If You Aim at Nothing, You’ll Hit It Every Time
CAT: Where are you going?
ALICE: Which way should I go?
CAT: That depends on where you are going.
ALICE: I don’t know.
CAT: Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.
—LEWIS CARROLL, ALICE IN WONDERLAND
Goal: Find purpose and motivation through goal setting.
Strategy: Set specific, measurable, and realistic goals, break them down into bite-size pieces, and then develop a plan of action to follow through with them.
“Crystal, I have to tell you something,” my friend Jenae excitedly told me at a blogging event we attended together. I had no idea where she was headed with this conversation, but I could tell it was going to be good.
Jenae, a former teacher turned stay-at-home mom of two boys, shared with me how she’d never set goals. But after reading my blog and learning about the importance of goal setting, she decided to try it. She said she was amazed at the difference it had made in her life.
Prior to this, Jenae was living mostly in survival mode. It seemed all she was doing was making sure everyone stayed fed, dressed, and well cared for. That was her existence in a nutshell.
When Jenae started setting little goals, she couldn’t believe how much more purpose she had in life. No longer was she just getting up and trying to make it through the day. Rather, she was waking up with purpose. Here’s what Jenae has learned through this process:
Unless I am truly passionate about something, I struggle immensely with the self-discipline needed to perform the task. Unfortunately, exercise, healthy eating, and cleaning don’t rank very high on my list of passions. As a mom of two young boys, I am completely drained of energy by the end of each day and adding anything extra seems unbearable.
In January 2012, I implemented many of Crystal’s goal-setting tips for the New Year. My goals were quite simple, but accomplishing them made a huge difference. Some of them included:
• Go to bed with the sink empty and the countertops wiped down every night.
• Eat a home-cooked dinner around the kitchen table with the entire family at least four times each week.
• Go on at least one date night with my husband each month.
• Spend thirty minutes playing with the boys each day.
Writing down these goals and breaking them into smaller steps made it much easier and more motivating for me to accomplish the mundane tasks (like laundry, cleaning, organizing, daily grind–type things) day after day and week after week.
It would be dishonest for me to say that I have stuck with all the goals I have made for myself (have I mentioned that I have issues following through with things as well?). However, I was able to meet the ones above, which was a huge improvement for me!
Setting goals, writing them down, and achieving them has given me a renewed sense of purpose and fulfillment. As for the ones that haven’t yet been reached (like losing those five extra pounds), I am thankful that tomorrow is a new day and I have a plan of action to tackle these stubborn issues!
Goal setting gave Jenae drive, momentum, and meaning she never knew was possible as a stay-at-home mom. The same can happen to you, no matter what season or stage of life you’re in.
THE POWER OF GOAL SETTING
We only have one life to live. In order to make the most of it and live intentionally and purposefully, we have to constantly reevaluate our lives. Creating and monitoring short-term and long-term goals is a life-changing way to make sure we are heading in the right direction.
If you’re bored with life, if you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things, you don’t have enough goals.
—LOU HOLTZ
My friend Anne, who blogs at ModernMrsDarcy.com, shared with me the amazing results of goal setting that she and her family experienced in the area of their finances. Here’s what she has to say:
Last January my husband and I set an ambitious goal to pay off a loan with a hefty balance, about half our annual income, within two years’ time. This goal was important but not at all fun, and we had a hard time getting ourselves to even set it in the first place. But we knew we had to do it so we could move on to more exciting financial goals. So we committed ourselves to slogging it out.
Right at the beginning of the year, we scored some small successes that skyrocketed our hopes for reaching our goal. I filled in at work for a sick coworker and worked several forty-hour weeks instead of my usual ten. We received a larger-than-expected tax refund and a birthday check or two. All of a sudden, we were making real progress. Our goal began to look achievable.
At that point, we started throwing everything we had at that loan balance: income from a side gig, three-dollar rebate checks, spare change, birthday money. You name it; it all went toward the loan. We kept a running tally of the loan balance by the computer where we worked. As December neared, we couldn’t believe how close we were getting to a zero balance. We started to wonder if we could pull it off in one year’s time. Sure enough, I got a Christmas bonus at work, and we received a few Christmas checks, which made us able to pay off that loan just before the New Year. We were thrilled!
