Achieve Your Goals

Before entering college, I received an encouraging letter from a mentor figure in my life. The letter contained a simple, three bullet-point To-Do list for the next four years: 1. Pursue God, 2. Be faithful to your studies, 3. Invest in friends and fun. When assignments and commitments made it difficult to maintain a healthy life-balance at school, I would often refer to this list to help me reassess my priorities.

Over the years, I’ve learned the importance of committing my goals and convictions to paper to help me find direction and stay on course. Especially now, as the somewhat daunting task of developing and instituting the “after graduation plan” looms nearer on the horizon, I’ve realized how important it is to determine what is meaningful to me and how I will go about achieving it.

Setting goals and staying motivated is easier said than done—I can personally attest! Yet, as I’ve strived to become a better goal-setter and goal-achiever, I’ve discovered a few simple, yet powerful, tools to help keep perspective, set meaningful goals, and follow through on them. I thought I would share some of the research and advice I’ve learned from people and sources much wiser than I.

Why set goals?

Life and business strategist, Tony Robbins, says, “Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” Goals keep us centered and focused. PositivePsychology.com says that goals help us evaluate what is meaningful and manage and measure our success. In essence, goals prevent us from wandering blindly through life. You can’t hit a bull’s eye if you don’t have a target to aim at. 

Four Powerful Goal-setting Tips

1. Write down your goals by hand

Studies show that people who vividly describe or picture their goals are more likely to successfully accomplish them than people who don’t. Writing down your goals not only provides you with a helpful, visual reminder of what you need to accomplish, but it also boosts your brain’s encoding process. In other words, all the complex sensory processes involved in writing your goals by hand increases the chances of that information being stored in your brain’s long-term memory. Thus, making you more likely to accomplish your goal.

Mindtools.com offers a helpful acronym to make sure you are writing down SMART goals ~

Specific – write clear, focused, and defined goals

Measurable – use numbers, times, and dates

Attainable – set challenging yet realistic goals

Relevant – set goals that align with the direction you want your life to go

Time Bound – use deadlines!

Mindtools.com further suggests that you should write down why your goal is valuable and important to you. If you had to convince others of why your goal is worthwhile, what would you say? This value statement is helpful to keep on hand. If you begin feeling unmotivated, you can look back and remember why you began in the first place. This practice has greatly encouraged me to stay motivated while pursuing my goals.

2. Don’t Go It Alone

According to studies from the Journal of Applied Psychology, “people showed greater goal commitment and performance when they told their goal to someone they believed had higher status than themselves.” Whether you choose to share your goals with a family member, friend, or mentor, this practice can help keep you motivated and accountable. When you share your goal with someone you respect, you are more likely to persist in your goal so as to not disappoint that person. Additionally, consulting with a friend can help you gain clarity about your goal and determine how to break it down into smaller, manageable pieces.

3. Keep perspective ~ Don’t neglect the journey while pursuing the destination

Goals are essential to give our lives direction, but the journey to those goals is just as meaningful as the goals themselves. In her blog post, “A case for failed commitments,” Joanna Gaines speaks to the importance of the journey. She thoughtfully suggests that “maybe the true purpose of being devoted to something isn’t found in how it ends, but in the way it takes shape—or even ends up shaping us—along the way.”

I absolutely love this. Even if the journey to your goal doesn’t go quite as planned (as often happens in life), don’t become discouraged. Gaines writes that we can still find unexpected opportunities to achieve what our heart was after in the first place.

While we fix our eyes firmly on the Promised Land, may we not neglect to note and savor the joys, mercies, unexpected beauty, and hard-learned lessons in the walk through the wilderness.

4. Most importantly, partner with God

I’ve learned from experience that plans without prayers only result in problems. The Bible says in Proverbs 16:3, “Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed.” Before you begin to write down your goals, it is even more important to lay them down before the Lord. Partner with God in prayer and hold up your goals to Him to examine in His wisdom. Trust that if He has called you to a task, He will help you accomplish it. Billy Graham once said, “The will of God will not take us where the grace of God cannot sustain us.”

I regularly have to remind myself that when I partner with the Lord, I can accomplish amazing things. Our talents and efforts, when placed in the hands of God, transcend the realm and rules of the natural and become supernatural mechanisms for His Kingdom work.

Final Thoughts

I’m far from having it all together. However, these four tips have greatly encouraged me as I’ve strived to tackle my goals, and I hope they are an encouragement to you as well. Whatever your dreams, keep moving forward in faith and don’t turn back. You can do all things through Him who gives you strength (Philippians 4:13).

I would love to hear from you! If you have any thoughts or additional goal-setting strategies to share, feel free to post in the comments below.