JULY 14, 2021
“A goal properly set is halfway reached.”
—Zig Ziglar
Half of 2021 is over. But the other half is still left.
You have six more months to work on yourself and turn your life around. This much time is more than enough if you are determined and focused on your goals.
But what if you still don’t have any goals for 2021? Don’t worry! Today we will set new goals for not only the coming six months but also for your lifetime!
(NOTE: This blog post is also available in video format on my YouTube channel, which you can watch below.)
What are ‘Achievable Goals’?
The title of this blog post is “How to set achievable goals?”
I specially added the word “achievable” to the title. The process we’ll dive into right now isn’t just for setting any goal. It is for setting specific and actionable goals we can actually achieve.
Everyone has the goal of, “I want to be rich.”
Very few people have the goal of. “I want to be financially free by 25 so that I can enjoy life with freedom, gain new experiences and live without fear or doubt.”
The second statement is an example of an achievable goal: crisp, detailed, and precise.
How to Set Achievable Goals.
Before we begin, I want you to make a commitment.
Say this out loud to yourself before you proceed, “I commit to taking action on my goals as soon as I set them.”
If you did not say that, don’t read ahead. The process will be helpful to you only when you make this commitment to yourself.
Let’s begin with the process now. This method is known as the 5W’s and 1H method. We all learned about the question starters in primary school: what, why, when, where, who, and how. That’s what will help us in goal setting!
Before going deep into the process, you should get a pen and a sheet of paper to do everything as you read it. You’ll become more involved in the process, and by the time you finish reading this blog post, your goal will be right in front of you. That’s when you have to start taking action towards achieving it!
Let’s get into the process:
1) What is your goal?
What do you want to achieve in the last half of 2021? Is it getting more fit, earning more money, starting your side hustle, growing your social media, or learning a new skill?
Whatever it is, you need to define it in clear terms and write it down. That is the foundation of your goal statement. Let’s go over some examples:
- I want to write a book.
- I want to lose 20 kilograms.
- I want to get to 5000 subscribers on my YouTube Channel.
- I want to earn 8000 dollars per month.
2) Why Do You Want to Achieve Your Goal?
Without having a solid sense of purpose and reason, you’ll never be able to achieve anything. That’s what happens with New Year Resolutions. In the last week of December and the first week of January, there is a sudden rise in motivation for achieving goals in the coming year. Everyone is creating posts on Instagram with #newyearresolutions, and that spreads even more motivation around. People hit gyms in record-high numbers, start enrolling in many courses, and focus on achieving new goals.
By the beginning of February, those numbers plummet down a steep cliff as people forget their goals and return to their good old days. By that time, no one really posts with #newyearresolutions, and goals go for a toss.
Those goals aren’t achievable because there is no sense of purpose in them. All achievable goals have a robust and firm purpose and reason behind them. They don’t need a #newyearresolutions post or 1st January to get into action. The action can begin on 17th May, 14th July, 1st December, or 22nd October. The date doesn’t matter at all.
To add the why to your goal statement, all you need to do is add ‘because’ or ‘so that’ to what you wrote in the previous step and then state your definite purpose behind going for that goal. Let’s continue with the examples from above:
- I want to write a book because I am on a mission to inspire people to lead great lives.
- I want to lose 20 kilograms so that I can feel more confident in myself and enjoy life more.
- I want to get to 5000 subscribers on my YouTube channel so that I can share my message with more and more people and create awareness.
- I want to earn 8000 dollars per month because I want to provide properly for my family and become financially free.
3) When will You Achieve Your Goal?
A normal unachievable goal is, “I want to be rich.”
Do you think you can reach this kind of goal? There’s no deadline or time frame for the goal, which makes it seem eternal and unachievable.
If we want to set achievable goals and achieve them, we need to have a set deadline or a frequency to take action towards that goal. Otherwise, it will become just another New Year’s resolution.
Before we dive into the process of adding the time aspect to your goal statement, we need to understand the two different types of goals and how time affects them: process goals and one-time goals.
When I had the goal of publishing my first book in 2020, it was a one-time action. I had to hit the publish button on Amazon, and it would be done. For these kinds of goals, we need to set deadlines. I had written that I want to publish my book by 1st December 2020. That’s how we can set deadlines for goals that are one-time achievements.
However, there are process goals as well that can have no deadline. Practicing and improving your writing skills is a process goal. You cannot say, “I want to practice my writing skills by 1st January 2022.” It doesn’t make sense. But setting a goal like, “I want to practice my writing skills for 1 hour every day.” makes much more sense.
If it is a process goal, set a frequency. How many times will you do it in a week, month, or year and for how long will you do it in each session? By answering this question, you’ll have complete clarity over your goal, and it won’t last an eternity.
