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Introduction
We all have goals in life, don’t we? Maybe it’s personal, financial, or professional goals. Sometimes they are modest, other times, on the contrary, they seem completely unrealistic at first glance. Achieving goals is often more difficult than it first seems. In this blog post, I would like to give you some tips on how to plan and achieve your goals more effectively.
Step 1: Define goals
At the beginning there is the question: “What is my goal?”. Anyone who thinks that this is clear to everyone is mistaken. Many people do not know for a long time what they really want to smell and, above all, how. If you feel the same way, you can relax, you are not alone. Especially with the amount of input we receive today through social media, it can be a bit undecided. There are so many ways to take so many different paths. So before you can start with the actual planning, you first have to be clear about what exactly you want to achieve.
Above all, I ask myself the following questions each time: Is this goal specific? Is it measurable and achievable in a certain period of time? How can I achieve it and what do I need for it? And above all, is it relevant, i.e. does it take me further, in the direction in which I want to develop? Does it enrich my life and, at best, that of other people if I achieve it? So basically, does it make sense? It’s important, I think, to be able to clearly define goals. This creates a framework that helps to concentrate on the right activities.
For example, if you reduce your goal to “being self-employed”, it can be difficult to stay motivated and, above all, to keep track of the necessary steps. Of course, this does not mean in any way that you will be successful or more satisfied. Instead, define a specific goal, e.g. “I would like to set up a side job in the next six months in which I carry out activity X, which until day X earns at least monthly amount X, so that I can quit my previous 9-5 job at the latest”. Having a specific goal will give you a clear idea of what you want to achieve and help you stay on track.
Step 2: Plan steps
“After you have set your goals, it is necessary to develop a plan to achieve them. Keeping an eye on a single big goal without giving up burned out, disappointed and overwhelmed along the way is actually almost impossible without a suitable strategy. Each goal is basically a project that can be treated in the same way as an architect or site manager plans and executes a large construction project. A high-rise building is also not built overnight, in a huge step. No, there are thousands of small steps and work that have to be done. Whenever I have a goal that seems overwhelmingly big and almost unattainable to me, I keep telling myself.
“It’s just a thousand small, simple baby steps. I can take any of these steps, but I can learn what it takes. All I need is my absolute will and I have it.”
You then divide your goal into smaller steps, your intermediate goals. You then further divide these intermediate goals into small, easy-to-manage steps. Feel free to check out my article about the Scrum method and my sprint planning for it. This is a very good method to work through large projects systematically and also to react confidently to problems.
Set realistic deadlines. In fact, I often plan very generously with the monthly goals, so it often happens that after 1-2 weeks I have already smelled them and can then already access the tasks of the following month.
This gives me a sense of achievement and motivates me even more. If, on the contrary, you are too tight with your deadlines and do not manage to meet them, then you will always have the feeling that you are rushing behind your tasks. And that’s pretty uncomfortable and leads to the fact that at some point you’re burned out and maybe even give up. First of all, this is also one of the main reasons why people procrastinate. Which only exacerbates the problem of being behind. So it’s a real vicious circle.” Once you have set your goals, it is necessary to develop a plan to achieve them.
Keeping an eye on a single big goal without giving up burned out, disappointed and overwhelmed along the way is actually almost impossible without a suitable strategy. Each goal is basically a project that can be treated in the same way as an architect or site manager plans and executes a large construction project. A high-rise building is also not built overnight, in a huge step. No, there are thousands of small steps and work that have to be done. Whenever I have a goal that seems overwhelmingly big and almost unattainable to me, I keep telling myself.
It’s just a thousand small, simple baby steps. I can take any of these steps, but I can learn what it takes. All I need is my absolute will and I have it.
You divide your goal into smaller steps, your intermediate goals. You then further divide these intermediate goals into small, manageable steps. Feel free to check out my article about the Scrum method and my sprint planning for it. This is a very good method to work through large projects systematically and also to react confidently to problems.
Set realistic deadlines. In fact, I often plan very generously with the monthly goals, so it often happens that after 1-2 weeks I have already smelled them and can then already access the tasks of the following month.
