By now, 43% of people would have already given up on the goals they set for the year!
That’s shocking and sad.
Everyone greets a new year hoping that this will finally be the year when they can finally make headway in living the life they dream.
What makes this even more frustrating is that people out there successfully hit all the goals they’ve set and then some.
So what gives?
Well, in this blog post, I’ll be sharing with you what I found to be the difference-maker to help you get out of that vicious cycle and finally crush your set goals.
But first…
Why Goal Setting Isn’t Enough?
Chances are, you’ve tried following tips and strategies on how to properly set your goals you found on the internet with little to no success.
I know because I’ve been there.
I’ve done everything possible to help me crush my set goals for the year. I wrote them down, created a vision board, placed them on my computer and bedroom, and journaled my progress. Name it, I’ve probably have tried it at some point.
I hit a couple of my goals, but not all of them.
Frankly, I found it incredibly frustrating because I was doing everything I read. At times, I’d even invest hard-earned money. But at the end of each year, I had very little to show for.
Everything changed when I read James Clear’s acclaimed book, Atomic Habits.
In the book, he wrote this mind-opening statement:
Winners and losers have the same goals.” – James Clear
Makes perfect sense. After all, the reason people set aside time (even money) for goalsetting before the start of the year is so that they can achieve every single one of them.
In my quest to figure out how to set realistic goals and actually achieve them, I did notice something interesting.
Many resources you find online focus a great deal on teaching how and why should you set goals as well as the types of goals to set. But there’s not much on how to actually achieve them.
In fact, many of these articles I came across brushed through the entire process of achieving your goals. Ironically, this is why people check out these resources in the first place.
The Biggest Challenge in Achieving Your Goals
You and I now live in what many call a “microwave society.” We want everything to happen quickly. You get frustrated, bored, and eventually quit when it doesn’t.
The thing is, many of the goals that you want to achieve requires significant time and effort to become a reality.
You can try to fast track them by taking shortcuts. But this will be unsustainable at the very least. At worst, it can actually cause more harm than good.
Let’s say, for example, one of your goals is to lose 30 lbs. Instead of watching what and how much you eat and exercise, you decide to take the shortcut of not eating for days a time. This will definitely cause you to lose weight. But at the same time, starving yourself can also make you more susceptible to cravings, making it harder to resist those foods you need to avoid. It can also damage your body by slowing down your metabolism and may even lead to you suffering from ulcers.
Systems: The Missing Link to Achieving Your Goals
Another common thing all goals share is that it involves forming new habits and getting rid of bad ones.
If you want to lose weight, you need to form a new habit of choosing what you eat while getting rid of the practice of snacking and eating junk.
On the other hand, if you want to launch a business this year, you need to develop the habit of doing deep work and get rid of the practice of multitasking and staying up late every night binging on Netflix.
This is where systems come in.
Systems are essentially an organized set of tasks that you need to accomplish. In this case, the goals you set to achieve this year.
When you have a system in place, you now have a plan to achieve your set goals.
Systems also help you develop the habits you need to reach your goals. This is crucial because as you develop these new habits, you no longer have to spend so much time psyching and convincing yourself so that you make headway in achieving your goals, and it’ll now become automatic.
With that, here are the steps on how to set and achieve goals by creating systems.
1. Make It Obvious
Ever heard the phrase, “out of sight, out of mind?”
Well, that’s precisely what happens it comes to creating new systems and acting upon them.
Remember: Creating requires making changes.
At first, it’ll be easy because you’re still all fired up. But as the days and weeks go by, that enthusiastic feeling begins to wane. If you don’t make your new system blatantly obvious, you’re going to find yourself slipping back into your comfort zone because it’s what you’re used to doing.
Making the steps in your system obvious also helps you tap into the power of the Law of Attraction.
The Law of Attraction says you’ll attract the things you focus on into your life. This is the same underlying principle why many business coaches recommend creating a vision board as part of your goalsetting process.
One way you can make your systems more obvious is to use some of your current habits as triggers for your new systems.
Let’s say you set a goal to have some quality “me” time before you start working, and the first thing you do after waking up is to have a cup of coffee. You can use having that cup of coffee as the trigger to remind you of taking a few minutes to meditate.
