Master Your Dreams: The 7 Steps of Goal Setting for Success

Imagine standing at the edge of a vast, uncharted path, ready to embark on a long journey. The road ahead is filled with unknowns, challenges, and opportunities, each step bringing you closer to your destination. Just as a traveler needs a map to navigate through unfamiliar terrain, setting clear goals is essential for guiding your journey. Goals provide direction, motivation, and a sense of purpose, helping you stay focused and resilient even when the path becomes difficult. To ensure your journey is successful, you can follow these 7 steps of goal setting:

1. Identify what truly matters and the results you want to see
2. Define specific, measurable goals
3. Write your goals down
4. Break goals into manageable tasks with the 1 3 5 framework of goal setting
5. Prioritize and schedule your tasks
6. Stay motivated
7. Reassess and adjust your goals

Step 1: Identify What Truly Matters and the Results You Want to See

The first step in the 7 steps of goal setting is to identify what truly matters to you. By identifying what truly matters, you ensure that your efforts and time are directed towards something meaningful and impactful.

Ask yourself the following questions

• Why is this goal important to me?
• How does this goal align with my core values and beliefs?
• What impact will achieving this goal have on my life and the lives of others?
• What sacrifices or changes am I willing to make to reach this goal?
• Are there any potential conflicts with this goal and other important aspects of my life?

To delve further into the alignment of your goals with what truly matters and the results you want to see, you can reflect on various aspects of your life—career, personal development, relationships, health. This introspective look ensures that the goals you set resonate deeply with your core values and passions.

To do this you can the following three things:

1. Reflect on Your Values. Consider what principles and beliefs are most important to you. Your goals should align with these core values to ensure they are meaningful and fulfilling. For example:
1. List your core values (e.g., integrity, security, adventure). Here a list of the common values
2. Ensure your goals align with these values.

2. Conduct a Personal Audit. This is a critical first step in goal setting because it provides clarity on where you are in life, which areas need improvement, and where to focus your energy. Here's how to conduct a comprehensive personal audit:
1. Write down all areas of your life, such as health, finance, career, relationships, etc.
2. Rank them based on their importance and the attention they currently receive.
3. List your current commitments and evaluate their significance. Are these obligations serving your broader life goals, or are they merely tasks you’ve adopted out of habit?

Fill out this goal setting activity template to conduct a personal audit. If you already know area of your life you want to set goals, then see our templates for setting goals in different areas your life

3. Interview Your Future Self. Imagine your life one year or five years from now. What accomplishments do you want to look back on? Write a letter from your future self to your present self, describing what's important.

Step 2: Define Specific, Measurable Goals

Once you've identified areas of focus, it's time to define specific, measurable goals. This second step of the 7 steps of goal setting is crucial because vague goals produce vague results.

The SMART criteria ensures each goal is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. 

This proven strategy brings clarity and attainable targets within your grasp.

Here are some actionable strategies you can take today:

1. Set SMART goals: Ensure each goal is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound with our in-depth article on how to set SMART goals.
2. Use a ready-made template: Our PDF Fillable Template for smart goal setting to ensure your goals are SMART.
3. Outcome Visualization: Picture what achieving this goal looks like and what metrics would confirm its completion.
4. Goal Anchoring: Attach each goal to a personal value or aspiration to strengthen commitment. (see how this could link to the values exercise)

Step 3: Write Down Your Goals

You've probably heard the tale of the Harvard (or Yale) study where only 3% of graduates had written goals, and 20 years later, they were earning ten times more than their peers. Spoiler alert: it's an urban myth! But don't worry, because real research by Gail Matthews at Dominican University has uncovered the true power of goal setting. So, let's debunk myths and embrace science!

Writing down your goals significantly increases the likelihood of achieving them due to several psychological and neurological factors:

• Increased Motivation: Writing your goals down makes them tangible and real, boosting your motivation to take action. It transforms abstract ideas into concrete plans, making it easier to commit to them
• Improved Focus: When you write down your goals, you clarify what you need to focus on. This helps direct your time, energy, and resources towards achieving those goals, reducing distractions
• Enhanced Memory: The act of writing engages your brain in a way that improves memory retention. This process, known as encoding, helps store the information in your long-term memory, making it easier to recall and stay on track
• Accountability: Having your goals written down creates a sense of accountability. You can review them regularly, track your progress, and make adjustments as needed
• Visualization: Writing down your goals allows you to visualize them more vividly. This vivid visualization is strongly associated with higher success rates in achieving goals

What actionable strategies can you do today

1. Create a Vision Board: Collect images and words that represent your goals and place them where you see them daily. If your goal is to save money, you might include pictures of what saving could help you achieve—a vacation destination or a new home—on your vision board.
2. Goal Journal: Maintain a dedicated notebook where you not only write down your goals but also document progress and thoughts.
3. Daily Affirmations: Write your goals as daily affirmations in the present tense, e.g., “I am regularly jogging 5 kilometers.” This reinforces belief in your success.
4. Digital Tools: Use apps like Evernote or Notion to maintain your goal journal, making entries accessible and organized. For example, my colleague created a digital vision board using Pinterest, pinning images that reflect her aspirations, such as peaceful nature scenes for a fitness goal and bustling cities for a career-related one.

Step 4: Break Goals into Manageable Tasks

The fourth step of the 7 steps of goal setting involves breaking your goals into smaller, manageable tasks. This is where many people often get stuck. Remember, a goal that's difficult to learn is difficult to achieve. Break it down—what actions can you take daily or weekly? This granular approach not only makes goals less overwhelming but also easier to use and achieve over time.

