Although I’m not one to make New Year’s resolutions, I do set goals throughout the year and resolve to do and be better in various ways.
Did you make a New Year’s resolution?
Whether you’ve set out to improve your health, improve your finances, improve your career, travel more, volunteer more, spend more time with family, make new friends, attend church more regularly, give more to charity or any of a host of other behavioral changes, there are plenty of tips and tricks available to help you succeed.
Not that all my goal-setting is (ahem) successful, but these are 7 techniques or practices I’ve found to be most helpful over the years.
1) Make it Attainable – there’s no sense in setting yourself up for failure from the beginning. Set an attainable (yet challenging) goal that you know you can accomplish with hard work, dedication & discipline. Once you accomplish it, you can always set your sights higher for your next goal.
2) Make it Specific & Measurable – NOT this: “Go on more date nights with the hubs.” But THIS: “At least two (2) date nights per month with the hubs.” You must be able to actually measure or calculate your progress.
3) Write it Down – like this experienced blogger did and keep it in a place where you’ll see it everyday – bathroom mirror, desk, kitchen sink, your favorite potty in the house – where ever you know you will get the most daily exposure to it.
4) Visualize – this may sound silly, but this is a technique I learned during my high school basketball years. The visualization process is fairly obvious if you’re a basketball player, but you can do it with any goal. Picture yourself DOING and/or BEING exactly what you want. It’s a form of simple meditation, and if you can carve out just a few minutes (even seconds) each day to do this, you’ll be amazed at the results.
5) Revisit & Adjust – Don’t expect to accomplish everything all at once. If your goal is to save $200 per month, and by April, you’ve only saved $70 per month, then you may need to reevaluate and adjust your goal (and that’s okay!). Maybe you forgot a few weekly expenses when you first did your budget or you didn’t account for emergency vet bills. Or maybe you need to CUT (gasp!) a few frivolous expenses from your original budget.
6) Seek Support/Accountability – shouldn’t we be accountable to ourselves, you ask? Well, yes, but when times get tough, having a cheerleader or someone to hold your feet to the fire won’t hurt either (i.e. workout partner, best friend or even the public by posting your goals on your personal blog).
7) Reward Yourself – Of course, your greatest reward is to actually attain your goal or accomplish your resolution, but be sure to reward yourself along the way. Set mini-milestones throughout the process so that you reap the benefits of your progress toward your goal. This is the main reason people much smarter than me like Dave Ramsey suggest doing things like paying off your credit card debt in the order of smallest debt to largest debt rather than in order of highest interest rate to lowest interest rate. By paying off one or two of your smallest credit cards quickly, you gain momentum and encouragement. Set milestone rewards for yourself (they don’t have to be big) in order to stay motivated and empowered to forge ahead.
Through this process keep in mind that you are likely trying to alter habits or behaviors you’ve formed over many years, so don’t expect to change or improve overnight.
Celebrate your wins and learn from your losses.
Give yourself a break on occasion, and remember to show yourself a bit of grace. A little bit of grace can be your biggest ally.
What are your toughest obstacles when trying to accomplish your goals?
Which techniques work best for you?
