How to set and achieve goals for 2018

Why we should set goals:

Goals give vision to our life and point us in the direction we need to be heading. They help keep us focused on what we should be doing so we don’t drift around aimlessly wasting time and achieving nothing. Without vision we become directionless, like a ship on the ocean with no destination. As soon as the ship knows where it’s going it can set a course on how to get there.

If you don’t have goals you don’t have vision. If you don’t have vision you won’t have direction. If you don’t have direction you won’t have a plan. If you don’t have a plan you won’t have focus. If you don’t have focus you won’t have discipline. If you don’t have discipline you won’t be consistent. And if you’re not consistent you won’t have success.

Success comes from consistently being disciplined to stay focused on a plan that keeps you  moving in the direction of your goal until you achieve it.

Most New Year’s resolutions are merely wishful desires that lack a thought out plan of achievable steps to success. They are things we hope we can have or be in the new year, but without any true intent or plan to achieve them. That’s why most New Year’s resolutions go nowhere. But New Year’s resolutions are not bad. They show us that there are things in our life that we want to improve or achieve, which is a good thing. We should take these desires more seriously. Why not just take a little time to turn these desires into realistic goals by developing a pathway of achievable steps to reach them? If this is something you would like to do, then here are a few tips for how to set and achieve your goals.

How to set goals for the year:

1) Set measurable goals. If your goals are vague and you’re not able to measure them you’ll lose focus quickly and abandon them. You’ll also never have the satisfaction of knowing if you have actually achieved your goal or not. For example if your goal is simply to be a good person, how do you know if you have ever achieved that? How do you measure if you’re good? Being a good person is a great goal but you need to have some kind of measurable steps along the way. In other words ask yourself, “What does being a good person look like? What good things do I want to do this year?” Perhaps you might want to volunteer at a charity, or buy gifts for certain people this year with a caring letter attached. Perhaps you might spend one quality hour with each of your children per week (or spouse or other people) finding out about them and encouraging them. Think of some good things you want to do and set some of these things as goals you can achieve and thereby measure throughout the year. Whatever your goal is, make sure it includes things you can do and achieve. If not, it will be hard to track your goal and stay focused on it.

2) Set realistic goals. If a goal is not realistically achievable for you, it won’t be long before it becomes too overwhelming and you just give up. For example if you weigh 200kgs don’t set yourself a goal to be 70kgs by the end of the year. That’s pretty much impossible and you’ll get discouraged quickly. Rather set a realistic goal to be 170kgs by the end of the year. That is still challenging yet realistic. Then the year after that set a goal to reach 140kgs. Whatever your goal is, make sure it’s challenging but also realistic. This will help you to stay motivated and positive about achieving your goal.

3) Write your goals down. I suggest to write out your goals, print them and then display them in a prominent area where you can be reminded of them regularly and continue to plot your success. Writing them down and displaying them will help you take them more seriously as well. Be prepared to spend a bit of time doing this because it is important and worthwhile. If you’re trying to travel to some difficult destination, it’s always better to have a map in front of you to guide you or it’s easy to get lost. Display your goals on your wardrobe door or you bedroom wall, the back of the washroom door, on your fridge, your desk, anywhere that’s prominent for you.

4) Plan a pathway of success for each goal. Running a 42KM marathon can be a very overwhelming thought to anyone who has never run before. In fact it would seem impossible. But it’s not. Many people all over the world do it. The way they do it is by having a realistic training plan with smaller achievable goals along the way. If you’ve never run before but started a good marathon training plan in January, by December you would easily be able to run a 42KM marathon. Your goal for January may be to run a combined 20KM for the month. That’s one or two short runs per week. That doesn’t seem too impossible. If you can achieve that goal for January, then you are on your way to running a marathon in December. Your goal for February might be 30KM for the month. March may increase be 40KM. If you increase your training goal by 10KM per month each month your fitness and strength would grow rapidly throughout the year and be well preparing you for December. In November you may decide to run a few longer distances and increase your mileage a little to get you that extra bit ready for the marathon. If you can stick to your plan by achieving all of these smaller goals throughout the year, come December you will run the marathon no worries! You may not get a fast time but you will have completed your first marathon. The following year you may set a goal to run it 30 minutes faster which you would then adjust your training plan a little to reflect that goal. My point is, if you include this kind of plan for all your goals, they won’t seem as overwhelming and impossible. In fact, you’d be surprised at how much encouragement to keep going you gain simply from completing each smaller stage. The idea is to set smaller goals along the way to achieving your main goal, and to have a timeframe for when each smaller goal needs to be achieved. These are steps or stages along your pathway to success. Write these steps out when you write out your goals. Another example if you like is if you want to climb Mount Everest. There are stages along the way that you have to complete in order to have a successful climb. You don’t just set out one day and hope you’re lucky enough to reach the summit. There is a pathway you have to take with progressive altitude stage camps along the way that you have to reached within specific timeframes. Mt Everest is far too overwhelming to climb in just one go. You have to break it down into smaller achievable stages in order to achieve such an incredible goal. In the same way if you breakdown your main goal into smaller achievable stages, each within a timeframe, your goal will seem less overwhelming and become much more achievable.

