How to Set and Achieve your Goals in 2019
In this article, you will learn the 10 fundamental steps that will help you set and achieve your goals in 2019. If you are reading this article and it’s not January or even 2019, then you can still use this process to set and achieve your goals.
Successful people set and achieve goals! It’s that simple! If you don’t know where you’re heading, then how can you measure your progress? Besides, it feels good when you achieve your goals. It gives you a reason to celebrate and give yourself a pat on the back.
There is a right and a wrong way to set goals. In this article, I will go really in-depth into the goal setting process, so that you can set yourself goals that are believable, achievable and a little bit of a stretch too!
This process not only works brilliantly for annual goals but also for monthly and quarterly goals as well. Master the ability to set and achieve your goals in 2019 by applying the information in this article today!
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A staggering 98% of people that set new year goals and new year resolutions don’t achieve them. That leaves only 2% that do! My purpose with this article is to help you become one of the 2% that achieve your new year resolutions and goals.
You can set goals at any time of the year. January 1st is only a date! Why wait, when you can set and achieve your goals right now! Waiting until January 1st is just an excuse! Also, the process that I’m about to cover works fantastically with quarterly and monthly goals as well.
Let’s start by getting into a great state! Put some inspirational or energetic music on and start moving your body. When you’re in a great state, you will set goals that really inspire you. If you can, do this process in an inspirational place, perhaps outside with nature.
I originally
Step 1: Review the previous year, month or quarter
Start by reviewing and reflecting on what happened in the last year, month or quarter. There are 3 parts to this.
Part 1: Focus on your achievements, wins and successes
Look at your achievements, wins, successes and happy moments. Notice what went well and what you really enjoyed. This will give you the confidence and clarity that you can achieve your new goals by reminding you of what you have already achieved. This then strengthens your belief in your ability to achieve the goals that you set yourself.
Part 2: Look at the struggles, setbacks and challenges
Part 3: What can I learn from these challenges, setbacks or struggles
Find out what you can learn from the challenges, setbacks, or struggles that you identified. This is super
Step 2: Create or Review Your Life Vision
Your life vision or life mission is where you want to be in 5, 10, 20, or even 30 years. It is your crazy goals, crazy dreams, and the completely unrealistic (but highly exciting) aspirations that you have for yourself. You’ve probably heard the term “if you shoot for the stars you might reach the moon”. Well, your vision is the shooting for the stars type of goals.
If you haven’t created a vision or mission for your life before, then spend a few minutes doing this now. You can always refine it later.
Step 3: Brainstorm Goals
This is where it gets fun! Come up with a list of every single possible goal that you could set yourself for this year, quarter, or month. However, before you start brainstorming, you need to know about the two types of goals.
Outcome goals
Outcome goals are about achieving a specific result. This could be making $100,000, losing 20kg in weight, getting a great new job or finding a partner. Most people set outcome goals, so you’re probably already familiar with these.
However, there is one big problem with outcome goals. They are not completely within your control. Sure, you can do things to set the odds in your favor, but you cannot guarantee that you will achieve an outcome goal.
Process Goals
Process goals are completely within your control. They are also known as activity-based goals because they are based on you doing specific things. Process goals are all the steps and things that you would or could do to achieve an outcome goal.
Examples of process goals include working out four times a week, eating a paleo diet five days a week or applying for 10 new jobs per week. Notice how all these goals are within your control.
Set both Outcome AND Process goals
If you only set outcome goals, then you are much more likely to give up when you don’t see any progress. Let’s say you have set yourself the outcome goal to lose 10 kilos of body fat. If after 1 month, you have seen little or no progress, its going to be easy to give up.
However, if you have also set process goals to exercise 4 times a week and eat a special diet, then after a month, you can tick those goals off and feel good, even if you do not see much progress in achieving the outcome goal.
