Crush Your Goals

10 strategies to help you crush your goals & live your best life.

Everyone has goals and everyone has time and energy to reach their goals if they put their mind to it. However, along the way we can get stuck or lose motivation–that’s where these tips come into play. When we hit a roadblock to success, we need a strategy to overcome it and move forward. Use one or a combination of the suggestions below to help you move forward and crush your goals!!

Tip One: Find a Partner

There’s nothing quite like outside accountability to help you stay on track. Find a like-minded friend who either has the same goal as you, or who is willing to coach you along the way toward reaching your goal. When you are beholden to someone besides yourself, it becomes more difficult to slack on your goals.

Tip Two: Schedule It

If you really want to make progress toward your goals, you need to block out time to do so. Whether it’s going to the gym, working on a passion project, or monthly date nights with your significant other, they all require a set amount of time to occur. So, look at your schedule, see when you can fit it in and then write/type it in your calendar. Bonus if it’s in a shared family calendar because that will also create the outside accountability from your family and communicate to them that you will be using that time to reach your goals.

Tip Three: Use Time Wisely

Think of the time of day you are most productive–that’s when you should take steps to achieve your goals. If you are an early riser, get that morning run in first thing. If you are a night owl, take that late night time to organize your pantry, read that stack of books you’ve been meaning to get to or plan your meals for the week. Whatever it is you want to do, it’s important to do it during the time of the day where you are energized, focused and uninterrupted.

Tip Four: Monitor Your Progress

When you are keeping track of your progress, you are more likely to continue on that path because you’re seeing the outcome of your actions. It’s also important to monitor your progress to see what you need to do next. Maybe you need to step it up a bit or step back and reassess. Keeping track along the way helps you feel like you are gaining on that finish line.

Tip Five: Reward Yourself

Signed up for the yoga class you’ve been wanting to take? Finally curated your family photos into a beautiful album? Made all your meals at home this week? Then it’s time to treat yourself!! Make the reward something that feels indulgent but doesn’t derail your progress. If you are making progress on your goal of budgeting better, going out and blowing a wad of cash on a new pair of shoes is not the way to reward yourself. A nice glass of wine and your favorite show could be your reward instead. If you’ve done well cutting out excess screen time, the reward for that should not be a Netflix marathon. Try a luxurious bubble bath or dinner at your favorite restaurant.

Tip Six: Embrace Setbacks

Setbacks are inevitable. This is especially true if you are trying to achieve something over time or radically change your behavior. Setbacks are frustrating but they can serve a purpose. When you encounter a setback take the time to figure out why it happened and if there is anything you can do to prevent it from happening again in the future. Setbacks can be a valuable learning tool to help you reassess how you are going about reaching your goals. Don’t let a setback become a permanent halt in the achievement of your goals. We are striving for progress, not perfection.

Tip Seven: Break Goals Down

Your goal is to write a novel. That’s great…but where to start? A big goal like that is made up of a lot of little goals. Map out all the small the steps it will take to get to the big goal, and it will seem more manageable and attainable. You can schedule your small steps, track your progress, reward small wins along the way and have a clear picture of what you need to do to reach your ultimate goal.

Tip Eight: Be Realistic

I’m an optimist, so I believe you can do anything you believe you can do. However, you have to be realistic when it comes to setting your goals and the timeframe in which you hope to achieve them. Be honest with yourself about what you can manage. It’s better to set a small goal, reach it, then go for the bigger and better goal than it is to set your sights too high, fail and give up.

If you’ve never hiked a day in your life and decide you want to hike to the top of Mt. Everest next month, I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen. But, if that is something you really want to do, do some research, put a plan together and work with a realistic time frame to accomplish it. Work with your strengths, know yourself and set yourself up for success.

Tip Nine: Make it Fun

Goals do not have to be all work and no play. Who wants to stick to activities that are boring, exhausting or that you spend the day dreading having to do? If your goal is to get fit but you hate walking on the treadmill or doing burpees in the gym but you love being outside in nature, taking hikes, biking or kayaking would be a way to get in shape that you’d actually enjoy. If you’d like to cook more meals at home but don’t love to cook, listen to your favorite podcast or music, have a glass of wine or call a friend while you’re making dinner. It can be anything that gives you a little boost and keeps you on track with your goals.

Tip Ten: Stay Positive

Nothing will stop you from reaching your goals faster than a negative attitude. If you think you can’t do it, you can’t. Let’s be clear here, staying positive is NOT deluding yourself. If your goals are realistic and you’ve created a reasonable and manageable plan to reach them, you absolutely can. Staying positive simply means that you have faith that you can get to where you want to be. You may hit roadblocks along the way, you may need to reassess your plan or timeframe, but in the end, you KNOW you can do it. If you don’t believe in yourself, who will?

I hope these tips help you to crush your goals! To give you an additional tool in pursuit of your goals, click here to get my goal setting worksheet.