Three tips for setting major life goals
In order to live life in a way that feels fulfilling, and allows us to maximise our full potential, then goal setting is the way forward!
Stuart and I set some goals at the start of the year, but then… covid happened and we haven’t really stuck to them. But according to research, a large amount of the happiness and fulfilment that we all experience over the course of our lives, is ultimately a result of the feeling that we are making progress towards valued goals.
Additionally, a lack of goals significantly reduces the odds that you will achieve anything very ambitious or noteworthy. Which, by the way, is also fine if you’re happy with that path!
Here are a few tips for effectively setting yourself major life goals, so that you can put your best foot forward.
Think about exactly where you want to be in the future, and the challenges that need to be overcome for you to get there
The first and most fundamental part of goalsetting is to visualise exactly where you want to be in the future. Get in touch with your inner most desires and motivations, and then create a clear mental map of how you’d like your life to play out.
As well as figuring out exactly where you’d like to be in the future, you also have to think of ways around potential problems and stumbling blocks that may currently be impeding your progress.
It may be, for example, that you want to start a family – but that your attempts to become pregnant have so far been unsuccessful. If so, egg donation might be one viable avenue to explore.
Research the different avenues that can help to get you to where you want to be
Having a goal is great – but in order to make it the kind of goal that you can actually take action on, and achieve benefits as a result of, you also need to consider the different avenues that can get you from point A to point B.
A big part of this will have to do with coming up with the right daily ‘systems’, habits and routines, that will ensure that you keep moving towards your goals consistently, even when you’re not particularly inspired.
Simply being consistent with daily habits such as exercise, or writing, can bring brilliant results.
Set deadlines and waypoints, and continually check back in
A goal that you haven’t set a deadline for, and that you don’t have ways to reliably track, is more like wishful thinking than a goal at all.
Whichever goals you are setting for yourself, it’s important that you set deadlines for them in order to keep you focused, driven, and aware of how you should be conducting yourself at any given moment.
It is also important that you have certain way points that you can use to track your progress – and that you routinely check back in to see how you’re getting along.
*This is a collaborative post.
