Goals — A dream you want to make real. Setting goals is a great way to work hard on your dreams. Here’s a little guide that could help you about why and how to set goals!
Let’s brief over why setting goals is important. To set a goal is to visualise the future. For example, if you say “I’m studying for 6 hours today”, you’ll visualise how your day would be. This helps in what I call ‘going with the flow’ i.e. doing tasks one after the other because of your mindset.
That mindset essentially means your mind when you have set a goal. For example, if you have a goal in mind, it helps you not waste time. It makes you feel guilty if you procrastinate. Instead of just lying or procrastinating, it helps you work on the goal you’ve set.
Here are some advice we wanna give about goals, because if all of these are done the right way, you have a goal that’s most likely achievable, if you give it your will.
1. The goal categories:
To set a goal, you need to prioritise different sections of your life such as education or work goals, personal goals, social goals and family goals. You might add things such as relationship goals, etc. Make sure to not make too many categories. A preferential maximum would be five categories.
Categorising goals is like sorting different flavoured candies. You could pick just the right one to eat, one by one. You’re not choosing a random goal, you’re picking one from a specific category. When you’re in a social situation, social goals! When you’re with your beloveds, family/relationship goals! The categorisation and different mindsets for each really helps a lot. Trust me. Test it for yourself.
2. The duration of the goal:
There isn’t a specific time to set a goal. No, you don’t have to set a yearly goal only on January 1st or a weekly goal only on a Monday. You can set them any time and for any duration. There’s not just Annual, Bi-annual, Monthly, Weekly or Daily goals. You can tweak the duration to your own needs. There can be a goal you set on this Friday and until the next Tuesday. Since it’s you setting goals, you can customise and tweak all parts of them, and at the end of the day, the goals benefit you.
3. The practicality of the goal:
You can’t set a goal “I will work 48 hours in the next two days.” It is not possible. Set realistic goals. Setting impractical goals leads to not even starting or giving up very soon. That’s definitely something you don’t want to happen. Here’s a tip: they don’t have to be completely practical, you could make them near practical so that the gap between the practical and near practical goal makes you work harder. Don’t get it? Here’s an example:
A practical goal is “I’d work 4 hours today”. A near practical goal would be: “I’d work 5 hours today.”
By making it near practical, you can push yourself to the limits and try to get more done! This doesn’t just apply to work goals but any goals as well.
Please do not make them over impractical in the name of pushing yourself to work harder as that’d be never achievable. But gradual progress helps. 4 hours to 4.5 hours, 5 hours and more!
4. The number of goals:
You can set yearly goals or monthly goals, but these are on the tougher side since they don’t give you a clear idea of what you need to achieve and might pressurise you with the burden of having a heavy rock on your head. Instead, split that rock (i.e. the goal) into smaller pieces. By splitting the goals into weekly and daily goals, you’ll have the feeling of achieving more since you check off many boxes. You’ll feel proud and with the constant loss in weight of the goal, you’d be a bit less worried as you wrap the day up.
The number of goals may be n, but prioritising them is essential. Have an order in which you should complete the goals. In this way, you know what goal to tackle when and how. The priority of the goal plays a significant role.
But make sure not to have so much at once with same priority, like so many high priority goals at once jamming your head. That’s not ideal. Remove a few, deprioritise a few and make the number ideal for you!
5. Rewards and Punishments:
This might not be suitable for all people, but it’s worth giving it a try. Set a reward for anything you achieve. May it be as simple as giving yourself more time to watch something or getting your favourite chocolate. Keep a reward always. That way you’ll be tempted to do the work to have the reward. This requires a lot of self control and that doesn’t come in the first try. Slow and gradual improvement is what you should expect.
Regarding punishments, we don’t at all recommend setting any harmful punishments like slapping yourself (sometimes, you’ll have these thoughts but they’re very negative and useless as well). Keep a punishment that helps you achieve the goal. Example: No social media. This helps you focus on the goal and is actually detoxifying your brain. Remember: punishments don’t have to be negative.
Hope you found this blogpost helpful! Here’s a little summary of the blogpost
- Make categories for goals so as to work on each category of the goal individually and whenever you need.
- Set goals any day until any day. Nothing’s fixed unless it is, by you.
- Make practical goals but push yourself a little bit further and increase it gradually. This helps in getting more done without feeling “overworked”.
- Split up the big yearly and monthly goals into smaller, shorter goals to feel less burdened, more achievable and more prioritised.
- Give yourself a reward for achieving your goal, may it be anything. If you don’t achieve it, give yourself a positive useful punishment that helps you achieve that goal.
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The original featured image used in this blogpost is by Markus Winkler on Unsplash.
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-JHS and AY
JHS and AY Write 