As we make our way through February, it’s a good time to reflect on your resolutions and goals that you set for yourself. It’s easy to get caught up in everyday life and some completely forget about the goals that have been set for yourself. If you need some help picking out what goals you want to focus on, check out our article on tangible goals to strive for in 2020 and here are 7 tips on how to stay focused on them.
1. Write your goals down and KEEP rewriting them
It’s always important to write your goals down so that you can visibly see and reference them. This may be a daily to-do list for short-term goals you want to get done that day/week or writing your long-term goals in a planner, notebook or journal. For long-term goals, you want to make sure you are writing your goals in a place that you encounter every day so you don’t forget about them. Try writing them on your calendar in the notes section, on a desk whiteboard, bulletin board, your bathroom mirror, sticky notes on your desk or in your room, tape a piece of paper to your fridge, etc. Any place you encounter every day is a good place to put a reminder about the goals you are trying to accomplish. The more you see them, the more inclined to follow through you will be.
2. Don’t pick too many BIG goals at once
We all have those days where we are more motivated than usual. We get ideas in our heads about how our life should be, and we run with it. We start coming up with things we need to change, goals for our future and then we expect to see results right away. At the moment it seems realistic, but taking a step back to realize that you can’t change everything at once is important. You can’t create all of these big goals for yourself that really take a lot of time and expect immediate satisfaction in your life. Doing this could overwhelm you and make it more enticing to give up. If you aren’t seeing results in all of these things at once, you might begin to feel discouraged. Stray away from this because this is the reason most people set their goals aside.
3. Narrow your list
This tip goes hand-in-hand with the last tip. Think about your goals carefully and write them down. If your list gets too overwhelming, choose the top three things that are most important to you and begin there. One of the main reasons people get discouraged when working on goals is because they set too many at once. When you are trying to complete all the goals in your long list, you are unable to give each goal the time, energy and focus it needs to be completed. It’s best to take a step back and decide what is most important to you in your life at the moment.
4. Develop a plan of action
You can come up with all the goals in the world, but without a plan, you can’t accomplish anything. Come up with some sort of action plan so you can follow through with the things you want to do. Creating a plan leaves no room for excuses. You will have an exact goal in mind with a solution on how to get there, so there should be no reason you don’t.
5. Create a vision board
There are so many options available to help create vision boards or mood boards for inspiration. Instagram has a save feature where you can save an Instagram photo you see. You have the option to create “collections” and you could essentially create a collection for each of your goals. Pinterest acts similarly by allowing you to create an entire board of quotes, pictures, facts, or anything pertaining to your specific goals. Using apps and features like this could give you some insight into how your goals could pan out. It’s another way of inspiring you to keep going. It can be hard to envision what the outcome would be when you’re just looking at words and thinking about what needs to be done. It’s a nice switch to be able to see that it is possible and tangible.
6. Surround yourself with accountability
As we’ve talked about, tackling the goals you set for yourself can be hard, especially when you are trying to do it alone. There’s always someone out there trying to make a change just like you. Whether its friends or strangers, it’s always great to have someone in your life who holds you accountable. You can utilize platforms like Facebook to find groups of like-minded people. You can meet people on LinkedIn through networking and posting. Truly any social media platform gives you the ability to reach out to others who have the same goals in mind as you. Not to mention your friends and family who support your goals. Having a safe place to talk about your goals, and the idea of following up on your progress makes it that much more satisfying to stick with them and almost impossible to forget about them.
7. Evaluate your progress/process
It’s important that you are periodically documenting your progress, recording the steps you are taking to get things done, and rewarding yourself for sticking to it. This gives you some insight into how you are doing and lets you know if you need to change your approach to achieve these specific goals. If you haven’t made any progress, you should probably try switching up your tactics. It’s all about trial and error. Remember, our goals are something that we are trying to achieve, we don’t always know how to get there or we would already be there. Do some reflecting and see what works for you.
We all have goals that we set for ourselves, big or small. Some of us need a little more of a push than others and that’s okay. Hopefully, this blog gave you some insight into what it takes to stay focused on your goals. Keep up the good work and good luck for the rest of your journey!
