Setting goals for success: 8 steps to actually achieve them

Setting goals for success can boost your confidence, increase motivation, and foster personal growth. However, it can also lead to negative thinking if you don’t achieve your goals. While anyone can set a goal, successfully meeting one can depend on the parameters used for goal setting.

Setting realistic goals is important to trigger new behaviors and sustain momentum in your personal and professional development. By exploring concrete steps for how to set goals and understanding goal-setting theory, you’ll uncover how to achieve your goals for improved self-confidence.

What is goal setting?

Goal setting is the process of identifying something you want to accomplish and establishing measurable and specific objectives to achieve it. This process can include creating long-term goals and short-term goals that help you focus on your objectives, track your progress, and attain your desired result. 

Goals are the desired results you or your team are committed to achieving within a specific time frame. Properly defined goals help trigger new behaviors and focus on what’s important to you.

8 steps to set goals and actually achieve them

There have likely been times when you haven’t met a goal you set for yourself. Maybe other priorities came up, or the task took longer than expected. 

There are a lot of reasons people struggle with achieving goals, but being intentional about how you set goals can make you more likely to reach them. Here are some effective goal-setting tips on how to achieve goals even when they feel overwhelming.

1. Visualize success

To achieve your goals, you need to know what success looks like. Visualization is a practice that helps you imagine the results you want to achieve as if you’ve already accomplished them. It involves using all your senses to train your brain to get familiar with the experience of reaching your goal.

One way you can do this is by creating a personal vision statement, which is a statement that describes your personal values and goals.

Visualizing success in this way can help motivate you to clarify exactly what it is that you’re after and continue progressing toward it. It can also help you build confidence that your goal is within reach.

2. Set SMART goals

According to research published in Frontiers in Psychology, more than 1,000 studies have shown that setting high and specific goals can improve task performance, persistence, and motivation, compared to goals that are easy or vague. This is where SMART goals come in.

The SMART goals acronym stands for the following:

• Specific: Your goals should be clearly defined, without leaving room for ambiguity, so you know exactly what you aim to accomplish.
• Measurable: You should have specific metrics in place to make it clear when you have reached or are close to reaching your goal.
• Attainable: Realistic goals must be within reach based on the resources readily available to you.
• Relevant: Your individual goals should contribute to your overarching idea of success. In the workplace, this might mean aligning your goals with company-wide aims.
• Time-bound: Every goal should have realistic deadlines so you can pace yourself accordingly to meet it on time.

By setting goals that have these characteristics, you’re preparing yourself for a greater likelihood of success. Here’s a SMART goal example to help demonstrate what this looks like in practice:

• S: Your team wants to have all customers complete satisfaction rating surveys at the beginning of their contract and again after two quarters.
• M: You aim to increase customer satisfaction by 15% over the next two quarters.
• A: Customer satisfaction ratings have already been increasing every quarter for the last year, so this goal is possible.
• R: You want the company to become well known for its focus on customer satisfaction.
• T: Your goal timeline will last until the end of the next two quarters.

In this example, you’ll be able to tell whether the goal was met by determining if customer satisfaction increased by at least 15% after the next two quarters. Those details are what help to make goals specific and measurable.

3. Write down your goals 

Writing down your goals makes them more tangible and concrete. A study conducted by psychologist Gail Matthews found that people who write down their goals have a better chance of accomplishing more than those who do not write down their goals. 

The study also showed that sharing your goals with others to help keep you accountable can increase your odds of success. With someone else watching your progress, you may feel more motivated to keep your commitment so they don’t see you fail.

4. Outline your action plan

Because goals are often long-term and abstract by nature, it can be helpful to break them down into simpler steps that demonstrate ongoing progress. Continued effort toward little goals can feel easier because you consistently reach milestones and can celebrate small wins.

To make an action plan, try creating a “goal ladder.” This life-planning process involves writing your main goal at the top rung of the “ladder” and making each of your smaller goals “rungs” that lead to your main goal. 

It can also be helpful to make a to-do list and actively check off each step you complete for a greater sense of accomplishment. Adding due dates for each individual step can also help you stay on track.

5. Set a timeline

Having a timeline for your goals helps you focus, plan, and track progress, all of which are necessary to achieve your desired outcomes. It’s critical that you keep your timeline realistic when setting goals for success.

For example, let’s say you decide in January to write a book by the end of the year. If you’ve only been able to write half a chapter every two months in the past, this new deadline may not be realistic for you. 

Be sure you also consider factors like upcoming work projects that might require late hours, travel plans, or competing goals when setting a timeline. This will help you develop better deadlines that accurately reflect your current lifestyle and priorities.

6. Identify potential obstacles

Being realistic in your goal setting also means accounting for challenges you may encounter. These obstacles could be due to a shortage of resources, unexpected life events, or the actions of others. Whatever the case, you’ll likely run into roadblocks.

Make a list of potential barriers that could arise in your journey, and consider ways you might mitigate them if they appear. Being aware of potential obstacles will make them less intimidating if they appear along your path to success.

7. Find an accountability partner

Trying to accomplish a goal entirely by yourself can be lonely and overwhelming. Accountability helps you make consistent, steady progress and keeps you striving toward your goals.

Consider enlisting a friend, family member, or life coach to act as your accountability partner. Share the specifics of your goals with them, update them weekly on your progress, and ask for words of encouragement throughout your journey. For example, you could ask them to send you goal-setting quotes as a way to inspire you and remind you to keep moving forward.

