“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” Henry Ford.

In last week’s blog, I talked about New Year’s resolutions and goals and wondered how many people would stay disciplined and determined in order to achieve them.

This week I thought I would cover the goal setting process and provide seven tips that I hope help you to successfully achieve your goals in 2019.

When we set clear personal goals we ensure that our time and energy is focused on what really matters. They enable us to fulfil more of our potential and help us to grow, develop and experience new things.

We feel a great sense of accomplishment when we achieve our goals. They don’t have to be massive and can relate to health and fitness, hobbies, finance, personal development or leisure etc.

When it comes to goal-setting, many people have good intentions and genuinely wish to accomplish what they set out to do. Unfortunately they get overwhelmed by the busyness of life, get distracted and lose focus.

Many people also fall into the trap of focusing too much time and effort on their obstacles and what is stopping them. They apply insufficient focus on creating action plans and solutions to overcome these challenges. As a result, they feel stuck and quite often give up on their goals and dreams too soon.

If you would like to be better at devising and achieving personal goals, here are seven goal setting tips which are taken from my book, Be First Class:

Be specific about what you want to achieve

Firstly, decide what you would specifically like to achieve and by when. For example, “to lose weight” is a goal but a better goal would be “to lose one stone in weight by June 30th this year.”

Get clarity on your why

Determine what is driving and motivating you to want to achieve this goal and why it’s important to you. Getting clear on this at the outset helps you to maintain focus. It reminds you why you must persevere when the going gets tough and you feel like quitting.

Get clear on your current position

It helps to have an honest and objective assessment of your starting position. Consider any action you have already taken or remind yourself of any personal experience and knowledge you can call upon. This helps you to quantify how realistic the goal is and what needs to be done.

Clarify any obstacles you need to overcome

Obstacles may be personal limitations or limiting beliefs e.g. fear, low esteem or confidence etc. They could be external factors such as a lack of time, money, knowledge or skills. By clarifying what needs to be overcome it helps you to start to think about ideas and solutions.

Determine what support and resources you need

Clarify what personal strengths, people or resources will help you. Establish an accountability mechanism by sharing your goals with others. An accountability partner can provide encouragement or challenge. Be honest with yourself and decide if you need some help or support.

Commit to action steps

Establish clear action steps which you are 100% committed to. You may find it useful to break large goals down into smaller chunks. This helps to prevent feelings of overwhelm. When we feels overwhelmed it can lead to procrastination and stop us starting. It can mean we quit on our goals prematurely.

How will you celebrate?

Determine at the outset how you will celebrate and reward yourself when you achieve your goal. This provides an added incentive to accomplish a stretching goal and keeps you focused and motivated. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking about what we haven’t done or achieved and not take the time to celebrate and reward ourselves when we complete something.

This week, why not take a few moments to think about what action you can take to help you achieve your personal goals with greater ease in 2019.

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk