Growing up, my parents would routinely force me to write down my goals. At the time, I didn’t put much thought into the importance of this. I would write stuff like, make good grades or start every basketball game of the season – things I was sure were going to happen and didn’t have to put much thought into. But as time progressed, I began to see the importance of writing down my goals and I challenged myself to set goals I’d actually have to work towards.

Here are three keys that help to achieve goals, no matter how big or small they might be.

CLEARLY DEFINE YOUR GOALS

Sure, this seems obvious, but really, are your goals written down somewhere you can clearly see them routinely? Do you truly know what you want to accomplish? Do you revisit your goals every few weeks or months?

Without setting any goals it will be impossible to achieve any goals.

SET A DESIGNATED TIME TO WORK ON THESE GOALS

The past six months, I’ve been tirelessly working on getting my health coaching certification. Starting a business from scratch is not an easy task and it’s easy to get overwhelmed with everything that needs to get completed. To ensure that I have time to complete my course and simultaneously develop my brand, I’ve dedicated 2-3 hours every morning to work on these goals. It hasn’t been easy to wake up hours before my day job begins, but I know that the morning time is when I’m most productive and motivated. As long as I have a strong cup of coffee and some quietness, I can get that much closer to achieving my goal of becoming a successful health coach.

MANIFEST YOUR GOALS

Maybe this sounds silly or even a little woo-woo, but when you want to achieve something bad enough the pieces seem to usually align. I personally like to write notes to myself for manifestation. I once filled two entire pages in my journal with the words inner peace because I was feeling very scatter brained and disorganized. After writing the phrase so many times, I did have a feeling of peacefulness wash over me, maybe it was placebo effect or maybe the act of writing itself calmed me down, but either way, it seemed to produce my desired result.

Another way to manifest something is simply saying it out loud. Again, this might feel silly, but you don’t have to walk around muttering to yourself in front of anyone. You probably talk to yourself in your head all day long anyways, so why not talk to yourself out loud every now and then?

In the early stages of coming up with ideas for my business, it didn’t feel like it would ever become a reality. I didn’t know if I could actually make it happen, but I was going to at least give it a shot. Everyday for about a week, I looked at myself in the mirror and I said, “I am going to be a successful health coach.” After a couple of days, I started to believe myself. I started to worry less about messing something up and instead started to enjoy the process of learning, creating, and sharing.

I hope everyone is having a lovely start to 2022 and that you’ve clearly defined some of the goals you’d like to achieve this year, whether they be big or small. If you’d like to share any goals you have and how you plan on achieving them, please do in the comments below!