A Few Tips on Setting Goals

In this post, I wanted to share some tips that help make setting goals easier and more effective. These might be obvious to you. Even if they are you can still probably do them better.

1.      Don’t make it negative.

To set a lasting goal, don’t give it a negative connotation (unless you’re motivated by pessimism like me). For example, don’t say, “I’m going to cut sugar from my diet”, or “ I need to lose weight.” Instead, flip it to something that reminds you of your end goal. “I want to be healthier” “I want to have more energy” “I want to look good naked”, whatever your thing is. Give it a positive spin. Make it something that gives you a little push to want to do it. If it’s something you hate to remind yourself of, you’ll quit.

2.      Don’t tell anyone about it.

At least for a while, you should keep your goal to yourself. The reason being, if you tell somebody you’re doing something, chances are they will congratulate you or encourage you. From that, you’ll get a positive feeling, like a little endorphin kick. You want that positive feeling to come from actually doing the thing, not telling people you’re doing it.

3.      Be as specific as you can.

Sometimes goals can be too big on the surface level, so you need to go deeper and break it up into smaller tasks. Before you set it, make sure you’ve defined exactly what your goal is and what it isn’t. If you’re pushing yourself as you should be, it’s very common to miss your goal, even by a little bit. That’s why it’s important to be as exact as you can from the beginning. Even if you miss, you’ll still be way better off than if your goal was vague from the start.

4.      Define your next action.

This one has been really helpful for me, and goes along with number 3. If your goal is big or you can’t think all the way through it, just define the next thing you need to do to make it happen. Make it an action to get you started.