Brainstorm goals in ALL areas of life
It’s important to set goals in all areas of
If you look at unhappy celebrities, its often because they have achieved amazing success in one area of life, but have neglected other aspects of their life, especially their health. So it is important to set goals in all areas of life.
Step 4: Choose the goals to set and achieve
From your list of brainstormed goals, choose the goals that you will set and achieve for this year. Don’t try and do hem all! There is a great saying which is “you can do anything, but you can’t do everything“.
Start by deciding which goals you can eliminate right away. Then decide which goals you will absolutely commit to. This will leave you with some goals that you are not sure about. Keep these goals in for now and we will put them through the desire and belief test.
Desire and Belief Test
So by now, you should have a list of goals that you definitely want to commit to and a few that you are not sure about yet.
Take one of your goals and ask yourself “what is my desire for achieving this goal on a scale of 1 to 10? If you give it a 7 or above, then you have the desire and motivation to achieve it. If it is lower than a 7, then either change the goal to make it more motivating and compelling or scrap it for now.
For the same goal, now ask yourself “On a scale of 1 to 10, how confident and certain am I that I can and will achieve this goal?” This is testing your belief in your ability to achieve this goal. If you give yourself a 7 or above, then you believe that you have the confidence and competence to achieve this goal. If it is lower than a 7, then either change the goal to make it more realistic and
Here is an example of how the desire/belief test works.
So instead, you change the goal to making a 6 figure income during 2019. Now your desire for that might only be a 7. However, the belief in your ability to achieve this goal might also be a 7. By modifying this goal, it now passes the desire and belief test.
Now, repeat the desire and belief test with all your other goals, modifying or scrapping goals as necessary. You will now have a smaller list of goals that have both a desire and belief of 7 or more.
Step 5: Make your goals SMART
By now, you will have a list of goals that have a desire and belief of 7 or more out of 10. For these goals, we are going to put them through the SMART test. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.
Let’s apply SMART to the goal of earning $100,000 this year. On the surface, it seems very specific. You can’t get much more specific than a dollar amount. However, is this $100,000 in U.S. dollars or another currency? Is it before or after tax? Is it revenue or profit? So it could be more specific.
Is this goal measurable? Yes, it is. You could easily measure this goal by dividing 100,000 by 12 to obtain a monthly amount that you want to earn. You could then measure this each month to see if you are on track to achieving this goal or not. I would recommend changing the phrase “this year” to “31 December 2019”, as a specific date will be more motivating and compelling.
Is this goal achievable? If you have applied the desire and belief test, then your goal should already be achievable.
Is this goal realistic? This is going to depend on the person, where you are now and the timeframe. For some people earning $100,000 in a year could be very achievable, especially if these people are already earning something close to that. For others, it could take two or three years. To make the goal more realistic, you may need to reduce the goal or lengthen the timeframe. Again, the belief and desire test explained earlier can help you set realistic goals.
Is this goal time-bound? Yes, this goal has been set with a timeframe of this year, so it must be achieved by 31 December this year. For smaller goals, set shorter timeframes such as by the end of a certain month or quarter.
Step 6: Use language to make your goals more compelling
The language that you use when setting goals can have a huge influence on your belief and your motivation to achieve them.
Say “I will”
Don’t say “I want”. For example, “I want to earn $100,000 by 31 December 2019”. Why? Because the words “I want” emphasize to your subconscious mind (and the universe) that you do not have it yet.
Instead, say “I will“. By saying “I will”, you are presupposing and presuming that it will happen. You could also say “I have”, which presupposes that you have it already! For example, I have already earned $100,000 by 31 December 2019. This can work as long as another part of your brain doesn’t say “oh, no you haven’t!”
Include “Easily”
Who wants goals to be hard? Why not tell your subconscious mind that you will easily achieve this goal. For example, “I will easily earn $100,000 by 31 December 2019” Besides easily, you could also include words such as “enjoyable” or “fun”.