I learned so much about goal setting from that experience. I learned not to be afraid to set big goals—we never would have paid off that balance in a year if we hadn’t aimed high. I also learned I can create my own momentum. Even though I wasn’t at all excited about setting that (boring, no-fun) goal, I found that working toward it increased my enthusiasm. And the experience continues to inspire me to aim high and dream big.
SET SMART GOALS
Goals aren’t just dreams, wishful thinking, or lofty ambitions. They must be SMART—specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound—blueprints to get you where you want to go. Using these SMART principles will help you create goals you can achieve. If you don’t know where you’re aiming, you’re going to lack direction and purpose.
Specific
Goals aren’t meant to be vague or ambiguous. Though you may genuinely want to “have a better life,” “get healthier,” or “become rich,” those are merely undefined intentions. They won’t get you anywhere. You have to identify the details of your goals. For example, instead of saying, “I want to lose weight,” make a goal to lose five pounds in four weeks. Or instead of saying, “I want to save money this year,” say, “I want to save five hundred dollars every month for twelve months.”
Measurable
You need to be able to track your progress in order to see your desired result. Your goal must answer the question: How will I know if I reached my goal? For example, if you want to write a book, a measurable goal is to complete one chapter a month.
Attainable
Your goals must be within your control and influence and mean something to you. Don’t commit yourself to reaching a goal that you won’t be able to attain. I’m not seeking to become a world-class traveler, an Olympic swimmer, or an inventor right now (and probably won’t in the near or distant future!), so none of my goals are going to push me closer to those things. We must choose goals that relate to our life priorities.
Realistic
There’s a big difference between shooting for the moon and meeting a realistic goal. Your goals should stretch and challenge you as a person, but not be so difficult or ambitious that you have little to no chance of meeting them. For instance, it’s pretty unrealistic to get your master’s degree in a year’s time if you already have a stressful and time-consuming job and a family. You’ll be better off setting a goal to meet that education achievement in two to three years.
Time-Bound
Your goals must have an end date. If they don’t, you will be less likely to meet them. Consider how much time you think it will take to accomplish your goal and then set a date by which to have it completed. It’s not enough to set a goal to read more self-improvement books. Make it time-bound by writing down ten specific self-improvement titles you plan to read over the next ten months.
Don’t worry too much about being locked in to a particular date, though. You can always change it if you need to, but the act of setting a date will give you much more momentum and drive. And you just might pick up speed the closer you get to the finish line.
Whenever you want to achieve something, keep your eyes open, concentrate and make sure you know exactly what it is you want. No one can hit their target with their eyes closed.
—PAULO COELHO
WHAT KIND OF GOALS ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?
You may have some idea of what goals you’d like to reach, or you may feel so swamped with life that you haven’t given thought to making any—other than trying to get through the day. If that’s where you are, I encourage you to start with a few small goals.
I like to break down my goals into different categories. Following are some examples you can work from. You can pick and choose from this list, create your own, or do a little of both.
• Business
• Personal
• Health/Nutrition/Fitness
• Financial
• Marriage
• Family/Parenting
• Home management
• Education
In the space below or in a separate journal or notebook, write down four or five categories where you’d like to see changes in your life. Then figure out what you want to accomplish in these areas.
Here are some examples of SMART goals to get the idea wheels turning in your brain:
Business
• Create a website for my business within the next six months.
• Set up a blog on my website, and update it at least once or twice a week.
• Find a mentor (either online or in my local area) this month, and set up biweekly meetings with him or her.
• Have a consistent sleep schedule, and get seven hours of rest every night.
• Learn Spanish by spending an hour a day listening to lessons on my iPod.
• Start a family scrapbook, and update it every month.
Health/Nutrition/Fitness
• Run a two-mile race in the fall of this year.
• Drink eight glasses of water each day, and limit soda intake to twice each week.
• Lose twenty pounds in four months by eating less and exercising more.
To guide you even further, I thought you might like to get a peek at what some of my yearly goals look like. This is a list of some of the goals I set for 2012:
Personal
• Read the twenty-four books on my booklist.
• Read the Bible in a year.
• Run in one 5K race.
Marriage
• Go on at least two overnight trips as a couple (without our kids).
• Have monthly date nights.