This gives me a sense of achievement and motivates me even more. If, on the contrary, you are too tight with your deadlines and do not manage to meet them, then you will always have the feeling that you are rushing behind your tasks. And that’s pretty uncomfortable and leads to the fact that at some point you’re burned out and maybe even give up. First of all, this is also one of the main reasons why people procrastinate. Which only exacerbates the problem of being behind. So it’s a real vicious circle.
Step 3: Stay motivated and celebrate success
Achieving goals requires a lot. If it were totally easy to achieve big goals, we would all be millionaires, non-ordinary athletes, scientists, Nobel laureates, etc. But unfortunately we are not. The absolute majority of people will never achieve fame or achieve anything completely extraordinary. And that’s totally fine. But even with supposedly “ordinary” goals, you get off track faster than you’d like. Commitment and discipline are the two factors without which it will hardly be possible to achieve a goal. No matter how important your goal is to you, there will almost certainly be days when you don’t feel like working any harder. Maybe you sometimes wonder if it’s worth all the effort at all, or critical feedback from someone around you or online has made you doubt.
In such a case, I always ask myself, when I think back in 1, 5 or 10 years, how would I wish I had decided, or continued? For me, the answer is almost always “I wish I hadn’t given up.” That’s basically the only thing you absolutely have to commit to. You don’t have to force yourself to be particularly good, or particularly beautiful, or whatever, that negative narrative is that might be going on in your head when you get zeifel. No, the only necessary thing that is not negotiable, so to speak, is “do not give up”.
It can be really difficult to stay motivated, especially when there are setbacks or when you feel like you’re not moving forward. But if you’ve decided to never give up, then setbacks don’t really matter. They come one way or another, always, with everyone. How you deal with it will determine whether you are successful in the long run or not. The faster you can shake off negative feelings that come with setbacks or disappointments, the easier it will be for you. That’s why it’s extremely important that you reward yourself when something goes well or even better than planned. Celebrate yourself for milestones achieved and be patient and forgiving with yourself if something doesn’t work out as planned or hoped
Step 4: Build a supportive network
Another way to stay motivated, or even more motivated and optimistic, is to build a supportive network that will guide you along the way. Unfortunately, this is often not automatically your own family or your usual friends. On the contrary, in my experience, in most cases these people are anything but supportive and motivating. I have had the experience myself, more than once, that I have tried to involve family members and unconsciously wished for confirmation. But instead of encouraging words, motivating beliefs and people with whom I could potentially celebrate my successes, I got criticism, my ideas were downright put down and thus not only my self-esteem decreased, but also any motivation to make my goals a reality.
It took me a really long time to really understand and internalize this teaching. Your parents, your friends, whoever is close to you, are not there to give you permission for anything (except maybe if you are still a minor), nor do you need any outside confirmation. You also don’t have to justify why you have this or that idea and want to put it into practice.
You also don’t have to find someone who happens to have the same goal, for example a business partner. Unfortunately, experience has shown that this does not get most people very far. Once you’ve decided on a goal, I think the most promising way is not to talk about it too much, especially with people who are either indifferent or negative to your ideas and goals. Don’t let yourself be thrown off by something like this and rather look for people who have similar goals or find a coach or mentor who supports and motivates you specifically.
Result
I think you can achieve almost anything if you really want to. I always have the motto that I unfortunately set myself very ambitious goals that I do not achieve in case of doubt, as goals that are too low, the achievement of which has little influence on my life. If you only manage 50% of a very big goal, that’s still an immense achievement. So basically, it’s like the half-full or half-empty glass thing. You decide for yourself what a personal success is for you. We are responsible for ourselves and no one will do the work for us. Achieving goals can be damn hard work, but if we have set the right goals and know why we do what we do, then there will be a thousand little baby steps that really anyone can do.
I wish you a productive week.
All the best,
Christina
“Those who have achieved all their goals have chosen them as too low.”
Herbert von Karajan
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About the author
Christina Ernst is the founder and CEO of Linen & Quince. She is also a designer, writer and real estate expert. She shares her experience and knowledge not only in her personal blog on christinaernst.net , where she writes about financial literacy, business start-ups, real estate knowledge and personal development, but also on our Linen & Quince blog. There she regularly writes about interior design, fashion and lifestyle topics. She loves interior design, art, antiques as well as elegant, sustainable and high-quality fashion.
