Welcome back to my four-part series on goal setting and goal achievement. Have you watched the other three? If you haven't watched the other three, go back and watch them. Week One helps you pick your next goal. Week Two helps you to define your why or the purpose for the goal. Week three is how to set goals SMART, plus developing your plan. This week my friend is about How to set goals and achieve them! You guessed it; if you're the type of person that doesn't follow through on your goals, this one is for you.

Do you actually follow through on your goals?

I'm curious, do you have no problems setting your goals? It's the actual follow-through that gets you?

One Simple Solution

You must be wondering what's a simple solution for you.

Here is a simple solution on how to actually follow through on your goals. The trick is to get yourself an accountability business bestie.

This solution will work for someone that does anything for anybody else but falls short of themselves. It boils down to this time and time again; you fall short of achieving all your goals.

Let me elaborate, if a friend were to ask you to do something, you would do it in a heartbeat. If you're nodding your head in agreeing, this simple solution is right for you. Because friend, you need to find yourself a coach, a mentor, or an accountability bestie.

Have Compassion

Give yourself grace if you get behind on your plan to achieve all your goals. As a matter of fact, revisit your why. In week two, we discuss creating your why. You see, setting your why is so important to know why you are passionate about accomplishing this goal.

Hey friend, you've got this! Make sure you have that positive self-talk. Even if you catch your first words as ugly, self-talk it is not a big deal. Instead, pause, give yourself grace, and question that ugly self-talk. Rather than derailing your progress, hit the reset button.

You're looking too far down the road.

Let me guess, even though this goal inspires you, you're beginning to feel overwhelmed!

If this is the case, it may be because you're looking too far down the road. What I mean is you’re looking over there to the end when you've achieved your goal. As a result, it feels like it's far off, and you have so many things to do to achieve it. Consequently, it begins to feel overwhelming for you.

These are thoughts. They are feelings causing you to procrastinate out of fear. All of a sudden, it brings up your old story going on in your mind of how you're not a person that achieves goals.

Stop it, yes you are. You are a person that achieves your goals. You are a person that works for your goals. Change your story, too; I am a person that achieves my goals.

For the love, get off the hamster wheel.

Now, this is important. You do not need to stay on the hamster wheel of procrastination on things that matter. The things that are important to you. Or things that you are passionate about because doing the task feels overwhelming.

Do it right in the morning, get it done with, and you will feel proud of yourself.

Guess what happens each time you do the hard task? You are building that confidence that you are a person that achieves your goals. I know you can do this.

If you struggle to follow through on achieving your goals, begin to document what got you off track. Do you see any patterns that triggered you?

Stop overthinking and start doing. Start today and follow through on the hard things. Tell yourself I've got this. I can do hard things.

Stick with me here, because…

Stick with me here because if you did a full-on belly laughed at me and said, oh yeah, that's not true. Rarely do I do hard things. It's time to change that mindset.

As the famous quote goes from Henry Ford: “Whether you think you can, or you think you can't guess what you're right.”

You can change that mindset. Change that thought; yes, you can do hard things. And it starts today. Today you do hard things because you do not quit. You are not a quitter, and you continue striving to achieve your goals. When you start overthinking, remember it's a reset or a redirection. Should you get off track at all, come back to it again.

You guessed it because you can. Because you are a person that achieves their goals.

If you need to have that coach in your corner to help you achieve those goals, I have a very special offer for you below.

Thank you. I appreciate you. Have a wonderful week.

We are in week three of this goal-setting series. And if you didn't catch the other two, go back and read them. I love helping my clients set and achieve their goals. It's funny in the past; I wasn't the greatest goal-setter; thus, I've become a student. It's the whole master what you're not great at, am I right? In other words, I continue to grow in this aspect of my life. It's one of those topics that I never get tired of researching and reading about. I'm pretty passionate about helping others to find ways they can achieve goals. At last, let's get into this week's topic, setting your smart goals.

Setting your SMART goal

Without a doubt, you've heard the buzz around setting smart goals. You must be wondering what does that actually mean?

I know that in the past, the process of setting smart goals has felt overwhelming to me! It's funny; the first time we set smart goals at conferences with our kids, it was very intimidating to me.

But here's the thing, it's like a muscle; the more you use it, the stronger and easier it gets to set smart goals.

