Achievable Goal Setting

Many ”experts” are spruiking the value of setting goals and dreaming big for the year ahead. In ways I agree with them, as this does work for some, but I would like to suggest an alternate path for you.  Instead of dreaming and setting your goals for the Rolls Royce or Lamborghini,  the double story home on the edge of the cliffs overlooking the ocean, or the spa in the private jet that takes you to Tahiti, lets do something different.

Is the Huge Goal achievable?

Goals that are huge, are generally the least achievable. Although we tell ourselves they would be nice, realistically if you were dumped in those situations you would feel like a fish out of water and be very uncomfortable.  The enormous leap from your starting point to the huge goal makes those goals unachievable.  Could you imagine parking your Rolls in Woolworths carpark?  Or taking your Lamborghini through KFC’s drive through?  Or cooking porridge for breakfast in a kitchen overlooking the ocean?  Is there a mismatch between the big goal and what you believe is possible? Business class is achievable for me to dream about, but a spa on a plane just isn’t in my realm of reality, so how could I manifest or create something that I just don’t think is possible.  It is ok for Richard Branson to say goals should be big, scary and audacious, because he would be comfortable living through them.

The body and subconscious does not like to be in a state of uncertainty so will do anything to protect you from the unknown. Your cellular structures are wired to keep you comfortable, to keep you in the space that you already know. When your spaces or circumstances change you will subconsciously sabotage yourself. The huge goals you set for yourself will slip out of reach,  so you don’t achieve these things.   If you have never had a million dollars then you wouldn’t be comfortable with it sitting on your kitchen bench, so your subconscious would be screaming to get rid of it.  This is the reason why tattslotto winners generally loose all their money within a few years or short space of time.

Huge Goals increase the risk of Failure

When you have huge goals your chance of failure is very high. Instead of celebrating the things we have achieved, we seem to see only the failure of not achieving the huge goal.  So if we set the Huge Goal  to lose 20 kg, if we give up after a small gain after a 10kg loss, we see it as a failure as we didn’t achieve what we set out to achieve, when realistically we should be celebrating the 10 kg that has come off and the healthy lifestyle we have maintained.  So if we changed our goals from losing 20kg to eating healthy and feeling good, we would celebrate each time a kilogram was lost and the pressure would be removed to get to a certain destination. Keeping our mind on the smaller goal of improving our eating healthily,  when we did fall off the wagon, we can regroup, accept that we are human, rather than see any weight plateau or gain as failure.  We would actually have a better chance of reaching our goals without having the constant yoyo-ing that often goes with the feeling of defeat or failure. Without the huge goal bearing down on us, we remove the failure cycle.

Achievable Steps to Reach $1million : Example

Lets look at another scenario, so may decide you want to have a million dollars, lets start with making plans that are achievable and not focus on the million dollars.  How about we make your goals realistic but focus on the action steps which are required for you to take that are very achievable.  With dedicated work on these action steps you probably will make the million dollar club, but without the pressure and removing the chance of failure.

The three areas to get a million dollars. You will need to:

• Increase your income
• Start a savings plan
• Know how your going to invest
  

These are all goals that can be easily broken down into actionable steps.

Increase your Income

• Ask for a pay rise.
• Increase your work hours
• Get a promotion
• Change jobs and companies
• Start a business
• Increase the number of customers you see
• Increase your prices
• Reduce your costs of business
• Expand your existing business and employ more people if needed
• Increase your range of products or add another service
• Include affiliate products in your range.
• Pay others to sell your products on a commission basis or affiliate program

Start a savings plan

• Pay yourself first 10% of your income into a separate account that isn’t ever touched, with the exception of investing.
• Only buy one coffee a day instead of two and save that amount
• Every $2 coin gets put into a money box and banked at a later date.
• Sell all unwanted items and garments that you own.
• Make your lunch rather than buying it daily.
• Take the train rather than paying for parking

Investment Plan

•  Attend investment seminars
• Read investment articles and blogs
• Talk to other financially successful people about how they invest or what they think is good.
• Make an appointment at the bank and other financial institutions to see what they offer
• Consider the differences between all the institutions and their products.

Your Achievable Goal Setting

Of course everyone’s action plans will be different and totally unique for them, just as the goals are in the first place.  What you need and want to do is different to what I need and want to do. However the process is the same.

Choose a goal that is important to you. Once you have your list of actions, write them on post it notes, if these actions can be broken down even further do so and include these on the post it notes too.  Place the post it notes in order of what needs to be done first to what needs to be done last, you can swap them around as you need to, changing the order as appropriate.   You can then write dates and times on each of the actions needed to be taken by either writing these in your diary or by placing the post it notes in the diary.

If you don’t complete the action you can just swap it to the following day, this means you don’t fail, and if you continue doing what you have planned you will still reach that big goal.

The best way to insure you achieve the greatest satisfaction out of life is to behave intentionally. ― Deborah Day

– Lorene Roberts