How To Set Goals

**Adapted from upcoming book: How To Feel Good

Goals help give us a purpose, they give us a reason for waking up in the morning, for doing things, for taking care of ourselves. They give us a clear sense of direction and a way to measure our progress. Sometimes goals have a clear achievement attached to them and wow, doesn’t that feel good to have achieved that goal? Even just progressing along towards a goal is such a reward. If your goal was to walk 1000 miles would you wait until you got to mile 1000 to celebrate or feel pride? I imagine not, I imagine getting to the 500 mile marker would feel amazing! And guess what, you might not have ever gotten to the 500 mile marker except you set a goal to walk 1000 miles. Life is like that. Sometimes it’s best to throw rocks at the sun, you might not be able to do it but you just might hit the moon.

A popular framework for goal setting is SMART goals. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. 

• Specific: Clearly define what you want to achieve. 

• Measurable: Establish how you will track progress and know when you've reached your goal. 

• Achievable: Ensure the goal is realistic and within your capacity to accomplish. 

• Relevant: Align the goal with your values and long-term aspirations. 

• Time-bound: Set a deadline for achieving the goal. 

This framework allows you to narrow your focus and hone in on just what it is you want to achieve and then go about finding a way to do that. Sometimes we need to go back and re-evaluate our goals, and that’s okay! Change is good. 

For example, I make a New Year’s Resolutions list every year, and since I’m addicted to list making and goal setting it’s a pretty huge thing. Every year at about the halfway mark I go back to my list and revise it, and every year I find that things have changed. I picked up a hobby or two that I didn’t know I would, I decided I didn’t care as much about a particular thing. Life happens and change is good. Don’t blindly stick to a goal you don’t care about. 

At the same time, have some consistency and trust the process. Often, certain goals feel like they’re getting difficult and unobtainable. Ask yourself, do I still want to achieve this goal? Is it relevant to my values and aspirations? If it’s not then it’s probably time to switch gears. But if it is then maybe you just need to scale back what is achievable or push back your deadline. All of these are okay to do. I promise that if you want to achieve something then you can, you just might not get there the way you thought you would.