Now before I begin, not everyone finds setting goals useful and that’s fine! I personally live for goal setting, it gives me purpose, calms my anxiety and helps me get through the really rough days by keeping me focused on the end goal. Over the years obviously my goals have changed but also the way I set my goals has too. When I was young and child and bill-free all of my goals were set around progressing in my career and something that would now probably take me 5 years to achieve I could have done in two because my priorities were different back then. That’s why when setting yourself goals it's important that they are realistic. My three main rules to realistic goal setting includes setting a realistic time-frame, make them realistically attainable and making them specific.
Realistic time-frame: This is making sure that you give yourself enough time to meet the goal you’re trying to achieve. If you do not give yourself a realistic amount of time to reach your goal this will leave you feeling disappointed and deflated. This will vary depending on what the goal is, for example a career change, this may include gaining an additional qualification, undergoing interviews or assessments, giving notice to your current position, making childcare arrangements. So, research all of this and figure out how much time all of this should realistically take, that way then you won’t feel rushed and can properly plan for all of this.
Realistically Attainable: This includes asking yourself questions like ‘how much is this going to cost me?’ ‘Who or what will I need to help me?’ ‘What research do I need to do before starting this goal?’. It may even include breaking the goal down into smaller steps.
Make them specific: By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals, and you'll see forward progress in what might previously have seemed like a long pointless grind. Try to set goals in some of the following categories (or in other categories of your own, where these are important to you): - Career - Financial
- Education - Family - Health - Mindset/attitude - Hobbies
Setting a goal does not always have to include a huge life altering event like moving cities or losing weight. It could be something as simple as learning to paint or making time for more self-care.
Sidenote – once you set a goal, they are not set in stone, you can alter and change it as much as you need or want to, life is not predictable and things completely out of our control happen all the time. So, you may need to extend your time-frame, recruit more people to help you or spend a little more money than anticipated and that’s fine, in fact altering your goals is quite common when it comes to realistic goal setting.
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