A Guide to Setting Realistic Goals

While this might be something you’ve heard any time throughout your life, it’s fine if you still don’t have a solid understanding of why goal setting is important and how to go about effective goal setting. Read our guide, and we’ll show you how to set goals that are both achievable and push you to grow in areas of personal development.

Why is goal setting important?
If you’re not progressing and moving forward in life, there’s a good chance you’re moving backward. It’s important that we’re always finding ways to better ourselves in our physical, mental, and emotional health. Goal setting is a great way to help you push to move forward and improve yourself by evaluating your current state, identifying where you want to be in the future, and making a plan to get there.

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Let’s look at some effective steps to take while setting achievable goals, including how to:

• Set short-term and long-term goals.
• Be specific in what you want to achieve.
• Avoid goal overload.
• Set measurable goals.
• Challenge yourself but keep perspective.

Set short-term and long-term goals.
It’s OK to have goals that will take weeks, months, or even years to accomplish. Long-term goals are great to look forward to and help give you something to continue to work toward. Some long-term goals might be to get into medical school or play college sports. A middle school or high school student can set those goals and work for years toward them.

They say the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. Achieving long-term goals is the same way. Long-term goals are most effective when they’re supplemented by short-term goals. A high schooler wanting to eventually get into med school will need to set goals like getting into a university with a strong pre-med program, doing community service, and maintaining a specific GPA. These short-term goals will act as checkpoints along the way as they try to achieve their long-term goal. Use a to-do list or calendar to mark your short-term goals and keep your deadlines fresh in your mind.

Be specific in what you want to achieve.
Goals that are specific, clear, and challenging are more motivating than goals that are vague and easy. While it might feel nice to have goals that are easy to achieve, you’ll find that you’re not as motivated to work hard to accomplish them and you won’t get the desired outcome of personal growth.

Part of being specific with your goals means setting a specific timeline. Goals that don’t have any timeline don’t require you to make any effort. It’s easy to set a goal and say, “Someday I’ll get there.” As Roy Miller (played by Tom Cruise) says in the movie Knight and Day, “Someday. That’s a dangerous word. It’s really just a code for ‘never.’”

Avoid goal overload.
There’s nothing wrong with setting multiple goals. As we mentioned before, short-term goals can help you achieve long-term goals. You can also set goals in different aspects of your life, whether they’re physical, mental, emotional, or otherwise. Although, you want to make sure you’re not setting too many goals at once. With too many goals you can start to feel yourself getting pulled in too many directions and your efforts spread thin. Try to limit your goals to a few that are manageable but also push you to achieve them.

Set measurable goals.
One thing people often struggle with in goal setting is measurable goals. It’s important to set measurable goals, so you know with certainty whether or not you’ve achieved your goal. You can measure any goal, it’s just a matter of determining the best way to do so. For instance, if you’re trying to be more outgoing, don’t say “be more outgoing” as your goal. Set a goal to attend a certain number of social events, reach out to friends you haven’t talked to in a while, or meet a few new people over a specific period of time. Make your goals quantifiable and track your progress along the way and you’ll be much more satisfied when you achieve them.

Challenge yourself but keep perspective.
When it comes down to it, you might not achieve all of your goals, which is OK. But setting stressful, unachievable goals and telling yourself you did “good enough” can be discouraging and limit your personal growth. Goals should push your abilities without being unreasonable. Find a happy medium between being overzealous and underachieving where you push yourself to get better without feeling like you have to settle. An example of this might be if you want to run a marathon in three months. Starting out, you’re in good cardio shape but not necessarily an avid runner. It’s recommended that someone who’s never run a marathon take four to seven months to train. While it’s great to push yourself, you’d be setting yourself up for failure. Try to remember to keep perspective while setting your goals, so they’re still realistic.

Knowing how to set goals that are achievable and measurable while pushing yourself to improve is an important part of goal setting. You’ll find that your goals are more meaningful and lead to better results in the end.