When attempting to move your life forward, whether it be financially or otherwise, the best way to motivate yourself is to set goals. Keeping your eye on the prize will give you the motivation to succeed. Not just any type of goals will provide you with this motivation, you need SMART goals.
What are SMART Goals?
There is a statement in the business world that objectives and goals should be SMART. This means they should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.
By specific this means you need to identify the what, when, why, and how of any goal you set. Measurable, meanwhile, means that when you succeed you will know that you have. If you can’t tell if you have succeeded then you will not have that feeling of attainment once completed. Which brings us to the third aspect, attainable. If you set goals that can never be achieved then you will just demotivate yourself from all your goals. Be sure to set something reasonable. For example, don’t set your goals to depend on winning the lottery, since the reality is your chances are as high as being struck by lightening.
The last two requirements are that the goal is relevant and timely. Relevant in that the goal has to be relative to what you want to do. For example don’t set a goal of learning how to ski on your summer vacation to Cancun. Finally the last category is Timely, which means your goal is time bound. IE I would like to reach this financial goal by 2020. This time bound gives you a point to work towards.
Small Goals to Start
To these business requirements for goals I would recommend if you want to be successful you add one more aspect. That is that you set smaller goal milestones on the road to your ultimate goal. The best way to keep motivated is to set a series of SMART milestones on the way to your end goal so you get that feeling of achievement in the near term. In management at large corporations they teach this to you when forming teams. You should ensure the team completes a quick win in the first 30 days of forming to help with moral and motivation. In your every day life if your goal is to say be a millionaire by 35 and you are 22 years old, a reasonable quick win would be to set a milestone of saving $30-40K annually.
Our Blogging SMART Goals
The above very much relates to this blog. I have created this blog to step outside my comfort zone into the world of online marketing and content. Historically my experience and knowledge has laid more behind the scenes as the finance, operations, or IT component of a large company. So, if I were to set a goal here my long term goal would be to have 40,000 page views per month by 2 years from founding (September 2018). This goal is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant , and timely. However to keep myself motivated I will set milestones of 500 page views per month in 3 months, 5000 in 6 months, 10,000 in 12 months, and 20,000 in 18 months. Updates to these goals can be found throughout the site including: Adjusting goals and failing to meet goals.
What SMART goals have you set for yourself and how do you keep yourself motivated moving towards them?
Some good points to remind myself of here. What I try to do is break down larger tasks into small parts to complete them. Sometimes its hard to have the patience but it does work. Certainly much better than being overwhelmed or a job appearing too big then not doing it at all.
Agree with this post 100%. Make your long term and short term goals. Write them down. Make a plan on how you are going to achieve those goals and TAKE ACTION! Do something every day to chip away at your goals! You will be amazed at the results you will achieve!