The Seven Rules to Achieve All Your Goals

With every New Year, majority of the people in the world make new year’s resolutions however almost everyone falls off of the resolution by the end of February, if not sooner. From my multiple years of experience of making resolutions and breaking them, I’ve come to this one conclusion: New Year’s resolutions only work if they are realistic and measurable goals. Below are some things to focus on when you are making your goals for the year. 

1. YOU HAVE TO WANT TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOAL 

The first thing to consider while setting goals is to know that you want to achieve your goal. I’ve seen multiple people (myself included) make goals for things that other people want them to work on in their life. You have to want to achieve these goals and make a difference in your life. You cannot make and achieve these goals if you are pursuing this new change in your life because of someone external. You have to be the motivator to achieve these goals. My recommendation would be to understand the motivation behind your goals. For example, if one of your goals is to lose 20 lbs in this upcoming year, it has to be because you want to do it, not because someone else thinks you should lose weight. 

2. UNDERSTAND THE MOTIVATION BEHIND YOUR GOAL 

It’s very important for you to understand the motivation behind your goals. Ask yourself, why you want to achieve this goal. Will it make your life better or easier? Your understanding of the motivation behind your goals will be very helpful when things are getting hard and life is getting in the way and you want to quit. Look back on your motivation to start this goal when you feel like this is too hard. For example, one of my goals is to walk 10,000 steps a day every day. Why do I want to do that? Because I want to make long-term healthier choices for my body. Small changes in your everyday life add up to bigger changes in the future. 

3. MAKE MEASURABLE GOALS (PUT A NUMBER ON IT!)

Setting realistic specific goals will make it easier for you to stick to your goals because you can track your progress. If you have a number in your goal, you can periodically check up on how you are doing on that specific goal. If you can see your progress and results, it’s going to be much easier to keep going when you feel like quitting. For example, I have a goal to read 26 books this year which I’ve broken down further into numeric monthly and bi-weekly goals.

4. BREAK DOWN YOUR GOAL INTO SMALLER MONTHLY OR WEEKLY GOALS

Breaking down your yearly goals into smaller monthly or weekly goals will make the year goal seem a lot less daunting. Breaking down your goals will make it easier to focus on just this week or this month. For example, if my goal is to read 26 books a year, that’s can be a lot of books if you think about it. But if I break it down into a biweekly goal, then that is roughly reading 1 book every two weeks which is a lot less daunting. 

5. MAKE A MONTHLY OR WEEKLY CHART TO TRACK YOUR GOALS

Making a chart will give you a visual of how you are doing on your yearly goal. This doesn’t have to be fancy. There are multiple apps you can use on your phone to track any progress for your goals. I just use my planner to check my progress because I like to see something in front of me so I can’t avoid it.  I write down what I need to achieve a particular month, the week, and the day. This helps me track my progress through the day, month, and year. For example, using the previous goal, my monthly goal would be to read roughly 1 book every 2 weeks. If by the end of the first week, I’m roughly halfway done with the book, then I’m on the right path to achieve that goal of reading 26 books that year. 

6. SET UP A REWARD SYSTEM

Setting up a reward system for when you complete a part of your goals will help you stick to your annual goal much more efficiently. Find something that you really want but you can only get it sometimes. If you use that reward as a positive reinforcement for yourself, you are much more likely to stick to your goal. But you have to be honest about your goal and reward. If you didn’t achieve that goal, you don’t get the reward. For example, my reward for reading each book is a Starbucks coffee. With the amount of money I used to spend on the drinks daily and the sugar in the Starbucks drinks, I’ve had to cut back on them. But if I finish a book, I can get a coffee. It’s a win-win. 

7. MODIFY YOUR GOALS IF NEEDED

Sometimes life gets in the way of your goals and it had been hard to achieve the goals we set up in the beginning. If you find that sticking to your yearly goals has become too difficult, you should modify your goals after a month. For example, I will be looking at my yearly goals again at the end of January to determine their difficulty and modifying them if they seem too difficult. Long term, it’s much better to modify your goals that are achievable but still challenging. For example, if I think that reading 1 book every 2 weeks has become too difficult and I can’t find the time to read then I’ll modify my goals to reading 1 book every 3 weeks. This still makes it so I’m reading roughly 18 books per year. It might not be my 26 books per year goals but it’s a lot better than 0 books. There is absolutely nothing wrong with modifying your goals as long as they are still challenging but a little easier to achieve. 

These are some of the guidelines I use when I’m trying to write my goals. They’ve helped me modify and narrow down the things that help me stay on the path of achieving my goals.  I know that everyone is aware of this but I wanted to mention it anyway. If you, for any reason, don’t meet the goals you’ve set up for yourself, you shouldn’t feel too bad about it. You’re going to feel a little bad about not achieving these goals but don’t focus on them. Don’t compare yourself to other people, instead look at the past version of you. If you see positive changes in your life, then you are on the right past to becoming a better you. Don’t beat yourself up for not meeting these goals. Instead, learn from them. Ask yourself why you didn’t achieve your last goal? Maybe your goal was too difficult for you at that time or maybe you didn’t have enough time to focus on yourself. Modify your goals based on what you learned and use it to make better realistic achievable goals. 

Hopefully, these suggestions have helped you make positive changes in your life. If you have any other tips, I’ve love to hear from you. 🙂

-Navi