• Read three books on marriage.
• Memorize two or three Bible verses with the children each month.
• Enroll our children in ice-skating and swimming lessons.
• Read fifteen books aloud together as a family.
Financial
• Save up and pay cash for a new-to-us vehicle to replace our family van.
• Tithe 10 percent of our income.
If you’re new to setting goals, keep it simple, and start with a few goals. It’s much better to set two goals and work hard and finish them than to set thirty-two goals and be so overwhelmed that you don’t make progress on any of them.
GOAL-SETTING SUCCESS
Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about the art of goal setting and what really works. Two things that I’ve found to be imperative to goal-setting success are writing down your goals and breaking them down into bite-size pieces.
By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be.
—MARK VICTOR HANSEN
Goals that you say out loud or think of are a good start, but you need to take your intentions a step further. Write them down. Seeing your goal written in ink, on paper, will have a powerful effect on your mind.
I love how Dave Ramsey encourages people to put their financial goals on paper and on purpose. When you write down your goals, it puts more weight to them. It also gives you a start date. When you have a start date, you are motivated to actually, you know, start. Plus, if you write your goals down, you’re able to track your progress and be encouraged by advancing in the right direction.
You can download a free, printable goal-setting worksheet on MoneySavingMom.com (search for “goal-planning sheet,” and see a sample in the appendix) or find one elsewhere that works for you. If you prefer a simpler method of writing down goals than using a worksheet, by all means go for it. A sticky note taped to your mirror or refrigerator or a reminder set up on your phone may work just as well. There is no right way to write down goals. The point is to get your goals in print so you can follow through with them.
I’m trying to steer clear of electronic planning. Things feel more real to me when put on paper. If I physically write something, I seem to remember it better.
—ALICIA
One more thing: put your goals somewhere you can see them. You want to be able to look at your goals on a regular basis to remind yourself of your target. Remember, out of sight, out of mind. And that’s not what you want when it comes to making and meeting your goals.
THREE METHODS TO WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS
1. Create a list. How you write down your goals will depend on your preference. I like to type up my weekly, monthly, and yearly goal lists and then cross them off as I finish them. There’s something about putting a line through a goal to mark it as completed that gives me immense satisfaction.
2. Design a spreadsheet. Typing my goals and crossing them off is very motivating to me. Other people (like my husband) prefer to create a sophisticated spreadsheet to track the percentage of progress for each goal. When we were saving to buy our home, Jesse set up an Excel spreadsheet with our end house savings goals and our monthly house savings goals. Each month he’d input how much we’d saved into the spreadsheet, and it would automatically update our savings percentages. This method inspired him.
3. Use sticky notes. If you’re a visual person and need a lot of reminders, try using sticky notes. Place them throughout your house where they will help you remember to stay on track. Here is what this could look like in your home:
• Aiming to lose five pounds? Put sticky notes on the fridge and pantry reminding you to choose your foods wisely.
• Training for your first 5K race? Put a sticky note on your laptop reminding you to go for a run before you open your computer.
• Seeking to increase your blog profitability? Put a sticky note on your computer reminding you to stop wasting time on Facebook.
• Wanting to become more organized with your meal planning? Put a sticky note on your bathroom mirror reminding you to take out meat to defrost while you’re brushing your teeth before bed.
Instead of just dreaming up big ideas or fantasizing about lofty ambitions, take the first step to success today by writing down your goals.
Break Down Your Goal
Once you’ve written down some goals, develop an incremental plan of action. Some goals require baby steps while others can be tackled head-on, with only one or two action steps. For instance, a goal to save five thousand dollars in one year will require daily or weekly goals like limiting spending, clipping coupons, and so on. A simple goal to start taking vitamins regularly won’t require anything except picking a time to take them on a daily basis and then just doing it. (Set an alarm on your phone or put a sticky note on your bathroom mirror to remind you!)
When you take the time to break down a goal into smaller chunks, it looks doable rather than overwhelming. It’s easier to stay focused if you are only looking at the next few steps ahead of you than the huge mountain you’re aiming to climb. Map your small steps and then take them. Before you know it, you’ll be at the summit.
