Five-Star-Life

Learning how to write goals that you have a fighting chance of achieving can be harder than it seems. Whether you are looking to lose fifty pounds, get a promotion at work, or run a marathon, it is the same. Your goals must be realistic and specific.

The biggest blow to your confidence comes when you realize you have failed to reach a goal you put out great efforts to achieve. This is what happens when you set goals that are not realistically attainable.

Let’s take weight loss as an example. If you say you want to lose thirty pounds by the end of the year and it is already mid-November you have next to no chance of actually achieving that goal. When the end of the year comes you will be disappointed no matter how much weight you did manage to lose.

A more confidence boosting goal would be to write down that you are going to lose two inches off your waist before the party. If you take immediate action that can actually happen and you will feel confident in your hard work.

Your chances of success are much higher with the lower, more realistic goal. Yet, it still doesn’t hurt to keep the hope of losing a few extra pounds in your mental view. This will push you to work harder, increasing your chances of success even more.

Whether you actually reach the goal you have held in your mind and actually lose three inches, or you only lose the two inches you wrote down, your confidence will soar.

So, how do you track your progress and measure success in the end? The second trick is to make sure your goals are as specific as possible.

Think back to our earlier example of losing six pounds by the end of the year. A generalized goal may be that you want to look beautiful on New Year’s Eve. There is very little here by which to measure progress.

To get specific, you can amend this goal to say you want to lose six pounds and fit into a specific dress for New Year’s Eve. As long as the dress size is realistic, you can now measure progress by trying on the dress occasionally and you will know exactly when you meet the goal.

If you want to learn how to write goals that will bring real success, think a bit before putting pen to paper or finger to keyboard. What is it you really want? Now, set specific, realistic goals that can take you to that ultimate desire.