For the past few months, after landing my first full time job out of college, I really started to understand why setting goals is always important. Before, I set small goals for myself but I never really kept myself accountable for them. I’ve been lucky enough to have amazing mentors who have taught me how beneficial goal setting can be. And here’s my attempt at explaining how to set goals and how it can really change your outlook on life and help you accomplish these goals
- Set game plans. If you’re not sure about what your long term goals are, that’s totally fine. Start small. Start with a 6 day game plan. Then follow that with a six week game plan, then a six month game plan, and finally a 6 year game plan. What do you want to accomplish tomorrow? What do you want to accomplish within the next month? What do you want to accomplish by next year?
- Categorize your goals. Your goals don’t all have to be career based. You can have health goals, goals for your hobbies, heck even remembering to do laundry on time can be a goal. Once you understand the types of goals you have, then this is when you can prioritize your goals.
- Set goals every week. Choose a day to make your weekly game plan and goals. I personally prefer Sundays because in a way its the beginning and the end of my week at the same time. On this day you can go over your game plan from the previous week and review what goals you accomplished. Did you accomplish these goals? If not, what can you do in order to accomplish them the next week. Once you understand what to do, now you can make a new game plan for the next week, now knowing what you need to change to accomplish these goals. We always want to be moving forward and improving.
- Share your goals/Write them down. In order to be accountable for following up with your goals, share them! Whether this be with a mentor or a friend, once another person knows what your goals are, they can help you be accountable to accomplish these goals. If you don’t feel comfortable sharing your goals, write them down. This way you can physically see what you want to accomplish. Letting your goals manifest and being able to visually see what you want to do will just push you to try to accomplish these goals even more.
Once you apply your skills after understanding what your goals are, I promise you will feel much more motivated to work towards these goals and improve yourself in more ways than one