Trying to lose fifty pounds can be daunting unless you break it down and focus on losing one half or full pound a week. Successful marathoners can’t get hung up worrying about how they are going to finish the twenty-six-mile race; they have to pace themselves for the mile or half mile that they are currently running. You may feel going back to school and getting your degree is impossible until you take one semester or class at a time. If you have a home piled with clutter, you won’t be able to overhaul it in a day. If, however, you set a timer for fifteen minutes every day (more on this principle later) and work faithfully on it for three months, you’ll see some real progress.
Here are two sample plans, one for a short-term goal and one for a long-term goal. I’ve broken down both goals into smaller chunks to give you an idea of how this works.
How to Train for a 5K in Twelve Weeks
• Sign up for a 5K race scheduled sometime in the next three to four months.
• Find someone to train with you or hold you accountable, if possible.
• Download the Couch to 5K app or print out a copy of the program.
• Decide when and where you will run (outside, at home on a treadmill, at the gym) and how you will accomplish it in the midst of your busy schedule.
• Make a chart on your phone or stick one on the fridge for you to track your progress. Write at the top “I Will Run a 5K on _____.” Choose a big reward that you’ll earn if you accomplish this goal.
• Check in with your accountability partner after every run, either via e-mail, text, phone, or in person. If it helps, consider posting your run times online via your Facebook status. The more accountability, the better!
• Reward yourself with something small every week to help you stick with your plan.
• After you’ve run the 5K, enjoy the fulfillment of a job well done and the reward you listed earlier.
• Set your next fitness goal!
How to Pay Off $5,000 in Debt This Year
• Call a family meeting to discuss your desire to pay off this debt and why. Make sure everyone is onboard.
• Create a spreadsheet to detail your monthly and weekly goals. (If you want to pay off $5,000 in twelve months, you’ll need to pay off $416.67 each month, or $96.15 each week, or $13.70 per day.)
• Brainstorm as a family specific things you are going to cut from your budget each month and week to achieve these goals. If possible, rotate the different things you cut each month to provide some variety and prevent feelings of deprivation.
• Discuss ways you could increase your income to be able to pay off the debt faster.
• Decide on a specific reward you’ll get every month if you achieve the monthly goal.
• Pick a reward for the whole family if you end up meeting your ultimate goal.
• Track your weekly progress on your spreadsheet or on your fridge.
• Schedule monthly accountability meetings to make sure you’re staying on track, to tweak your budget, and to talk about what’s working and what’s not working.
Desires must be simple and definite. They defeat their own purpose should they be too many, too confusing, or beyond a man’s training to accomplish.
—GEORGE S. CLASON
HOW TO STAY ON THE WAGON AND MEET YOUR GOALS
It’s easy to get excited when you first start planning goals. You can probably even stretch your momentum over a period of a few weeks. Fueled by passion and enthusiasm, you count calories with a vengeance. You study long and hard. You stick to your exercise regimen like white on rice. You clip coupons like you’re Edward Scissorhands.
But then something happens.
Your efforts slow down. Life happens. Distractions pop up. You eat a piece of cake and figure another slice wouldn’t hurt. You have to take your mom to her doctor’s appointment, so you miss a study session (or two). You get sick and are unable to exercise. A work deadline causes you to put your blog schedule on hold. Sometimes you just lose your motivation and before you know it, so much time has passed you can’t even remember what your goals were in the first place.
While discouragement, detours, or setbacks will happen along the way, they don’t have to totally derail your efforts in achieving your goals. Here are some simple ways to help stay or get back on track, even when you have to press the Pause button momentarily.
Have Realistic Expectations
Simply put, don’t bite off more than you can chew. One of the biggest reasons I was a goal-setting failure for so long was because I would set far too many goals. Most of them were great; I just had too many. If I were to attempt the impossible and pull off all the goals, I wouldn’t have much time left over for anything else, including sleep!
I signed up to take some college courses awhile back. Recently, I dealt with some serious personal problems, so I had to drop a class. I felt like a failure at first, but realized it was better to focus on and do the best in the classes I could manage than do poorly in all of them. It was a great learning lesson.
—JENNIFER
Not long ago, my husband was going through some papers in our basement and came across the goals we had written down for 2007. It was amazing to see how much I’ve grown in the area of goal setting since then. Some of the goals were doable and realistic (and ones that I actually achieved). But most of them were impossible and wholly out of line with the SMART principles.