This week is all about setting your smart goals.

As a recap of the goal setting and achievement series, we've talked about how to pick your goals. Along with finding your big why. Both of those things are critical.
One, you have to have the goal you're working for. Two, you need to understand why you're passionate about achieving this goal. Your why is essential so that you can actually achieve the goal and not stop working towards it.

So again, if you've not watched the first two videos, go back and watch those and then come back to this one.

How to Set Goals For Yourself – Part One

How to achieve your goals and dreams in life – Part Two

A in setting your SMART goal

The A is this goal actually achievable. You know, in your heart, that you have the potential to actually achieve it. Now, this is important if you're wavering; this shows you a limiting belief.

What limiting belief is getting in your way of achieving that goal? A key piece is discovering where your thoughts hold you back from achieving your goals.

With this in mind, your thoughts and feelings drive your actions that create your results.

What's more, you must be on board with your goal, believe that it's achievable, and feel that you will achieve it.

Yes, you can achieve your goal; I believe it. Do you believe you can actually achieve it?

And again, I know broken record here. Yet, if you're new to goal setting or goal achievement, start with only one goal; it's so important.

R in setting your SMART goal

The R is your goal realistic? Are you able to actually achieve this goal without giving up on it? Because it's too big, ensure you're being realistic when setting your goals.

Whether it is your first time setting a goal or you set a goal and do not follow through. It's even more important the goal is realistic and that you can achieve it.

Because you want to make sure it's a small goal. Remember that small has to do with the timeframe in which you can achieve it. Small goals need only a few action steps.

The larger the goal, the more action step to complete. Right now, we want quick wins! Not a one-year goal that takes you a lot of action steps because that will be very disempowering for you.

T in setting your SMART goal

The T is your timeline. Will this smaller goal keep you on pace to hit an even bigger goal in the future?

Does it move you towards what you want in your life or business?

Your timeline is how long it will take you to reach your goal. Setting a timeline can be tricky; some underestimate, and others overestimate. If you give it too much time, it will fill that space.

Your turn setting a SMART goal

Now, you know what to do. I want you to go ahead and take your goal and walk through the smart system. How will you know that you've achieved the goal, and how do you know you've reached that goal destination.

It's so important. You must understand what you consider to be the end. The moment you have actually achieved your goal.

Why do you need to know when you have reached the end? This gives you the starting point to create your plan.

What most people don't realize it is easier to work backward to create the plan with your action steps.

Keep this simple, how will you know you've reached your goal? What is the very last thing you'll do? So what was the step right before that?

What was the step before that? Continue asking yourself what else, what else. Until you have all the actions, you should take to get to that goal? Sound good? Think small, break down the steps, and you want to ensure that you have all kinds of sub-tasks.

Why is that? The reason for that is you want to be able to take one simple action every single day to move you toward your goal.

What if you have more time? Heck, then you can do two.

By taking little tiny actions every day, it will inch your forward. Instead of cramming all the action in one day.

You are the Little Train That Could, taking small action every single day, every single day.

And the best part is you become a person that achieves your goals. Because you know, every day, you'll work towards that goal.

Here is another way

What if you're a deer in the headlight right now without a clue how to work backward. No worries.

Another way to figure out the action steps to achieve that goal is to mind mapping. Mind mapping is a fantastic tool. If you're creative or visual, this is a great way to figure out all the actions you need to take.

Mind mapping allows you to see it on a piece of paper when you write it out. If you prefer to use software, there are so many various mind mapping software out there that you may try as well.

Here's a quick review. Put your goal in the middle of your page and draw spokes or lines off of that goal. Each line or spoke will be one action.

Then off of that action, you may have different sub-actions or subtasks that need to take place.

Let your mind wander. You will have an action with a subtask, with a subtask of the subtask.

Because there may be different things that you need to do off of that particular task to make it happen. All in all, think of all the back work you would need to do to achieve your goal.

One Final Thought

I hope that's helpful for you. One other thing I want to leave you with is being willing to accept that your plans may change. It may not work out perfectly, and you may run into obstacles along the way that require you to adjust the plan. And that's okay.

Keep focusing on the goal that you're working towards. You've got this. I know you can do it.

Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate you. I'm excited to see you back here next week when we're going to talk about how to follow through on achieving that goal.