All goals must be attainable and realistic. Once you identify what you want, you can begin to figure out ways you can achieve your goals. You must develop the attitudes, abilities and skills needed to make them come true. You have to believe that it is possible for you to achieve your goal or you will not be motivated to try. If you choose a goal that is too large, or even impossible (no one can lose 50 pounds in a weekend), it is easy to get discouraged when you can’t reach your goal. You can set lots of small (shortterm) goals to help you achieve a larger (long-term) goal. For example, losing 1 pound a week is realistic. If you maintain that goal, you will have lost 50 pounds in a year – and that is an impressive achievement!
Must all goals have deadlines? Set a timeframe for the goal. Putting an end point on your goal gives you a clear target to work towards. If you don’t set a time, the commitment is too vague. Without a time limit, there’s no urgency to start taking action now. Once you reach your goal, you may want to re-write it as an ongoing goal.
When setting goals, wording is everything. A goal should sound positive. For example: “I have to try to exercise more because the doctor said otherwise I’ll have a heart attack” isn’t the best way to phrase things.
Using “try” immediately suggests the possibility of failure. “Exercise is somewhat of a vague goal, and doing it because someone else thinks you should, will force the choice on you. The goal is an admirable one, but the statement is not positive, complete or focused.
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