Personally, I really like the 1 3 5 goal setting framework which is a structured approach to achieving your objectives by breaking them down into manageable parts. Here's how it works:

• One Goal: Start by identifying one main goal. This goal should be your primary focus and the central objective you want to achieve. It acts as your North Star, guiding all your efforts.
• Three Priorities: Next, determine three key priorities that support your main goal. These priorities are the major areas or tasks that need to be addressed to move closer to your goal. They help you focus on the most critical aspects of your plan.
• Five Strategies: For each priority, identify five actionable strategies. These strategies are specific steps or actions you need to take to accomplish each priority. They break down the larger tasks into smaller, more manageable actions, making it easier to track progress and stay on course

Actionable strategies you can take today include:

1. Downloading the 1 3 5 goal setting framework template: This template creates a clear, organized plan that helps you stay focused, prioritize effectively, and take consistent action towards achieving your goals.
2. Reverse Engineering: Start with the end goal and work backward, determining what needs to happen at each step.
3. Daily Task Lists: Identify small, actionable things you can achieve today or this week that contribute to your larger goal. Put these actions as specific items in your calendar so that you protect the time to do it.
4. Sub-goal Structuring: For each goal, list sub-goals that can be achieved within a week or a month. This prevents overwhelm by focusing on immediate actions. For “complete a project management certification,” sub-goals could include researching courses, enrolling in a class, setting weekly study targets, and scheduling practice exams.

Step 5: Prioritize and Schedule Your Tasks

The fifth step of the 7 steps of goal setting is about prioritizing and scheduling your tasks. As a busy person, your time is precious. Allocate specific time slots—just like you do for meetings—to work on each task. This creates a non-negotiable time for your goals, integrating them naturally into your work-life balance.

What Actionable Strategies Can You Take Today:

1. Time Blocking: Allocate specific slots in your calendar dedicated to goal-related activities, treating them like meetings you can't miss. This guarded time boosts productivity, ensuring that external demands don’t encroach on your goal-oriented tasks. For example, if learning a language is a goal, block out 30 minutes daily from 7:00 to 7:30 PM for language practice, prioritizing it over non-essential activities.
2. Eisenhower Matrix: Divide tasks into four categories: urgent and important, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, not urgent and not important. Focus on important but not urgent tasks, which often get overlooked but are critical to long-term success. Read more about the Eisenhower Matrix.
3. Weekly Planning Sessions: Spend 30 minutes each Friday morning (I like Friday morning but some people prefer Sunday night) for upcoming tasks, setting priorities, and scheduling time blocks in the upcoming week.
4. Use a digital calendar (like Google Calendar or Outlook) to color-code tasks based on life areas or importance. For language learning, schedule bright blue slots thrice a week.

Step 6: Stay Motivated

Motivation isn’t something we can bank on solely. It fluctuates. Hence, find ways to keep it alive, whether that’s periodically reviewing your progress or rewarding yourself for small victories.

What actions can you take to stay motivated:

1. Find an Accountability Partner: Share your progress with a friend or mentor who can provide encouragement and constructive feedback. I find that this can make a substantial difference, especially when my self-motivation wanes.
2. Celebrate Small Wins: Reward yourself for achieving milestone tasks to maintain enthusiasm over the long haul. For example, after a HIIT class I used to treat myself to a takeout coffee at the cafe.
3. Visualization Techniques: Regularly visualize yourself achieving your goals, feeling the emotions of accomplishment. This deep mental practice can reinforce your drive. For example, Oprah Winfrey used a vision board to manifest her role in the movie The Color Purple. She visualized herself in the role and eventually landed it, which became a significant milestone in her career.
4. Motivation Boards: Create a dedicated physical or virtual space filled with inspirational quotes, progress trackers, and reminders of why your goals matter. Personally, I love motivational goal setting quotes to sustain and motivate me towards my goals.

Step 7: Reassess and Adjust Your Goals

The last of the 7 steps of goal setting highlights how life can be unpredictable, and sometimes, our aspirations need to evolve. Be flexible as few people ever succeed with a rigid approach. Flexibility ensures your goals serve your growth, not thwart it.

Actionable strategies you can take today:

1. Quarterly Reviews: Set aside time every three months to review your goals, assess progress, and determine if your objectives need adjusting.
2. Flexible Re-framing: If a goal becomes obsolete or too easy, don’t hesitate to change it to better suit your current life situation. For example, if you've already reached saving $5,000 for a house down payment faster than expected, increase the target to $10,000 or adjust to aim for a different financial goal.
3. Feedback Loops: Regularly seek feedback from peers or mentors to gain new perspectives and identify blind spots in your goal-setting process.
4. Goal Scaling: As you achieve milestones, consider how you might scale the complexity or impact of your goals, adapting them to continue challenging and inspiring you. For example, review your savings plan every quarter. If you've exceeded expectations, consider increasing your monthly savings target or setting milestones for investing.

Conclusion to the 7 Steps of Goal Setting

Incorporating these 7 steps of goal setting into your life can transform goal-setting from a daunting task into a deliberate and flexible strategy for success. By focusing on these comprehensive actions, you cultivate the discipline and resilience needed to not only set ambitious goals but also to see them through to completion, achieving a harmonious work life balance and reducing stress along the way.