8. Reflect and adjust

As with most things in life, you may need to adjust your timeline or goal due to life circumstances, and that’s OK. Rather than feeling defeated, take time to review your goals and see what you can change. Consider what’s working and what isn’t, and tweak your plan accordingly.

What is goal-setting theory?

Goal-setting theory is a motivational theory that explains how goals affect behavior, which can help you better understand how to achieve your goals. It suggests that setting specific, challenging goals leads to increased performance, persistence, and motivation.

The following five principles make up goal-setting theory:

1. Clarity: The theory states that goals must be clear and specific to achieve success.
2. Challenge: Goals you consider challenging increase your motivation, which means they’re more likely to be achieved.
3. Commitment: Reaching your goals takes buy-in and follow-through, meaning you have to be committed to achieving them.
4. Feedback: Goal-setting theory states that regular feedback on what you’re doing well and where you can improve is required for success.
5. Task complexity: Any goals that feel complex or overwhelming should be broken down into smaller tasks to provide boosts of motivation.

Why is goal setting important?

Goal setting provides direction and helps bring your purpose to life. Without goals, your purpose is simply an unfulfilled dream. 

Here are a few key reasons why goal setting for success is important.

It creates a sense of direction

When you set goals, you identify what you want to achieve and what you need to do to achieve it, which can create a sense of direction. For example, you could write a five-year plan based on what you want your life to look like in five years. Having this long-term goal can help you move from just dreaming to actually doing.

In the workplace, setting goals helps establish a clear path for where you want to go as a team. It also helps set clear expectations for better collaboration. 

It helps you see the bigger picture

Setting goals helps you take a step back and get perspective on what’s really important. This requires big-picture thinking, and it’s the first step toward creating a life full of meaning.

At work, setting goals as a team helps everyone visualize the same future. Knowing the long-term goal and what your company is striving toward can help each team member perform better in their role.

It provides motivation

Consciously setting goals gives you something to aspire to. Having a specific goal will motivate you (and your team) to put your best foot forward.

As a team member, having a clear image of what your team is aiming to achieve serves as inspiration. Working toward a common goal is motivating and satisfying and helps give your team purpose.

It gives you greater control over your future

Setting goals puts you in the driver’s seat of your life. Just by writing down goals, you actively acknowledge what you want and how you’ll get there. This helps you leave less to fate and take a more active role in creating your dream life.

Goals: what are they and what aren’t they?

The term “goal” is used in so many contexts that it’s easy to misunderstand the concept. Here are some characteristics of what goals are and aren’t to help clarify.

A goal is:

• Your vision for the future. Goals should be the result of careful consideration of a personal vision statement and the things you want to achieve.

• Time-sensitive. The most effective goals are time-bound. Goals generally have a longer time frame for completion than regular to-do list items and can be broken into smaller, short-term objectives.

• Large in nature. Don’t be afraid to set a big goal that seems like a reach and involves overcoming a few obstacles. It’s OK to think outside the box and dream big. You can set smaller, short-term goals to make reaching the desired end result feel more manageable and possible.

A goal is not:

• An objective. While goals describe what you want to achieve, objectives are the steps taken to reach the goal. For example, “I want to become a confident public speaker” is a goal. “I will work with a coach to practice my public speaking skills by the end of this month” is the objective.

• A resolution. Resolutions are often temporary, giving short-term gratification (as opposed to delayed gratification). While a resolution is a decision to do or not do something, a goal is what you want to achieve and is a continued work in progress.
• A mission. Mission statements create a clear and focused direction to follow. They are the statements of purpose from which companies or individuals operate. On the other hand, a goal is a specific aim you or your team work toward.

7 common types of goals

It can be easier to understand what goals are and aren’t when you look at the various types. Here are some of the most common types of goals you can set for yourself.

1. Short-term goals: You can usually achieve short-term goals relatively quickly, typically within a few days, weeks, or months. You can break them down into monthly goals, weekly goals, or daily goals. 
2. Long-term goals: To accomplish long-term goals, you generally need a more extended period, like several months or years, such as setting goals for a new year. The key to making progress on these goals is to stay motivated and prioritize accordingly.
3. Personal goals: Personal goals relate to your personal life, such as your health, relationships, and hobbies.
4. Professional goals: Professional goals pertain to your career success and can center around job performance, promotions, and skill development.
5. Financial goals: Financial goals relate to your finances, such as saving for a down payment on a house, paying off debt, or investing in retirement. 
6. Academic goals: You may set academic goals to achieve outcomes in education, such as obtaining a degree, improving your grades, or learning a new skill.
7. Social goals: Social goals relate to your social health and can include things like making new friends, improving your communication skills, or attending social events.

It’s important to identify the types of goals that align with your personal values and priorities to make goal setting more effective and meaningful.

Start setting goals for success

Whether you’re aiming to develop personally or professionally, setting goals for success can help you find greater meaning in your life. Setting goals can help you stay focused and be more disciplined about making progress toward your ideal future.

The key to goal setting is to develop measurable goals that you feel are achievable. It takes consistency and motivation to reach your desired outcome.

If you find yourself struggling with progress or motivation, a professional coach can help. Reach your full potential by working with a BetterUp Coach to set short-term and long-term goals that lead you to success.