Guess how many goals were on that list. Thirty-seven! I kid you not. Did I mention at the time I had a three-year-old and a baby, was running two online businesses, and I didn’t have any local help with childcare or the websites? Some of these goals were completely unrealistic for me at that season of life. They included things like “Get up at 5 a.m. every day” (hello, I was getting up multiple times a night with a baby!) and “Read one to two books every week.” It was simply absurd for me to think I could accomplish all thirty-seven goals that year with everything else on my plate.
I’m a firm believer in aiming high and challenging yourself to always be learning, growing, and improving as a person. That’s why goal setting is so important to me. However, it’s just as important to be realistic. You need to consider the constraints on your time, your current family and work responsibilities, your energy levels, the ages of your children, and so forth. For instance, a mom of three young children, one of whom has special needs, should have a much different level of expectation for herself than a woman who is young, single, and has no kids.
Setting goals for your game is an art. The trick is in setting them at the right level neither too low nor too high.
—GREG NORMAN
It’s better to set microscopic goals and make headway on them than to set goals so far out of your reach that you give up before you even begin. When you’re first starting out, keep your goals simple and doable. As you start accomplishing them and have a better understanding of what it takes to achieve them, you can set your sights higher.
Review, Tweak, and Repeat
Post your goals where you can see them, and review your progress regularly—at least once a month, if not weekly. I set yearly goals and break these down into monthly goals. Then I break these down even further into weekly goals.
For instance, I chose forty-eight book titles I planned to read this year. Then I broke down this list further by assigning four books to each month of the year. I set a reading goal for each week (reading eight to ten chapters of two different books) to keep me on track.
At the end of each week, I take some time to review last week’s goals and map out goals in each category for the following week. I then tentatively assign each of these tasks to specific days during the following week. This exercise usually only takes me fifteen minutes to do, but it makes a world of difference in my week.
As an adult, I find it hard to be accountable to someone else. It’s my life. Why should I need to answer to anyone else? But it’s also why I struggle with accomplishing my goals. As it turns out, I really need someone to help me stay focused and grounded.
—CAMERON
If you are struggling with feeling overwhelmed in the goals you have set for yourself, step back and reevaluate. Do you need to tweak your goals a little to be more realistic? Do you need to give yourself more time to get them done? Sometimes situations come up outside your control and you need to adjust your goals accordingly.
Be Accountable
Reaching our goals is easier and more encouraging when we have people in our lives who will hold us accountable, challenge us, and cheer us on. Whenever I run alone, I tend to go easier on myself. If my side starts hurting or I have a long to-do list, I use that as an excuse for a short run. However, when I run with someone else, I’m motivated to push a little harder, go a little faster, and not give up when I feel winded and tired.
It’s the same with life. When you feel like you’re going at it alone, it’s harder to keep on when the going gets rough. But when you have others around you who are encouraging you, checking on you, or texting you to make sure you’re following through, you’re much more apt to stick with your goals.
I’ve found accountability to be key in helping me to stay on track with my goals. I blog about my goals at the beginning of each year and then post my progress at the end of each month. It’s amazing how much this practice has helped to keep me on track. If I don’t stick with my goals, I have to give an explanation to my entire blog audience!
In addition, my husband and I keep each other accountable when it comes to staying on track with our financial goals. On a regular basis, we talk about big purchases we need to make and discuss the details of our budget.
When I was working on getting up early each morning, my friend Stacie and I texted each other as soon as we got up in the morning. Knowing I was accountable to her and vice versa helped me make sure I didn’t go back to sleep.
You might be thinking, I wish I had an accountability partner, but I don’t know where to find one. Well, it might not be as hard as you think. Anyone can be your accountability partner—your husband, parent, sibling, friend, or neighbor. Start with your local friends and family, and see if anyone would be interested in keeping you accountable to one specific goal. Plan regular accountability meetings, such as meeting for coffee once a month or as many times as you’d like to discuss the progress of your goals.
If you can’t find anyone locally, ask friends on Facebook, Twitter, your blog, or other online groups you’re a part of. Or search and see if there’s already an online support group of some sort. You could even create a chart to track your progress and post it on your fridge at home or cubicle wall at work for everyone to see. The public accountability might be just the motivation you need.
