I am not a new year’s resolution kind of person. I do not also buy the idea of a new year new me, however, one thing I have consistently done around each new year for as long as I can remember is set goals.

This process has become a habit I have grown to love over the years. Taking the passing year apart and looking at it critically, oftentimes brings to the surface certain things we may have missed. I mean they do not say hind sight is 20/20 for nothing.

By assessing my wins, mistakes, and challenges of the passing year, I begin to slowly program my mind as to the aspects I would love to improve as well as those I need to pay more attention to in the new year. I am able to assess certain events or occurrences objectively without the overflowing emotions that would have been present at the time of its occurrence. Thus I can evaluate for key lessons, next steps, and areas of improvement.

Many of us may already be familiar with setting SMART goals and we would get to that in our next post, however, for now, I would like to discuss key areas to set goals.

Once I am done analyzing the passing year, and I have taken out my key learnings and next steps, I then move on to setting new goals.

People set goals across many areas of their lives, and to be honest you can set goals in literally any area, think about it, you always have something to aspire to, no matter how salient it may seem.

Key areas to set goals include;

1. Finance: This is the most common goal set by people; however it sometimes is over-emphasized and people tend to forget to set goals for other areas.
2. Personal: are you looking to be an all-around better person in the new year? Considering fixing broken relationships or creating new ones? All these are valid personal goals that can be set.
3. Health: Much more than renewing your gym membership in the new year, health goals can be anything that helps your life a fuller and for lack of a better word, healthier lifestyle. Goal tips include seeking therapy, eating cleaner, better sleep, and of course renewing your gym membership.
4. Personal development/career development: These areas are easily overlooked. Once we’ve found our dream job or attained a certain point in life, we may tend to relegate self-development and career development to the back seat. However, it is important that we keep maintaining growth in this area.

Many people find setting goals difficult and may even experience some anxiety around it.

However, I genuinely believe that there is an art to goal setting and the moment you get it right, you will find yourself more excited than anxious to set goals.

At least once, you may have come across the term SMART goals, and while some may disregard it, I have tagged it as ‘the golden rule of goal setting’.

In order to set the best goals, your  goals for 2022 should be:

Specific:  While setting goals, you need to be as specific as possible. It’s not enough to say I want to make more money in 2022. How much exactly do you want to make?

Measurable: Can the progress of your goals be tracked? How can you tell if you are on your way to achieving each goal you set? Keep this in mind as you set your goals.

Achievable: I know you might be tempted to set lofty figures/goals, however, you must set goals you know you can achieve.  Your goal may stretch you, but it should be doable. Unachievable goals may defeat the entire purpose of goal setting and leave you feeling discouraged.

Relevant: Please set goals that are useful to you one way or another. It is counter-productive to set goals that have no direct impact on what you want to achieve.

Time-bound: Time limits add some form of urgency to your goals as well as your efforts to achieve them.

Tracking and achieving your goals

It is one thing to set the best goals and it is another thing to achieve them. Achieving your goals helps to keep you motivated and generally excited.

Below I have outlined 5 steps to help you track and achieve your goals.

• Break large goals into smaller goals: this helps to keep you from being overwhelmed from trying to focus on the big goals. The smaller goals from your big goals makes the process of achieving your goal easier and more manageable.
• For example, if you would like to lose 40kg, it is more realistic and achievable to break it down to 4kg per month and you will be able to lose 40kg in 10months.
• Create an action plan: All set goals must have a plan for action, otherwise, the goal-setting process would simply be putting pen to paper. What would you need to achieve your goal? For instance; How do you intend to lose weight? Start eating clean, workout at least for 30 minutes, and drink at least 3 liters of water daily? Etc. This plan should be outlined for every goal set.
• Reassess your routine: More often than not, achieving your goals requires some effort. And sometimes that effort would require making changes to your everyday life. Many times making small changes to your routine would help you accommodate the extra work needed to achieve your goals.
• Would you require waking up one hour earlier or staying up one hour later than your regular bedtime to search and apply for jobs or work on your side hustle? How about maximizing your weekends?
• Evaluate your goals regularly: Evaluating your goals regularly such as weekly, monthly, or yearly can help you keep track of how you are doing and how much more or less effort you need to be putting in.
• Celebrate small wins: With the setting and achieving your goals, it is important to celebrate as many wins as possible, even the very small ones, in order to keep your excitement and motivation up as well as encourage you to keep working hard.

Did you successfully complete your first order? Did you send out 10 applications this month? Or finish one online course? All these may look small, but are definitely worth celebrating!

I truly hope that you take out a few hours over the next couple of days to set out your goals for the year 2022. Never mind that January is already over, we still have 11 more months to win!

Please reach out to me and the Uthrive team if you have any issues with the setting, tracking, and or achieving your goals. We will be looking forward to hearing from you as always!

Coach Ekhoe.