Include “Love the process”
You can also add phrases such as “love the process”, “enjoy doing it” or “feel good about it” For example, “I will easily make $100,000 this year and love the process.
Now you can see how the goal of “I will earn $100,000 by 31 December 2019” has turned into “I will easily earn $100,000 by 31 December 2019 and love the process”. Just some subtle language changes can really spice up your goals and increase your belief and motivation to achieve them.
Step 7: Find your Why
Finding
- Why do I want this?
- What is the benefit?
- What difference is this going to make in my life?
Your answers to these questions can be positive (moving towards pleasure), or negative (moving away from pain). For example, one of your reasons for losing weight could be to have a fit and healthy body. This is a positive reason that will move you towards the pleasure of having a great looking body. Another reason could be to not have diabetes and other health issues later in life. This is a negative reason that is pushing you away from the pain of being ill later in life.
Whether the reasons are moving you towards pleasure or away from pain doesn’t matter. Both can be very motivating. The most important thing is that you identify your reasons, you identify your why.
Step 8: Create a Plan
Creating a plan is especially important with annual goals or six monthly goals. You need a plan to take consistent action and to measure your results. So it’s time to brainstorm once more! This time, brainstorm all the different ways to achieve this goal. What are all the different steps that you could take? Write these all down. In the case of losing weight, there are many different diet choices and exercise regimes that you could follow. Write these all down.
Then apply the 80/20 Pareto principle to each of the ways or steps that you have come up with. So what is the Pareto principle? – It’s simply the concept that 20% of the effort gives you 80% of the results. If you want to become confident in dating and meeting the opposite sex, then you could spend 80% of your time learning how to do this. This might improve your confidence by 20%. Alternatively, you could spend 20% of your time, getting out of your comfort zone and talking to the opposite sex and boost your confidence by 80%.
Often the 20% of effort that gives you the 80% result involves taking action, rather than learning. What would your life be like if you just spen 20% of your time learning about personal development and 80% of your time applying what you have learned? Taking action is often the thing that is going to really help you achieve your goals more quickly.
Step 9: Evaluate your Progress
Check in on a weekly basis to measure the progress you are making towards your goals. Notice what is going well which activities are getting you closer to your goals. Identify any activities that are of little value or are even taking you further away from your goal.
Most people don’t do this, so if you evaluate your progress on a weekly basis, you will already be way ahead of everybody else.
Step 10: Accountability
When you share your goals with someone else, you are far more likely to achieve them. Why? because there is more at stake emotionally. If you don’t achieve the goal or fall short, you will need to explain why to this person. Sharing your goals with another person also means that they can ask you for an update on your progress at any time. This forces you to evaluate your own progress on a regular basis.
When I hired a personal trainer I did much more exercise between sessions. When I regularly had music lessons at school, I also practiced much more between lessons. There is something about being accountable to somebody else that makes you put in the work that you wouldn’t otherwise do.
Rather than choosing to be accountable to one person, you could use social media instead. Share your goals with the world on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. You could even share your weekly progress evaluation on social media as well.
You can also be accountable to me! Simply message me with a list of your goals and I’ll check in with you every couple of months.
Complete a 100 day challenge
To massively speed up the achievement of your goals in 2019, I highly recommend enrolling in the
The 100 day challenge program works so incredibly well because it combines accountability, a weekly evaluation ritual and a daily motivational or inspirational video. This program helps you focus and take action on your goals every day for the whole 100 days. It is amazing what you can achieve in 100 days when you really put your mind to it.
Click here to find out more about the 100 day challenge.
Conclusion
I encourage you to take some time out to complete this goal setting process. It could take you a few hours, but it is so worth it. If you can, find an inspirational place where you can relax, feel good, and get really creative, and then go through this process. I can’t wait to hear about the goals that you come up with, so please do share your goals in the comments below.
Thank you for reading this article. If you enjoyed it and found it useful, then please share it with other people, or on social media.
Hope you are having a wonderful day!
Paul