What to Look for in an Accountability Partner
When looking for an accountability partner, find someone who is encouraging, committed, and not afraid to tell you the truth if you’re getting behind or offtrack. He or she needs to be willing and able to take you to task if you’re not following through with the goals you’ve set. At the same time, you want someone who will give you grace and understanding when you’ve set the bar too high or when unexpected situations outside your control come up.
Q: I have learned so much from you about goal setting, but I’m finding myself getting overly obsessive about reaching my goals, and I feel terrible if I haven’t been able to cross off all my little bite-sized pieces of my goals at the end of the day. I almost feel like I want to give up my goals so I stop being so obsessed. Please help me find a better balance! —Lena
A: I really appreciate you asking this question. While I’m a big fan of goal setting, I think it’s imperative that we not go overboard with them so that they control our lives—ultimately sucking the joy of living out of life itself.
Goals are meant to be a blessing, not a burden. The reason you set goals is to enhance your life, not to exhaust and overburden you. If goals become additional stress in your life, they need to be tweaked, rewritten, or dropped altogether.
It’s good to challenge ourselves. It’s good to push ourselves outside our comfort zones. It’s good to aim high and work hard. But there always needs to be room to breathe in life. Charging ahead at breakneck speed just for the sake of speed and productivity is no way to live.
With this in mind, here are five ideas for you to consider trying:
1. Create weekly goals versus daily goals. I always encourage people to break their goals down into bite-sized pieces, because viewing a big goal in one lump sum can be overwhelming.
However, if you break a goal down so small that you feel obligated to always be working on it every single day—even when the inevitable interruptions come up—you can end up feeling like you’ve failed or fallen way behind when you don’t hit your daily goals.
Perhaps a better option for you would be to choose a few small, bite-sized goals to tackle each week versus each day. Write them down, and post them on your refrigerator or somewhere else that you’ll see regularly and then fit them in as you’re able throughout the week.
This way, you are still chipping away at your goals, but you’re doing so in a way that’s more flexible and adaptable to your schedule. On days that you’re really busy, you can just focus on the basics. On days that you have some extra time, you can knock out one or two of the bite-sized pieces.
If you don’t get to all the short list of goals that week, bump the leftovers to the following week.
2. Make your goals your first priority of the day. In the past year, I’ve been making a very concerted effort to do the hardest things first. This means I’m starting the day by tackling some of my least favorite but most important tasks first.
Truthfully, this is making a world of difference for me. I realized that I’d been wasting a lot of time just stalling. I’d add things to tomorrow’s to-do list or file things to do later instead of doing it now. There’s a time and place for filing and putting things on tomorrow’s to-do list, but I’ve been challenging myself to stop procrastinating on these things and face them head-on.
Not only am I getting a lot more done, I’m also finding I have a lot more margin time. Because once you stop stalling and start working, it takes a whole lot less time to do things!
3. Take a day off once a week. If you go-go-go all week long and never take a break, you’re bound to burn yourself out. Give yourself at least one day off each week that you don’t worry about work, goals, or to-do lists. This is your day to refuel and refresh.
We have Sundays set aside as our day off at our house. We go to church, come home and have a really simple lunch, and then have a quiet afternoon resting, reading, talking, playing a game, or engaging in other relaxing activities.
I don’t blog or worry about business stuff or goals, and I often don’t even turn on my phone or computer all day long. It’s a day we look forward to all week!
If you can’t take a full day off, at least take half a day every week. I promise that you’ll find you are more productive when you take time to recharge than if you keep going and never stop to take a breath.
4. Set fewer goals. Experiment with lowering the bar a little when it comes to goal setting. Maybe what you’re getting hung up on is the fact that you’re trying to accomplish too many goals.
It’s better to have fewer goals and follow through with them than to have a lot of goals and end up overwhelmed by them. Go through your goal list and try culling it down to the most important goals for four to six weeks. Just focus on those, and see if that makes a difference in your stress level.
5. Give yourself grace. You’re pretty much never going to get everything done that you want to in a day’s time. That’s just life! Focus on what you have accomplished instead of beating yourself up over what you didn’t accomplish.