5) Set a start date. I suggest that once you’ve decided on a goal it’s best to start immediately. The longer you wait the more chance you have to get distracted or procrastinate and then relegate your goal to just another one of those “silly New Year’s resolutions I never do anyway!” If you can’t start immediately due to the nature of the goal then at least set a start date. Write it down, print it and display it. Even tell other people so they can hold you accountable to it.

6) Do the most important things first. There’s often so many things we need to juggle in life, and all of them seem to demand our attention. Yet not all of them are as important as each other. Some of them are just superfluous things that wouldn’t really matter that much if we just didn’t get to them. We should order our priorities and do the most important things first rather than second. This is something I continually deal with because I get so easily distracted and I’m always trying to do multiple things at once. I’m learning the art of doing the most important things first and the lesser things second. If your goal is to write a book in a year then you will have to have some times set aside for writing. During those times, the most important thing to do is write, so don’t do other things. They can wait for another time. If your goal is to travel overseas at the end of the year and you have a savings goal, then lesser important things that demand your money need to be denied. Perhaps that year you don’t upgrade your wardrobe, phone, computer, TV, car, fridge, washing machine and all the other new things we just “have” to have. If you put the lesser important things first, you won’t ever get to the most important thing. Do it first and let the other things come second as much as that is realistically possible and appropriate for you.

7) Develop a routine. Don’t leave your goal up to doing it when you get the chance or when you feel like it. Rather set aside a time and day each week or month that you will give specifically towards that goal. Get into a habit of doing that quickly so that it becomes a routine. This is probably one of the more determining factors of whether or not we achieve our goals, that doesn’t get capitalized on because of a lack of intentionality and discipline to develop a routine. Personally, I’m not a routine person, but I’ve had to force myself to become one in various areas in order to reach certain goals. I could be helpful to include your routine when you write out your goals.

8) Follow through. Ah the great nemesis! If only we could achieve our goals without having to work hard, be disciplined, stay focused, overcome setbacks, find motivation and follow through. Unfortunately we have to do all these things if we want to achieve our goals. The good thing is, that if we’ve done the previous steps I’ve talked about then doing the “follow through” is easier. If you’re like me and get bored quickly and are easily distracted you may have to adopt a guiding principle that says, “Finish a goal before you start a new one.” If not we’ll end up with a lifetime accumulation of half achieved goals. How depressing! Instead lets:

• Set measurable goals.
• Set realistic goals.
• Write our goals down.
• Plan a pathway of success for each goal.
• Set a start date.
• Do the most important things first.
• Develop a routine, and
• Follow through.

What kind of goals to set?

Here’s a thought guide to help spark ideas as you think about the kinds of goals you want to set for 2018:

1. Physical: diet, weight, strength, fitness, sport, health, appearance, style.
2. Spiritual: prayer life, worship life, study life, ministry/serving life, church life.
3. Material: financial, career, ventures, possessions, travel, helping others.
4. Relational: family, friends, social.
5. Emotional: hobbies, sports, rest, fun, play, counselling, education.

Well I do hope this blog has helped you and you enjoy setting goals for 2018. I pray you have much success in achieving them.

God bless,

Ryan Rufus.

If you’re interested to know my major goals for 2018, here they are:

Goal 1: Run 10KM in 35 minutes.

Goal 2: Build our first home.

Goal 3: Finish and publish my book “I Believe in Eternal Security”.

Goal 4: Minister in Germany, USA, Philippines, Malaysia and Australia.

Goal 5: Get involved with helping children who are victims of abuse.

Goal 6: Make 10 Ryan and Kylie Vlog videos.