How to Achieve Personal Goals – 4 Important Tips

Now that Spring is finally here, the change of season makes me look back at the first months of the year and reassess my resolutions, plans and expectation for the year. So let’s talk about goals. We all have plenty of them in our minds, but quite often we lack time or energy to achieve even one.  Whether your personal goal is to create a side business,  write more blog posts (guilty!) , plan a trip or start a new workout routine, it can be hard to make a commitment and not let it slip up with time. I wish there was a secret formula of how to achieve personal goals, but really there isn’t one! Your desired outcome will result exclusively from how much effort you put into it.

While juggling a 9-5 job, maintaining a home, keeping somewhat of a healthy routine and working on a blog,  I can say that I learned a few things on how to set and achieve personal goals. The main trick is not to get overwhelmed and create goals impossible to achieve, otherwise you will give up before even starting!  Create mini-projects/goals and work on them one by one.

Here are 4 important tips to help you along the way:

1. Create a plan with beginning, middle and end.

Just having an idea and wanting to do something is not enough. You need an actual plan with defined actions and a sequence of activities. Even if your goal is as simple as going to the gym and get fit for summer, create a timeline of what you will do to get where you want. List the steps you need to follow, what are potential difficulties and how you will overcome them to achieve your final goal.

2. Plan your schedule around your goal

Make your goal a priority, so instead of working on it whenever you have time,  plan your other activities around it. Create a schedule of when you will work on your little project and prioritize it. We know that binge-watching Netflix is great and we all need to decompress after a long day of work, but committing to work a couple of hours in your project before you can relax will be worth it at the end. Remember to include in your schedule some breaks as well, do not overwork yourself or your productivity can be affected.

3. Celebrate milestones

Any progress is better than no progress! Create milestones for your goal and celebrate the little things. It’s very important to recognize your progress along the way, specially in the beginning when it can be hard to overcome inertia. Milestones are great not only for rewarding yourself for the work done, but also to give you that little push to move it over the next stage and to measure how much you advanced.

4. Get supporters on board

Having someone to account for your progress is fundamental, we all perform better in front of other people, so use this in your favor. Tell your friends, family and even co-workers about your plan and ask them to encourage you along the way, they will be there whenever you feel like giving up! (They are also likely to cut you some slack in other activities to let you focus on your goal)

Bonus tip….

5. Keep not Settling! 

There is nothing better than feeling” Oh my God, I finally did this !” . Once you achieve your goal it’s time to move to the next steps and think of the big picture, the next project and upcoming challenges 🙂

What do you think about these tips?  Share some of your personal goals and what you are doing to achieve them in the comments below!