Reaching your goals in work, life, or relationships can prove tedious at times, and it’s a natural inevitability. Being realistic with your goal setting and keeping motivated are a couple of common obstacles, though remedying them isn’t always an easy task. Ensuring that the goals on your last New Year’s Resolution list are practically reachable is an important first step in setting up your productivity system.
Write It Down
First thing’s first, and this is simple: make a list. Determine precisely what your goals are, and go with your gut. Word vomit all the goals you can think of onto a sticky note without deep thought, and reassess them afterwards. Then, consider what actions you’ll have to make or changes to incorporate to inch closer and closer to those established goals.
Get Inspired & Reward Yourself
You’ll want your career-advancing actions to directly reflect that of your core values. Incorporating your values in your goal-setting will sustain your motivation to reach them. Rewarding yourself is another effective strategy for staying motivated.
After all, the best motivator is a personal incentive – a chocolate bar after each task, a sunset dog walk after a long project – you get the picture.
Goal Setting: The S.M.A.R.T. System
SMART goals is a well-known goal setting methodology. The SMART goal acronym itself provides direction on how specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-sensitive your goals should be. For example: being specific entails designing specific goals to allow for effective planning, the measurable facet defines the progress checkpoints, and so on.
Keep striving toward your goals
Among the most important pillars of your productivity system is your sense of drive. It can be for something small, such as saving money for a nice suit or dress. It could hold emotional significance, like stashing money away to buy your parents a house nearby. When it comes to staying motivated, using the support and encouragement around you along with visualizing your desired success are crucial to stimulating your productivity system.
Goal Re-evaluation
Reviewing the progress of your goal setting efforts on a certain basis, be it daily or monthly, is integral to identifying those actions that have proven successful. You’ll find the ideas that work and those that don’t, creating a clearer vision for the road ahead. By evaluating past and present progress, your expectations and capabilities will show their true potential.
Bringing It All Together
At the end of the day, coalescing these steps into an effective system for yourself is the bottom line. Knowing your goals, inspiring yourself, ensuring your action steps align with your core values, and reassessing progress will maintain motivation and establish what is and isn’t effective towards reaching your goals in work, life and relationships.