If you end the day feeling like you accomplished nowhere near what you’d hoped, don’t fret. Just transfer the things you didn’t get done to tomorrow’s to-do list (or decide to skip them altogether), go to bed, get some rest, and wake up to a new day tomorrow!
ALL YOU NEED IS FIFTEEN MINUTES A DAY
Do you want to start goal setting but it feels overwhelming to you? Well, never fear, I have an idea that will help inch your way toward whatever your goal is. In fact, this principle can positively change your life. It can be applied to any project you want to accomplish or a goal you want to achieve. It’s so simple, but it really works!
All you need to work on your goals is fifteen minutes. No matter how busy your schedule, there is likely something you could give up somewhere to carve out this small amount of time each day.
Here are some fifteen-minute time wasters you can decrease or eliminate altogether to help get you started:
• Hitting the snooze button when the first alarm sounds.
• Browsing the web.
• Being nosy on Facebook and browsing through other people’s profiles.
• Spending too much time on any kind of social media.
• Chatting on the phone about nothing with someone you just talked to a few hours earlier.
• Watching TV.
• Shopping for another pair of black shoes when you already own a few pairs.
While it might seem like fifteen minutes isn’t much, investing this time every day on a consistent basis can really start to add up to significant traction made and ground covered.
Take care of the minutes and the hours will take care of themselves.
—LORD CHESTERFIELD
Think about it this way. Fifteen minutes a day adds up to
• 105 minutes (or 1 hour and 45 minutes) each week,
• almost a full day’s worth of work (7.5 hours) put in over a month’s time, and
• 90 hours a year! Ninety hours of focused work on your goals list will certainly get you somewhere, don’t you think?
Here’s an idea. Start using the fifteen-minute principle by making a prioritized list of the things you want to accomplish in the order you want to get them done. Set a timer for fifteen minutes every morning. (I use Online-Stopwatch.com or the timer on my smartphone.) Begin chipping away at this list until the timer goes off. If possible, do this early in the day—before breakfast and the daily hustle and bustle. You may prefer to focus on only one or two goals.
Here are just a few things you can accomplish within that fifteen-minute time frame:
• If your goal is to lose weight, you can exercise or make a healthy meal.
• If your goal is to read more, you can read a few chapters in a book (depending on how long they are, of course).
• If your goal is to save money, you can research coupon deals for the week, work on your budget, or look for ways to supplement your income.
• If your goal is to get certified in a particular field of interest, you can study for an exam.
• If you want to learn a new language, you can listen to an instructional CD.
• If you want to write a book, you can write a few paragraphs a day.
Getting up early and working for thirty minutes or an hour while the rest of the world sleeps is one of the most efficient and simplest ways to make great strides toward your goals. This effective habit is what spurred my public commitment to develop self-discipline.
Sure, when the alarm clock goes off early in the morning, another hour of sleep sounds so much better than tackling a project. But I guarantee that if you faithfully get up and put in that hour or more of work, it can pay off big-time.
This is how I wrote my first book. With three young children, I knew that I didn’t have much extra time in the middle of the day for writing. So I started going to bed between 8 and 9 p.m. and getting up at 4 a.m. almost every weekday for an extra hour of uninterrupted time to write in the morning.
I don’t know how I did it some days, dragging every ounce of my tired body out of my warm and cozy bed. But when the book was finished, I knew it was worth it to rearrange my schedule and get up earlier. There were plenty of days when I really, really wanted to go back to sleep and had a long list of excuses why it was okay for me to sleep in. But I made myself get up.
Getting up early is not rocket science. You just have to do it. If this is an area you’d like to work on, here are some helpful suggestions that have worked for me:
• Go to bed an hour or two earlier than you usually do.
• Start winding down at least an hour before you plan to go to bed.
• Buy an alarm without a snooze button.
• Set multiple alarms in your room.
• Have a friend give you a wake-up call.
• Make yourself do it. When your alarm sounds in the morning, get up right then, and jump in the shower to wake yourself up. Or put on your shoes and go for a morning run (a great way to squeeze in some exercise). Even if you’re dog-tired, you’ll probably feel wide-awake by the time you get home. One friend of mine sticks her face in front of the freezer for a few seconds to help wake up. The cold blast of air really helps her eyes to stay open!
