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Have you ever set a goal and within weeks (ok lets be honest…sometimes days!) it’s faded into the background of life?

If you answered yes, (I’m raising my hand as well) then you are in good company! Research shows that only 8% of people actually achieve the goals they set.

Feeling a little better about yourself?

Me too.

We all set goals with the intention of achieving them. So what prevents us from accomplishing them?

A few things….

INTENTIONALITY

As a personal/professional life coach I have learned that nothing happens on accident.

We don’t accidentally get in shape. We don’t just happen to spend quality time with those we love.

No, we have to be intentional in our pursuit to achieve the outcomes we desire.

ACCOUNTABILITY

Let’s face it, most of us need someone to come alongside us to help us to get to where we want to go.

I desperately want to get in shape.

But I despise working out.

Left to myself, I’ll let a million other things take the place of working out.

That’s why I need an accountability partner. Someone who will remind me of what I want and push me out of my comfort zone to achieve it.

PRACTICALITY

Sometimes we just don’t know how to set goals that we can achieve. We know we want to get things done, but we aren’t sure of how to make it happen. Here are a few tips to setting goals you can achieve.

3 Tips to Achieve Your Goals

Write them down.

People who write down goals are 3x more likely to achieve them than those who don’t. There’s something about writing down what we want to see happen. The Bible even mentions it….

And the LORD answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. Habakkuk 2:2 ESV

When we write down our goals it gives us a constant reminder of what we are wanting to work towards. As the scripture in Habakkuk states, it makes it easy for us to run with them.

Make them SMART.

If we want to set goals we can actually accomplish, we need to have systems in place that help us to get there. Here are a few questions to ask when setting goals:

*Is my goal Specific? Goals should be simple and clearly define what you want to accomplish.

*Can I Measure my goal? Being able to measure your goal is important because it will define whether you’ve achieved your goal or not.

*Is my goal Attainable? Goals should be high enough that you feel stretched to reach them, but not so high that it’s impossible to meet them.

*Is my goal Relevant? The goal should be relevant to what you’re trying to accomplish.

*Do I have a Time-based goal? Goals need to have time frames to produce an urgency to accomplish them.

Review Them Often

Looking at our goals every week or even every day (depending on what they are) allows us to keep them in the forefront of our minds. When we review them we have a picture of our progress and how far we have to go.

What systems do you use to set goals? How do you set goals that you know you can achieve? Share your tips for goal setting in the comments. I’d love to hear from you!

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