5 Steps to Make Impactful Goals

Everyone wants to improve something in their lives. There are always standard goals like losing weight, working out more, and being on social media less. While these are all strong goals that can improve yourself, there are other areas where we can look at, specifically professional goals. These goals could include time management, learning new skills, improving communication skills, and learning new ways to collaborate with others.

Before making a goal, there are several steps to take beforehand. These steps can increase the likelihood of succeeding, as some goals do not work because they were not planned out properly.

Step 1: Identify Your Needs

Before creating a goal, the first step to take is to identify your needs. Specifically, identifying your most important needs. Since there are many goals that you can make, figuring out the most important one is a good first step because having multiple goals at the same time can be too difficult to accomplish. For example, you want to learn a new skill, but you also want to improve your time management. Instead of starting at both goals, decide which one is more important at that moment. That does not mean the goal you don’t pick can never be done, it’s just something that you can come back to later.

Step 2: Make it SMART

SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Keeping these factors in mind when creating a goal can help give you a goal that is possible to achieve and a guide on how to properly achieve it. Don’t feel overwhelmed when trying to make a SMART goal. The purpose of it is to get you to know exactly what you are planning to achieve and the best way to achieve it.

For example, the goal of reading more books on professional development is not SMART because it lacks some elements that are part of a SMART goal. Instead, a SMART goal would be to read two books on professional development before the end of the next month by spending 30 minutes a day reading.

Step 3: Consider Your Obstacles

Goals should not be easy to accomplish, that is why they exist. When making a goal, know what obstacles could arise that could hinder your ability to accomplish your goal. Identifying the potential obstacles before making a goal can help you to either plan around those obstacles or prepare yourself for the difficulties that can come when faced with them.

Step 4: Find Accountability

One major reason people cannot accomplish their goals is because they lose motivation. Finding accountability helps solve that issue because being accountable to someone who can both encourage you and challenge you can move you past the slump of demotivation. It’s important when looking for someone to be accountable to that you find someone that will both be able to encourage you and be honest with you when you’re struggling to succeed in your goal. A mentor, a close friend or a family member that can be honest with you would all be a good person to be accountable to.

Step 5: Celebrate Accomplishments

Completing a goal calls for some sort of celebration. But celebrating accomplishments within a goal is worth doing, too. Celebrating the small steps can help motivate you to complete the larger goal. Of course, you don’t want to be too celebratory to where you lose focus, but planning to celebrate major steps in your goal can help you acknowledge how far you’ve come and that completing the goal is not far off.

Michael Morehouse

Michael Morehouse is a senior from Mishawaka, Indiana, majoring in public relations and minoring in writing. Michael is an associate with Fifth Street Communications®, a student-run public relations agency at Anderson University.