While you can accomplish more than you think in just fifteen minutes a day, it’s still not a lot of time. Devote all your attention to your goal during that short time frame. You can’t afford to lose even one minute.
Depending on what your task is, I recommend setting up an area in your home with whatever supplies or materials you need during this time (laptop, notebook, writing materials, research, etc.). You want to be ready to dive in to your task without wasting any time.
Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.
—ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL
Remove all distractions, and don’t let anything deter you from your purpose during those fifteen minutes. Turn off your phone, TV, and laptop (if you’re not using it). Make sure no one is around. Settle into a quiet space, and get done what you need to get done.
If you have a husband or children, you may have to do this in the morning when everyone is sleeping or when your kids are in school or during their naps. You may feel it’s better for you to spend this time at night, when everyone is in bed. Do what works for you.
Stick with your fifteen-minute-per-day commitment and I promise, slowly but surely, you’ll start to see results. I have a feeling you’ll be amazed at how much you can accomplish when you work with such focused intensity. Not only does such a short window of time discourage you from wasting that time or procrastinating, but you also won’t struggle with running out of steam because your time will be up before you know it!
AIM HIGH
I’ve talked a lot about setting realistic, attainable goals, especially if you are new to goal setting. I also want to encourage you to reach for the stars. Don’t be afraid of setting goals that may seem out of reach. I’m not talking about goals that are not in line with your priorities, natural abilities, or God-given talents. I’m talking about goals that will take a lot of hard work, sacrifice, and big prayers.
I’m reminded of my friend Ashley, a mom of seven children. She set a goal that seemed almost impossible, but it gave her the motivation to put forth super effort to make it happen. She needed to feel like she was shooting for the stars. And dreaming big led her to achieving big dreams.
In January 2012, I decided that I was finally going to create a successful business by the end of the year. I had tried and failed so many times before, but I was determined this year to keep throwing spaghetti against the wall until something finally stuck.
I set an income goal to match my husband’s, not because I felt like it was a reachable goal, but because I wanted to aim high. Earning enough to get my nails done and buying a few new shirts each month didn’t excite and invigorate me. I wanted a goal that seemed impossible so that when I did hit it, I’d feel like Superwoman.
I stumbled across a short motivational speech on YouTube by Art Williams entitled “Just Do It.” Watching this talk became part of my morning ritual that revved me up and honed in my focus to accomplish all the tasks that I didn’t necessarily love completing, but that were contributing to the bottom line of my business.
I worked most days on my business and focused primarily on tasks that would bring me closer to my goal. If a particular income stream wasn’t paying off, I cut it. If I had a new idea, I jumped in and tried it. The method for meeting my goal was not important to me; the actual achievement of the goal was my top priority.
I’m happy to report that I did meet the goal that I set in October 2012. Even more exciting than meeting the goal, I doubled my income in November and then tripled it in December!
After blowing my original goal out of the water, I asked myself, what was different this time? Why did I finally succeed? I realized that every year prior, my goal was attainable. I was setting small, uninspiring goals that didn’t require massive action. For me personally, if it doesn’t required massive action, I generally decide that it’s not worth doing.
If I’m presented with going for the impossible or going for average, I’ll strive for the impossible every time. If you are motivated to succeed when someone tells you that you can’t, give it a shot. Set a goal that would completely change your life forever, and then work every day to make it happen.
IT TAKES DISCIPLINE
Setting small goals and having a positive attitude will help propel you toward goal-setting success. However, if you do those things, but you don’t have the discipline to follow through with your goals, you won’t get very far.
You are only guaranteed success if you have the discipline, perseverance, and commitment to follow through with your goals. More on that in the next chapter!
GET PRACTICAL
1. What are your current goals? Brainstorm and come up with a list of one to three goals you want to focus on right now.
2. If you’ve chosen larger goals, be sure to break these down into bite-size pieces, and create a plan of action for the next six months. It’s much easier to follow through with goals when you’ve broken them down into small, doable pieces.
3. Once you’ve determined your goals, write them down, and stick them in a very conspicuous location (like in the fridge, on your bathroom mirror, or as the home screen on your phone).
4. Set up a weekly appointment with yourself to review and reevaluate your goals and how things are going. If possible, also find someone to regularly keep you accountable to stick with your goals.