Unlocking Success: How Setting Goals Can Transform Your Life
Ever found yourself excitedly setting a goal, but your motivation reduces as time goes by? You’re not alone; it happens to most of us. While motivation is amazing to kickstart a goal, it then fades away.
Here’s the truth: it’s not about your willpower but the nature of the goals you set.
When you set a goal, you need to know the inner drive you really want for your goal. The simplest way to figure out your real desire is to ask yourself why after each goal you set. Once you figure it out, you’ll need to break down the goal into small ones. Then, you can achieve small wins throughout the journey. The small wins are meant to be celebrated with yourself, with others who started the same journey as you, or with someone you requested to keep you accountable on this journey.
Here are the 4 steps to set a health goal that can maintain motivation without questioning your willpower:
- Find out the real desire of the goal.
- Break the goal into small goals.
- Track and celebrate the milestones.
- Have an accountable partner.
I’ll break down each step with one framework for you to lay out your journey and goal.
1. Know the inner drive of your goal: 5 Whys Technique
When you decide on a goal, it’s vital to ensure it aligns with your true desires and to steer clear of societal expectations. This might be tricky initially, especially when the processes seem similar.
For example, a health goal that aims to lose 15 pounds in two months to feel sexy. At the start, you’re motivated and on track. But a month later, demotivation creeps in if you’ve only lost 5 pounds instead of the expected 7.5.
Now, think about beyond the sexier appearance, do you notice any positive changes after losing those initial 5 pounds? You may feel physically better, notice an uplift in your mood, or experience a slight boost in confidence. These small victories matter and can be powerful motivators. Now, before finalizing your goal to become sexier, dig deeper into the underlying reasons. Try the “5 Whys” technique:
“I want to lose 10 pounds.”
“Why do you want to lose 10 pounds?”
“Because I want to be sexy.”
“Why do you want to be sexy?”
“Because I’m not confident in front of the mirror.”
“Why do you want confidence?”
“Because I want to feel great about myself.”
“Why do you want to feel great about yourself?”
“Because I want to live a happier life.”
Suddenly, the weight loss goal transforms into a quest for a happier life, a health goal with more profound meaning.
2. Breaking down the goal: Reverse Engineering
We constantly keep the end goal in mind like losing 10 lbs or becoming happier in life, the problem is most of us just stop here. We have a goal, see what it looks like, but don’t finish reverse engineering it to our current self. Like what habits will I need to implement? How consistently should I work out? What should my food choice look like?
Let’s say you want to lose 10 lbs in 2 months. You knew you had to start making your own food for 80% of the meals. You knew you had to work out 4 days a week and make them more high-intensity. You knew down to the week how much weight you had to lose to reach your goal, all of these are small goals broken from the big goal of losing 10 lbs in 2 months. At the same time, most people underestimate the amount of time it will take to reach a goal.
So when you reverse engineer you’ll make room for error and time, start by doubling or tripling the time you initially think it should take to reach your goal. Reverse engineering your health makes you get real.
You can see, feel, and experience what your perfect picture of health embodies. As you move towards the future in your reverse engineering you will inevitably see the hardships, the hurdles, and the setbacks that you may encounter along the way. You are emotionally prepared for these fights as they become real.
3. Celebrate small wins: Tracking the Milestone, Not the Goal.
When monitoring your progress towards your health objective, pay attention to the milestones you have reached from step 2 rather than the goal from step 1. This aim is to release dopamine when even the slightest accomplishments are acknowledged, which improves motivation and mood, and keeps you on the progress.
Take a minute to celebrate, for example, your objective is to feel sexier and you’ve managed to lose five pounds in the first month! Acknowledge the positive emotions, like better health, more vitality, or a tiny boost in self-assurance.
Depending on your tastes, you can accomplish this in a few different ways. You may choose to keep a notebook in which you record metrics along with personal observations on your feelings and any other pertinent information. Another option is to complete this task digitally by downloading an app.
One of the most important reminders you can give yourself today is that small or little successes are what keep us going on the way to achieving our bigger-picture goals! Accomplishing something every day is a win. The power of progress is often forgotten when we’re working towards our goals. Celebrating small wins daily can help us remember that, bit by bit, we are working towards getting where we want to be.
For instance, keep a journal on hand to write down what your little wins are every so often. When you’re not having a great day, you can go back to your responses and see how much progress you might be making overall.
Remember that tracking progress is a personal journey, and finding the best methods for you is critical to long-term success. Celebrate each milestone, improving strength, endurance, flexibility, or overall well-being. By tracking your progress, you can adjust your strategies, stay accountable, and ultimately meet your health goals.
Your dedication, consistency, and insights from tracking will guide you toward optimal health, enhanced strength, and a transformed physique. Take control of your health journey, and let progress tracking be the compass that leads to your desired health goals.
“Track your small wins to motivate big accomplishments.” — Teresa Amabile
4. Share them with others: Accountability
Working towards a goal with others might help you stay motivated in addition to maintaining a routine and eating well since it holds you accountable to someone other than yourself. Having a responsible party might aid in maintaining focus and forming wholesome routines.
You and your accountability partner can focus on a variety of healthy habits, such as regular exercise, eating better meals, drinking more water, getting enough sleep, improving stress management, or even giving up alcohol or smoking if needed.
Finding the will and consistency to maintain good habits over time is one of the challenges of creating them. Having an accountability buddy is helpful in this situation. It is much simpler to stick with new habits over time until they become second nature if you have someone who will hold you accountable and motivate you along the way.
”If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together” — African Proverb
Lastly, communication between both parties is key. Make sure you understand what needs to be done to achieve success, while being respectful of each other’s boundaries at all times.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, using the “5 Whys” technique to uncover the deeper reasons behind your health goals, then break down the goal into smaller goals as milestones, during the progress, celebrate the small wins or milestones based on the tracking methods you used, like journaling or a tracking app. During the journey, having someone to hold you accountable can help you stay on track and celebrate the small wins together.
Remember, you can only sustain motivation if you set your goals critically.
Hello, I’m Ray! If you’re an entrepreneur, here are two ways I can help with your nutrition:
1. Join my Upgrade Yourself Newsletter for actionable tips to upgrade your health with your busy entrepreneur life every Sunday: https://uy-challenge.activehosted.com/f/3
2. Are you an entrepreneur who wants to boost your energy and get in your best shape without highly restrictive diets? Apply for private one-on-one coaching via uy-challenge.com
