you can then break it into smaller steps. This is your hack to achieve your goals. By breaking it down, I aimed to lose 5 lbs a month. This way, I had a measurable and achievable target each month, making the overall goal less daunting and more attainable.
Visual Cues
Once you’ve created your SMART goals, write them down somewhere that you pass by every day. Reading your goal every day is a great way to stay motivated. Since we are visual people, writing it somewhere that you visit daily, like the refrigerator or mirror, is a vital step to achieve your goals.
Once you have created your SMART goals, it’s important to stay consistent.
Consistency
We know consistency is important, so why is it so hard to stay consistent? I know it’s happened to me before. I get hyper-focused on something for a month or two, then switch hobbies because I didn’t get the desired results. Even with SMART goals, this happens. I believe it’s because we’ve been raised to want immediate results. Why would we want to be consistent in something that isn’t producing immediate results?
Think about it: if you rent a movie at home, purchase an app or add-on, or go through a drive-thru restaurant, you’re going to want that purchase immediately. If you had to wait a couple of hours for your purchase, you most likely would be turned off.
Nowadays, we even complain about internet speeds and other technologies when they are slow. What we tend to forget is that things take time. To get good at something, not only does it take time, but practice as well.
I like to use running as an example. Whenever my friends ran with me, they got discouraged because I was never tired, and my heart rate would always remain low compared to theirs. What they don’t understand is that it took me years of consistent running to achieve that. It didn’t happen overnight, although I wish it did. I trained for my marathons by running a certain mileage every week and slowly increasing it. It took a long time to train for a marathon, and even then, I wasn’t well prepared.
“Just be consistent” is easy to say to someone. Although this is one of the major challenges in completing something, another tough challenge is fighting the negative thoughts that arise.
Strengthening Your Mind
No one is perfect. I’ve had plenty of negative thinking which has caused me to drop hobbies on the fly. If you want to achieve your goals, you have to learn how to overcome your negative thinking and strengthen your mind.
When I start a new hobby or goal, I will dive deep into it. A couple of weeks into the goal, I will start comparing myself to the professionals in the field. This causes me to question why I’m pursuing this goal. “I’m not good enough,” “I will never learn,” “People will judge me,” “Why am I doing this?” These are some of the things that pop into my head that cause me to back out of my goals and hobbies.
What I found helpful for these situations is to meditate. Meditation is a great tool that has helped me live more in the moment. The issue I had before was that I compared everything to a future self that I saw. For example, I had just started a YouTube channel and expected to have thousands of followers within a month because I was doing everything “right.” Not only was this unrealistic, but it made me focus on views instead of enjoying my content and the creation of it.
I believe everyone should spend a couple of minutes meditating every day. Being “in tune” with your mind is so important to help combat negative thoughts. I’m not affiliated with any company, but the meditation app I use is Meditation by Down Dog. They do guided meditation, so it’s perfect for beginners. I know it seems like I’m selling the app, but I’m just very passionate about it because that’s what I use for daily meditation and yoga, and it’s truly changed my life.
Make Some Life Changes
During your quest to achieve your goals, you may encounter many negative people who tell you what you’re doing is stupid or unrealistic. In this situation, you have to direct their negativity into positivity.
I can’t tell you the number of times I started a new hobby, and my own family and friends wouldn’t be fully supportive. Sure, they would say, “Yeah, you can do it/I love that idea,” but deep down, you knew they wanted you to do something else. Having to be constantly told to find something stable can be frustrating. What I find helps in these situations is to turn that into a challenge. If they say you will fail, try to take that as a challenge to prove them wrong.
I cut a few negative people out of my life. They kept bringing me down anytime I wanted to start something new. That may be a bit extreme, but what you can do instead is to make new friends and surround yourself with positive people. Join clubs, forums, or any other group gatherings of people who enjoy doing similar things. Once you join these groups, they will be supportive as they are all working towards the same activity.
Whenever I was interested in a new hobby, I would join a club to keep myself engaged. Run club, beer brewing, writing forums, and many more. I made friends, and they encouraged me to go above and beyond. I also learned a great deal from them. If I had a hobby where I didn’t join a club, I ended up giving up on that hobby early on.
Surrounding yourself with positivity goes a long way. The people you interact with should always help and push you towards your goals.
Conclusion
In order to achieve your goals, it begins with the creation of a SMART goal. Once you’ve thought it out carefully, you will want to be consistent with that goal. The easiest way to fail at a goal is by letting your negative thoughts take you out of a consistent flow. If you’re able to strengthen your mind, overcome negative thoughts, and surround yourself with positivity and people that enhance your life, you’ll be able to achieve anything.
I challenge you to create a SMART goal and share it below. Let me know what you’re trying to achieve and how far along you are in that process.
