7 Tips to Set Achievable Goals
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Setting goals and targets is critical to the process of planning in your professional and personal life. But all this planning can go to waste if you set unachievable goals and targets if you get carried away. To avoid failure and disappointment, know these tips with which you can set realistic and achievable goals.
1. Include a balanced mix of short term and long term goals in your action plan
A common mistake that many people make while setting goals is that they either plan for too many long term goals or too many short term goals. Too many long term goals can make you lose sight of the present and too many short term goals can make you lose sight of the future. Both extremes are dangerous and can make goals unachievable. Include a balance of short term and long term goals to keep your action plan realistic and practical.
2. Give yourself a trial run for a few weeks
If you are not used to setting goals and making action plans, plan for a few weeks and give yourself a trail run after which you can review your goal setting process. This will give you an idea of how practical and reasonable your planning was. It will also give you a fair idea about your pace, pitfalls and other road blocks that you might not have taken into account earlier.
3. Plan for breaks, sick leaves and holidays
Making a perfect action plan for the next six months without including short breaks or margins for sick leaves can render your goal setting process useless. You have to be realistic and accept that you will need some time off for a short holiday or any possible illness. If you don’t plan for these unexpected breaks, you may become frustrated when your planning is thrown off course.
4. Represent your goals visually
A good technique to set achievable goals is to represent your goals visually through a flow chart or a graph. Use color coding or graphics to get a bird’s eye view of your goals and to get sense of how realistic they are. Visual representation can help you to immediately spot an error or remind you of something that you may have forgotten to include.
5. Divide generic goals into specific tasks and actions
You will make your goals more achievable only if you clearly write down every single task that will help you to achieve a certain goal. For example, if your goal is to learn how to swim, creating an action line which says swim for two hours today can be too generic. Divide such a goal into sub tasks like the number of laps you’ll do while swimming or do warm up exercises for holding breath underwater.
6. Set a timeline for your goals
No matter how elaborate, intricate and detailed your action plan is, it is worthless if it doesn’t have a timeline. Set a time frame for each of your goals because if you don’t have deadlines, your goals can carry on for a long time and still not be accomplished.
7. Refresh and revise your goals at regular intervals
Revising your goals at regular intervals is important because it helps you to keep them realistic. The goal you set today may seem irrelevant and outdated after six months. Take stock of your goals every few weeks or months, re-assess your priorities and set new targets which seem practical and achievable at that point in time.
