Today I am happy to present guest blogger Eric S. Burdon. We first met on twitter, which he frequents, but have since started to email back and forth daily with blogging tips, feedback, and collaboration ideas.

Watch just one of his videos and you will see why we get along so well.

Without further ado here is Eric’s post on setting goals and accomplishing them.

The Basics Of Setting Goals And How To Almost Always Accomplish Them

One of the best decisions I ever made was in March 2016. I decided to start setting and talking about goals. Setting goals is no doubt one of the biggest things I talk about and go back to from time to time. One of the main reasons is because it is so important.

I’d even go as far as saying it’s revolutionary. And when you practice it, it can change your life around for the better.  A lot of people simply don’t realize it.

People Set New Years Resolutions And Call It A Day

I know it’s tradition for some people to do that. I believe it’s valuable to set goals, but I think people are missing the point in those situations.

People set their new years resolutions, commit to them for the first few months and then give up or stop working towards that goal. To me, I believe they haven’t trained themselves to think that far ahead.

To a lot of people, they think in terms of bi-weekly. Why? Because that’s usually when you get a paycheque from work.

They don’t think or set goals farther ahead outside of a new years resolution.

But I know those who are reading this far want to improve themselves. You think you’re ahead of that particular crowd and want to set some great goals and achieve them. Today I want to share my strategy of how I do just that.

The Art Of Goal Setting And Achieving Them

Tip 1: Make it SMART and Have A Why

I’m sure a lot of you remember from school SMART goals. This concept was drilled into my skull so much that it became a headache so I’ll spare you the details. But for those who aren’t familiar with it SMART goals are Simple, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.

However I would go one step farther and have something called “A Why.” In the book Smarter, Faster, Better, by Charles Duhigg, he provided a scenario where finding a why can help you in having more motivation.

In essence having a why means answering a particular question “Why are you setting this goal?” Or “Why do you want to achieve this?” By doing that, you are prompted to tie emotion but also a personal reason.

A lot of people feel disengaged at work, but also fail at their new years resolutions or goals because they are missing this part. I know for myself when I first started setting goals I didn’t have a why. I set goals for the sake of it. Because it had magical powers.

Tip 2: Having Markers

What I mean by markers is basically doing check-ups on yourself. The thing with new years resolutions is it’s a yearly goal. Even though a year is short (compared to our average life span), it still feels long. There’s no way of knowing if you are on the right track or not until a year is over.

So by setting short-term goals (monthly, quarterly, even weekly if you want) you can check to see if you are on the right path.

Tip 3: Your Goals Are Directions Not Destinations

This tip prompts me to think of goals differently. I know for a lot of people they set goals, achieve them, and then stop and wait until they set another goal the next week or month. The issue is that it gets tougher at times depending on the goal.

When you are developing a habit, it’s a bad thing to just stop doing it because you hit your goal for that month a few weeks in.

But also people can find it discouraging when they are destination focused. You either hit the goal or you didn’t. Directional goal-setting prompts you to think differently.

For one you get into the mindset that it’s okay for you to push past that goal. Maybe the goal was too easy for you and this would be a good way to see how much you can push yourself.

But also when you ask yourself if you accomplished the goal you would have a more elaborate answer. Even when you say no on whether you succeeded or not, the big question is did you move in the direction you wanted to?

That sort of question prompts you to answer yes but also helps you to realize whether you did follow the goal. You can dig into the tiny details of it and learn something from you setting that goal.

Tip 4: Have An Accountability Partner

Some times it helps to know that you are not alone in this. Even though there are a lot of people setting goals, having someone checking up on you is good. Having someone genuinely care about your goals and seeing you achieve them is a motivating thing.

Furthermore it can be great incentive for that accountability partner to start setting goals and working to achieve them as well if they haven’t done that.

Tip 5: Have Money Or Something On The Line Involved

Money is a great incentive, in fact there’s a few sites built around weight loss that do offer money when you hit your weight goal. You can do the same thing but with family and/or good friends. Pay them $10 with the hope they give it back to you if you complete your goal that week or month.

In a sense it’s the same thing as an accountability partner but this strategy can work for other people.

What Other Goal Setting Strategies Do You Have?

Leave a comment down below!

To your growth!

-Eric S Burdon