If it is a one-time goal, set a specific date as your deadline and stick to it.
However, there can also be a mix of both these types: a hybrid goal. While I was writing my book, I had both a process and a deadline goal. I wanted to publish my book by 1st December, but I also had to write every day. So I merged both of these and came up with, “I want to publish my book by 1st December 2020 and write it for 5 hours every day or even more.”
No matter what your goal is, adding the time aspect to it will make it achievable.
Let’s continue from the examples in the previous steps and add the “When” aspect to them:
- I want to write a book and publish it by 24th January 2022 because I am on a mission to inspire people to lead great lives.
- I want to lose 20 kilograms by 1st December 2021 so that I can feel more confident in myself and enjoy life more.
- I want to get to 5000 subscribers on my YouTube channel by 1st February 2022 so that I can share my message with more and more people and create awareness.
- I want to earn 8000 dollars per month by age 23 because I want to provide properly for my family and become financially free.
4) Who All Will Be Affected?
Is it only you, or will someone else also be affected by your goal? If it is only you, then you can skip this step. But if someone else will also get affected by your goal, it is worth mentioning in your statement so that you don’t forget about it. In the previous examples, we can see that this aspect is already there.
For writing and publishing a book, you as an author are affected along with the people who read your book. For losing weight, only you are involved directly. For getting to 5000 subscribers, you are affected along with the 5000 people who subscribe to you. And for becoming financially free, you and your family are all involved.
This way, you need to reflect on your goal and see who will be affected by it.
5) How Will You Achieve Your Goal?
Process matters.
You need to know how you will achieve your goal and what actions you will take. If you don’t know that, you won’t be able to set and achieve goals.
Whatever the process is, mention it briefly yet specifically. While I was writing my book, I had mentioned the process this way, “I want to write and publish my first book by 1st December 2020 because I want to inspire people to unleash their fullest potential and lead happy, great, and extraordinary lives. I will do this by writing in Microsoft Word on my laptop every day.”
Writing contains many complexities, but I mentioned the specific action and process precisely; writing in Microsoft Word. In the same way, you need to see which steps and processes will take you to your goal and mention them in your goal statement.
Let’s add the “HOW” aspect to our sample goal statements:
- I want to write a book and publish it by 24th January 2022 because I am on a mission to inspire people to lead great lives. I will do this by writing in Microsoft Word on my laptop every day.
- I want to lose 20 kilograms by 1st December 2021 so that I can feel more confident in myself and enjoy life more. I will do this by exercising for 90 minutes every day and eating only 1500 calories.
- I want to get to 5000 subscribers on my YouTube channel by 1st February 2022 so that I can share my message with more and more people and create awareness. I will do this by running ads and implementing SEO to rank my videos.
- I want to earn 8000 dollars per month by age 23 because I want to provide properly for my family and become financially free. I will do that by becoming a freelance graphic designer and then opening my agency.
6) Where
Having a set location and place where you take action towards your goal will leave no room for confusion, and you’ll be able to take action as quickly as possible. By adding this last element to our goal statement, we’ll have a specific and actionable goal to achieve in 2021 or beyond.
Adding the “where” is easy and simple. You only need to mention the place where you will be taking that action. When I was writing my book, it was my study room. If you want to become a footballer, the place can be the academy you go to and your local park. Having this specific place will save you a lot of confusion as you won’t keep juggling between the couch, your desk, and your bed to see which place works best.
Let’s add this specific place to our sample statements and form a complete goal statement:
- I want to write a book and publish it by 24th January 2022 because I am on a mission to inspire people to lead great lives. I will do this by writing in Microsoft Word on my laptop every day in my home office.
- I want to lose 20 kilograms by 1st December 2021 so that I can feel more confident in myself and enjoy life more. I will do this by exercising for 90 minutes every day and eating only 1500 calories. I will exercise in the local park and cook healthy food in the kitchen.
- I want to get to 5000 subscribers on my YouTube channel by 1st February 2022 so that I can share my message with more and more people and create awareness. I will do this by running ads and implementing SEO to rank my videos. I will work in my home studio to shoot and work on my videos.
- I want to earn 8000 dollars per month by age 23 because I want to provide properly for my family and become financially free. I will do that by becoming a freelance graphic designer and then opening my agency. I will start working from a co-working space two blocks south of my house.
That’s how we form complete, precise, and achievable goals. There’s no ambiguity and confusion about the goal, so you can start taking action now!
Also, if you want to do this exercise in a more definitive form, you can click here to download my free “Goal Clarity Blueprint,” which you can use to set your goals!
Partnering in Your Success, Happiness, and Growth,
Prabhsimrat
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