Goal Setting Tips

If you missed making New Year’s goals (or if you gave them up before even taking down your New Year’s Eve décor) you don’t have to wait another 365 days to try again. Setting goals anytime of year gives yourself a personal challenge—exploring potential, growing as an individual, and being a good steward in your environment are wonderful things to bring into your life.

If you’ve tried before and not quite met your goals, or it’s been a long time since you did some goal setting, we have dos and don’ts for you that have been proven to be helpful setting good goals and making progress on them!

Set goals not resolutions

We’re drawing a fine line here, but it’s an important one. A resolution is a decision to do something. They’re usually open-ended and don’t include any details about how to make that resolution happen. A goal is a targeted outcome that requires a plan.

Resolution: Be healthier.
Goal: Eat a plant-based dinner 4 times per week for 3 months.

Resolution: Save money.
Goal: Set aside 5% of every paycheck into an IRA.

Resolution: Be happier.
Goal: Practice a mindfulness exercise twice a week for 6 months.

Break big goals into small goals

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Most of us struggle to immediately get on board with a herculean task. They can feel so overwhelming to accomplish, many of us give up because it seems hopeless anyway.

Bite-size goals or bite-size milestones on a big goal make our minds really believe that we can do it. Reading a 1,000 page book? No thank you. Reading 50 pages per week? Can do!

If you want, start with the big goal, and write it down. Since these are New Year’s goals, let’s say it’ll take a year to complete. Then brainstorm what you think you can fairly easily do in 1 month. 3 months. 6 months. How can you achieve and celebrate these milestones along the way?

Review your goals regularly

Reviewing your goals on a semi-regular basis helps you stay accountable to yourself and keeps the intention fresh. It’s your choice for how often and what tracking it means. It could be once a week or once a month. You could have an official way to track—a spreadsheet, journal, or even goal tracking app. Or you could have an official way to track—such as having a conversation with a friend. This is just a big way to keep it fresh in your mind and staying on track.

As you’re tracking, have a plan for celebrating milestones. Also, your celebrations could be aligned with your goals! If you have a goal to lift weights three times a week, a milestone win could be buying a new pair of weightlifting shoes or sharing a video on your favorite weightlifting forum. They don’t have to be themed though! A win can just be a win—something that makes you feel like you’re valuing and appreciating your work. Recognizing your wins will

help you push on to the next win.

Resources for goal setting

• Goal Setting Strategies for College Students
• Goal Setting for Teens
• Goal Setting for Teachers
• Goal Setting Activities and Games
• Goal Setting Templates and Worksheets
• Goal Setting Ideas for Work
• Goal Setting for Teams