Another way to make your system more obvious is to create an environment filled with the cues and signals to make your new system more obvious.
For instance, if one of your goals is to lose weight this year, fill your ref and pantry with healthy food choices.
On the other hand, if you want to become more productive while working from home, turn a spare room in your house into a home office and decorate it so that it’ll set the vibe for you to get on work mode more easily. If you don’t have a spare room, choose an area in your home where you’ll get the least distractions possible.
2. Make the Systems for Your Set Goals Appealing
Creating a new system to help you achieve your set goals requires you to change. The problem is that no one likes change. It’s uncomfortable, stressful, and sometimes, just downright unnerving.
Rewarding yourself by doing something you want to do will make the change more bearable for you.
When it comes to choosing the rewards you’ll associate with your systems to make them more appealing, there are two things that you need to consider.
First, it needs to match the amount of effort you put in. Pairing a massive goal with a teeny reward won’t entice you to stay consistent with it.
Second, it should align with your set goals. If your goal is to lose weight, rewarding yourself with a slice of cake after completing your workout would just cancel out all that hard work you put in. The same thing is true if you go out shopping for one item after saving a certain amount in your bank account the previous month.
3. Make It Easy
Although I initially learned about this in the book Atomic Habits, I only fully understood this one afternoon while standing on the balcony of my future mother-in-law’s house.
One of the workers in their bakery was about to leave for the day on his motorcycle. He pressed the ignition, but it didn’t start immediately. After several attempts, he finally got it running. Once he did, everything was smooth sailing.
You see, it’s not the actual journey of achieving your set goals that’s daunting and overwhelming. It’s starting on a journey that’s challenging. But once you begin the process, everything will become easier.
That’s why when it comes to creating your systems, make them easy enough that there’s no friction to getting started.
One way is to remove as many steps as possible to get started.
Youtuber Thomas Frank, for example, saw that one reason why he wasn’t practicing his guitar as often as he wanted was because of the many steps needed to do before he could start playing:
- Find the guitar.
- Get the guitar.
- Take the guitar out of the case.
- Stash the guitar case somewhere.
- Sit down.
- Start playing.
He then decided to keep the guitar out of the case and put it where he could immediately see it. This simple change slashed the number of steps he needed to do from 6 to only 2 (sit down and start playing).
You can also reduce the friction of getting started by automating some steps. Instead of taking a few minutes to pay one of your bills, schedule this to be automatically debited from your bank account or credit card.
Another way is to cut down your tasks into manageable chunks.
One goal I set for myself this year is to be more consistent in publishing articles here on my website.
In the past, I would aim to set aside four hours a day for it. But the reality is that it’s not always easy to stick to, and there’s always something that would try to compete for my attention.
So after reading James Clear’s book and getting my revelation with the motorcycle, I decided to cut it back and aim for just writing for five minutes.
You might think: “Adele, five minutes of writing won’t do much.”
You’re right. It doesn’t.
But making that shift made it easier for me to start writing and get into my flow state. Before I knew it, I actually hit the four hours of writing I initially set for myself.
4. Make It Immediately Satisfying
When you live in a world where you can get nearly everything instantly, it’s not surprising that you develop this need to see some progress, no matter how little it may be.
Since it’s going to take time for your set goals to come become realities, you need to add something within your system that will give you that dose of instant gratification you’re craving for.
One way you can do this is by tracking the new habits you’re forming to help you achieve your goal.
This is what I did to help me get back on track after suffering from burnout. I would include the list of the habits I want to track at the bottom of each day in my planner. Each time I’d check a circle or box beside it, it gives me that instant sense of gratification that I’m one step closer to all the goals I set for myself this year.
Another way is to have an accountability partner.
Your accountability partner can make the journey instantly satisfying by sincerely congratulating you for sticking to your new systems. This recognition gives many peoplethe boost they need to keep going.
Restart Your Journey to Achieving Your Set Goals
If you’ve been one of the many people that already gave up on achieving your set goals because you fell off the wagon once or twice, I hope this blog post will encourage you to restart the journey.
After all, there’s still lots of time for you to reach your set goals this year.
So give the steps I shared here a try and see how it goes for you.
