Setting and keeping goals makes you better. That’s not a secret. Most people don’t do it, though, leaving them at a severe disadvantage.
Your goals should stem from your personal mission statement, which you’ve built on your passions. If you’ve successfully identified those passions, your goals should excite you and drive you out of bed every morning. If they don’t, you may have missed something.
Setting specific, actionable goals each year will allow you to stay on course. These goals act as checkpoints, and accomplishing them moves you forward along the path you’ve defined for yourself.
To set specific goals, begin with your personal mission statement and your passions. Also, note the different roles you play in life (student, parent, employee, etc). Ask yourself, “How do I better live out these ideals in each of these roles”. Answer those questions beginning with your personal mission statement, and turn them into actionable tasks. This creates the goals.
An example: If you’re an athlete and one of your passions is healthy eating, one of your goals could be to define the ideal diet for peak performance in your sport and then adjust your eating habits to match it.
Other best practices when setting goals:
- put a deadline on them
- review them at the same time each week
- post them in a prominent location (locker, bathroom mirror, etc).
Whether you feel underneath it all, stuck in the middle or squarely at the top, setting strong goals will help you get to the next great iteration of yourself.
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Photo by Jeremy Lapak on Unsplash
