Frank’s Blog : How To Set Goals.

There are 5 things your goals need to really be goals instead of dreams, or wishes. We all know how most of us set goals at the beginning of the year, and studies show that by the end of February, most people let go of them and they don’t look at them again until the end of the year, only to realize they didn’t achieve a single goal that they set for themselves.

Here are 5 things your goals need for you to be able to achieve them.

  • THEY HAVE TO BE YOURS

“My wife wants me to lose weight”, this won’t work, you won’t lose weight.

Or “my parents want me to be a doctor”, I’m sorry but I don’t want to be your patient.

Goals have to be yours.

  • THEY HAVE TO BE IN WRITING 

If you don’t write them down, they are not happening. I’m sure you’ve heard a saying like this: “if it’s not written, it didn’t happen”. That’s why your goals need to be in writing. I would recommend you use a piece of paper instead of a phone or laptop, because the act of writing it down make it real in your mind and it’s much easier to remember them if you put them somewhere you see them everyday (like your bathroom mirror, on your fridge, at your work desk, …).

  • THEY HAVE TO BE SPECIFIC

E.g :” I want to lose weight” is not a specific goal.

How much weight do you want to lose, how many times?

It should be “I want to lose 24 lbs, and keep if off for 10 years” or something like that, we both know people who lose weight only to do it again every 2 or 3 years.

  • THEY HAVE TO HAVE A TIME LIMIT

E.g : I want to lose 24 lbs in a year.

This makes it easier to track your progress. Because if you want to lose 24 lbs in 12 months, that means you will lose 2 lbs every month, which means 1/2 lbs every week.

  • THEY HAVE TO BE MEASURABLE

Goals have to be measurable. Like the example i just gave above, you have to know how you are going to track your progress, to know if you’re really winning or not. Because if you want lose 24 lbs in 1 year, and after 2 weeks you have only lost 1/2 lbs, then you are not on track to lose 24 lbs.

Lastly, there are 7 categories of goals:

  1. Intellectual Goals
  2. Career Goals
  3. Physical Goals
  4. Spiritual Goals
  5. Family Goals
  6. Financial Goals
  7. Social Goals

I hope this helps.