Setting Goals

We all have goals in life. We may not formally break them down and state them formally, but we have goals. We all want something. That something is a goal. The trick with setting a goal, is to make that goal attainable.  By attainable, I mean something that is likely to happen. For example, you can set a goal to make $1,000,000 but is it easy to do that? No. While that would be a good goal, it is not attainable for most people.

Good goals have certain attributes. A good goal should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound. Take our goal for making $1,000,000. It meets the criteria that it is specific. It is also a measurable. Is it attainable? Not for most people. Is it irrelevant? That depends on what you want $1,000,000 for. Relevance can be subjective. Is that goal time bound? No, we did not set a time limit on how long it would take is to get $1,000,000.

A good goal is specific. It is relevant. It is attainable, measurable, and time bound. I want to lose 10 pounds by July 4. That goal is specific. I want to lose 10 pounds. It is relevant to me, because I want to lose weight. It is time bound because I said I want to lose it by July 4. It is immeasurable goal, because you can measure weight loss. It is also attainable, because I gave myself several months to lose 10 pounds.

I want to lose 10 pounds by next week. That is a specific goal. It is time bound. It is relevant. However, it is not attainable. Remember a good goal has all those attributes, not just some of them. A person can’t lose 10 pounds in a week. Not and keep it off which is what I would want to do. It’s also not a healthy goal. You might be able to reach that goal, but not in a healthy way.

A good way to keep a goal specific is simply to keep it short. Ask yourself some questions. What do you want? I want to lose weight. How much weight do you want to lose? Ten pounds. Why do you want this goal? I want to be a healthy weight. When do you want to achieve this goal? By July 4. Then you take those answers and set them into a single sentence. I want to lose ten pounds and be a healthy weight by July 4. There’s your goal.

So when you’re setting goals, remember to keep it specific, relevant, measurable, and time bound. You’ll be far more likely to reach your goal. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t make your goal, sometimes we fail. The trick is to make the goal something that you can actually attain. I’ll be working on my goal to lose 10 pounds by July 4, and I wish you luck with attaining your goals whenever they may be.

About pebblepup

I am not one who is comfortable talking about myself but here goes. I enjoy writing, family history, and reading. I decided to do this blog because I wanted to try something new. I decided to make it a weekly blog because I wasn't sure that I could keep up with a daily one, and monthly seemed like I was writing a magazine. I think I did ok with my choices. You'll notice that there are not a lot of graphics on my site. That's because there are graphics plastered everywhere on the Internet and those sites sometimes take forever to load. This blog is a place where you can kick back, relax and be ready to be amused. At least I hope I willbamuse you. This blog is on a variety of subjects from my ficitional cat agency, the FFL, which is monthly, to instructional blogs to editorials, which are my opinions only. I admit that I don't know everything and could be wrong -- I frequently am. Now, stop reading about me and read what I have to say!