Smart Moves

12Motivation

HOW TO SET GOALS THAT YOU'LL ACTUALLY STICK TO

Setting goals gives your life direction, aligns your focus and helps you develop new behaviours and habits to become the best version of you. But do you ever wonder why we get so excited to set goals on New Year's Eve every year, then by the end of January, most people have given up on them already? That's because there's an art to setting goals that you’ll actually stick to. Let's break it down.

SPLIT YOUR GOALS INTO CATEGORIES

If you have no idea where to start when setting goals, split them into categories across the various aspects of your life. Grab a sheet of paper and divide the page into four sections. Label the sections:

• Money: goals relating to saving, investing, budgeting, paying off debt etc.
• Career: goals relating to your job, getting a promotion, starting a business etc.
• Wellbeing: goals relating to your physical and mental health, productivity, spirituality, self-motivation etc.
• Love: goals relating to your relationships, friendships, self-love etc.

Under each section, write down two to three goals that you want to achieve.

WRITE YOUR GOALS IN THE PRESENT TENSE

We talked about the SMART framework in chapter 1, and we can use this technique to create goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based. Let's say you want to save money to go on a holiday next year. As a SMART ...