How to Crush Your Goals

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Selecting Your Goals

It doesn’t matter what day or month or year it is, NOW is always a good time to start working on your goals. Whether your goals are big or small, personal or professional, you can always strive to better yourself.

I think goal setting is different for everyone. For some people, you might want to read more books or lose weight. For others it might be to learn a new language or further your education. Just like everybody is different, so are selecting goals.

I like to use the S.M.A.R.T. goals acronym when goal setting. This stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. I love looking at goals through this lens because it really helps me to visualize my selection.

The more specific you can be, the easier it is to set up an action plan. Measurable means you can set a desired outcome and know whether or not you achieved it. Achievable means that you are being realistic with your goals (losing 20 pounds in 2 weeks would most likely not be achievable). Relevant probably applies more to professional goals, but it is good to decide if your goals are relevant or applicable to your lifestyle. Lastly, time-bound means you give yourself a deadline for achieving your goal.

Again, goal setting is very personal. As I’ve mentioned before, I like to divide goals into the seven buckets: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, financial, career and relationships. Choosing just one or two categories at a time is a realistic place to start. You can check out my article on personal development goals for more help on selecting your goals.

How to Crush Your Goals

Once you’ve selected which goals you would like to conquer, it’s time to write them down and come up with an action plan.

Again, I would recommend starting with just one or two goals at a time, that way you don’t get too overwhelmed. Write down the goals you’ve selected in a journal. Now is the fun part of breaking down your goals into small, manageable steps.

First, give yourself a specific, measurable outcome and then choose a deadline.

Next, work backward from your deadline to create clear steps to get to your goal. Schedule the time directly into your calendar.

Let’s use setting a weekly workout regimen as an example. First, pick a specific goal like running a 5K or losing 10 pounds. The deadline would be by June 20 (the first day of summer!)

Next, you would work backward from June 20 to track where you should be each week. So, maybe week one is just walking one mile each day. Week two is walk two miles. Week three is walk and jog the two miles. You get the idea. Build up “micro” goals that add up to the big goal and deadline.

You should do this for every goal you set. Even if it’s drinking more water or getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep. The idea is to incorporate this goal into your lifestyle. So you need to make it a habit by slowly acclimate your mind and body to completing these tasks.

If you think about college, you didn’t just show up on campus and conquer a senior year thesis (well, maybe some of you geniuses did, but I didn’t!) No, you took courses that slowly built up your knowledge and confidence. Then many semesters later, you were ready to conquer the big one.

The idea is the same here, just building different areas of your overall well-being. Take small, simple steps to form habits and then build them into your daily routine.

Downloadable Guides to Help You Crush Goals

I think one of the most important lessons above is to write down your goals and come up with an action plan. I mentioned using a journal to do this but I know everyone is different.

I’m a very visual person and I actually tend to write my goals down in several places. I like to write down my goals in a journal or type them out in a Word document (sometimes both!) Then I like to break them down into my “micro” goals and write dates next to everything. Then, I take the dates and add them into my calendar. This is the visual part because I like to see my calendar with all my action steps and deadlines.

Sometimes, I add another layer to it (especially if I need extra motivation) and use sticky notes on my desk. This is another visual element that helps me see what I need to do and when.

While this method works for me, I know it sounds very time-consuming and probably a little excessive. It is! But it works, so that’s the system that I’ve stuck with for as long as I’ve been setting goals.

I recently came across another tool that I think can be very useful to anyone trying to set and manage goals this year.

In getting this whole blogging thing going, one of the best benefits is meeting other bloggers. These are people who I normally would never meet (and probably never will in real life!) But we have this blogging thing in common and it’s such an amazing community.

Long story short, my new blogging friend Alexx over at Aesthetics By Alexx has put together some really awesome downloadable planners that I think will be useful for anyone trying to crush goals this year.

Alexx blogs about travel, happiness and faith and she’s created some planners that help organize your thoughts, goals and progress in easy-to-use and reasonably priced forms.

One of the best things about her planners is that they’re fillable forms, so you can use them on your computer as soon as you download. Or, if you’re old school like me, you can print them out and write in your goals. Then hang it up or have it on your desk to see your action steps and progress right in front of you.

Right now, she has five downloadable planners available in her shop and there are a few more bundles in the works. The options are the Minimalist Blog Planner bundle, Minimalist Daily/Weekly Planner, Minimalist Fitness Planner, Minimalist Shopping/Meal Planner and Minimalist Travel Planner bundle.

I’m personally most excited to use the shopping/meal planner and travel planner. I think Alexx did a really nice job of laying everything out in a simple, easy to understand format. The minimalist nature shines through, in the best possible way. It shows you what you need to write down in well-designed categories and gives you plenty of room to write. But there’s no additional frills or areas that don’t make sense with each particular category.

I love the you can download and print instantly, meaning you can start crushing your goals today! And if you’re weird about what day the week starts, Alexx gives you options for both Sunday or Monday start. I think that was such a nice touch! (Come on, we all have an opinion on what day the week starts!)

All in all, I would recommend Alexx’s planners to anyone looking for an easy, straightforward method for tracking and managing goals. If you need more than just a lined notebook, these are a reasonably priced, easy-to-use option.

For more information or to check out the planners, visit Alexx’s blog and shop. If you decide to buy one of the bundles or planners, use my code milkglassmimosa10 for 10 percent off!

Final Thoughts

With some careful planning, realistic action steps and intentional follow through, you can crush all your goals this year! Taking the time to write down your goals, setting up manageable action steps and giving yourself deadlines, it’s easy to accomplish anything you set out to do.

Whether you use a journal, computer document or download an awesome planner from Alexx, the simple steps to crush goals are the same.

Once you pick your goal (thinking in terms of S.M.A.R.T. goals), write them down, set a deadline and work backwards to create your action plan with “micro” goals along the way.

Keeping track as you go with calendars or planners is an easy, visual way to help you manage your success. I think accomplishing each step along the way will continue to give you motivation to keep working toward your goals.

No matter what day, month or year it is, you can crush any goal you set out to do!

What systems do you use to crush your goals? Let me know in the comments below!