8 Ways To Set Achievable Goals in 2021
What a YEAR it has been. We are days away from leaving the dumpster fire that was 2020 behind us, and honestly, this is the perfect time to get serious about goal-setting for 2021.
It is more important than ever to have goals and dreams and plans in place to keep you moving towards something good that’s important to you. That’s honestly what has helped us get through this year — making plans for who we want to be in the months to come!
And we wanted to hear how you guys were feeling about 2021 goal setting, so we polled you all on Instagram and heard back from hundreds of you, of which 69% agreed with us that goal setting is really important to them.
57% of you said you’re planning your 2021 goals right now, while 43% of you are straight-up just trying to survive these day (which is totally fair, we feel you).
And interestingly enough, Health and Career were almost tied as your biggest areas of focus in 2021 (just a few more for health), then came finances, and last, relationships.
73% of you didn’t follow through with your 2020 goals but that’s nothing to beat yourself up over. It may just be a reflection on how you set your goals and if you truly set yourself up for success.
For example, last year, amongst Gill’s 15 resolutions (which is way too many) were:
Eat better
Write more poetry
Get more organized
Those resolutions were way too vague, and that’s why “new year's resolutions” are straight up no good. When you break down the term resolution, it means: “A firm decision to do or not to do something”. Whereas a Goal is: “The object of a person's ambition or effort; an aim or desired result that you work towards with specific actions.”
So which sounds more appealing? We’ll take the goals please and thank you!
If you want to take control of your life, goal-setting is where it’s at. Goals give you focus, direction, motivation and a clear benchmark for measuring your success and progress, versus just aspirational resolutions that don’t drive results. Here’s how to actually get your shit together and plan your goals properly so you can achieve them in 2021:
1. What is your Why? Write down why your goal is valuable and important to you.
You should be able to explain and backup why your goal is worthwhile. This motivating statement will help if you start to doubt yourself or lose confidence in your ability to follow through.
2. Make them POSITIVE.
Writing down your goals using active, positive language instead of passive, negative language is KEY. You need to believe it to achieve it! So, instead of, I will watch less Netflix, try: I will be more intentional with spending my free time in fulfilling, and productive ways.
3. Make SMART Goals.
You’ve probably heard of SMART goals by now, but it makes a huge difference between a dream and an action. Your goals should be:
Specific. Clear and well defined. Get granular
Measurable. Include amounts, dates, etc., so you can measure your degree of success. If your goal is just to "reduce expenses" how will you know when you’ve succeeded?
Attainable. Make sure they are reasonable and doable so you’re setting yourself up for success.
Relevant. Goals should be relevant to the direction you want your life and career to take.
Time Bound/Time sensitive. When you are working on a deadline, your sense of urgency increases and achievement will be that much quicker.
4. Integrate them into your everyday life.
Here are some easy ways you can incorporate your goals into your everyday life:
Schedule it in your calendar to make it a non-negotiable.
Make yourself a To-Do List template that has your goals at the top of it. Check out our free to-do list templates here!
Journal or check in with yourself at the start and end of everyday.
Post your goals in visible places to remind yourself every day of what it is you intend to do, like mirror sticky notes! Or use a calendar and cross it off every time you’ve completed your goal.
Visualization and manifestations. Visualize yourself achieving your goal. Who are you at the end of it? What do you look like, sound like, feel like? How different will your life be?
5. Work in bite-sized pieces.
Scheduling bite-sized chunks of time to complete your goals can prevent you from feeling overwhelmed. It’s a lot easier to focus on a series of small goals that you can control, so break your big dreams down into smaller steps you can check off a list.
6. Make a plan.
Research shows you are 2-3 times more likely to stick to your goals if you make a specific plan for when, where, and how you will perform the behaviour. For example: “During the next week, I will do at least 20 minutes of vigorous exercise on [DAY] at [TIME OF DAY] at/in [PLACE].”
Psychologists call these specific plans “implementation intentions” because they state when, where, and how you intend to implement a particular behaviour. This finding has been repeated across hundreds of studies and has been found to increase the odds that people will start exercising, begin recycling, stick with studying, and even stop smoking!
So, take your goal and outline all the steps you’ll have to take in order to reach your goal in an action plan, and track it. For example, if you want to workout 3x/week start at the very beginning:
Do you need to go to bed early so you can get a full 8 hrs in order to have the energy?
Do you need to limit your screen time at night so you can get to bed at a reasonable hour?
Do you need some new workout clothes or gear to get you motivated?
Do you need to set up a workout area or pre-book your workout classes?
Set reminders in your calendar and actually schedule it in so it’s a non-negotiable.
7. Accountability – share your goal with people to keep you accountable.
Having an accountability partner (AKA an accountabilibuddy) will give you another added boost for accomplishing all of your goals. Set a time frame in which you will evaluate your progress and ask your partner to keep you accountable!
8. Ruthlessly eliminate your goals.
Psychologists refer to this as “goal competition”, which means one of the greatest barriers to achieving your goals is literally your other goals. This is because your goals are competing with one another for your time and attention.
Learn how to reorganize your priorities so you can press pause on less important things and focus on one goal at a time. For big and important goals, you may need to focus on one goal first and eliminate everything else that is a distraction. Something always has to give, especially if you’re adding something new to your schedule and routine. This will also help you avoid burn out because you’ll be deeprioritizing the things that don’t matter to make room for the things that do, instead of just giving 50% of your attention to everything.
Author James Clear uses the perfect analogy of a rose bush to describe this: Rose bushes create more buds than they can sustain, so they need to be pruned to bring out the best in them. So, if you want a rose bush to thrive, you gotta cut away some of the good buds so the truly great ones can blossom. HOW SMART IS THAT!? Our goals are the same: They need pruning so the immediate ones can succeed.
Overwhelmed? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! We’ve created a cheat sheet for you that outlines all of these steps to creating and achieving your goal. It’s been a serious game-changer for us and you can download it for free here!
We hope these tips help you absolutely slay 2021 with clear direction, motivation and planning, no matter what awaits us in the new year!
Thanks joining us on our journey this year and supporting this podcast, it has meant the world to us and gave us the purpose, motivation, and goals to get through 2020! We can’t wait to share more inspiration and adulting tips with you in the coming year. Happy New Year, friends!
