Tips for setting realistic monthly goals that you have a better chance of achieving.

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If you are reading this blog post at the time I’m publishing it, it is the end of the first week of May 2023. For many of us, the start of a new month feels like a new beginning and an opportunity to make the changes and improvements we spend so much time dreaming about. 

Truthfully, we don’t need to wait for a new year or a new month to set goals, we can make lifestyle changes any day at any time. There is nothing special or magical about the first of the month, but I acknowledge that that is a motivating factor for a lot of people (myself included). So I want to take this opportunity to provide some guidelines to help you set monthly goals that feel realistic and attainable.

Steps for Setting Effective Monthly Goals

Reflect

These are some questions that you can reflect on and journal about to help you get clarity before setting goals.

Think about the last month.

What went well? What do you want to bring more of into your life?

What didn’t go well? 

Identify all of the habits, limiting beliefs, and activities in your life that are not serving you. Think about why you have developed these patterns and how you can start to shift them.

How do you want to feel? 

Think about the person you want to be. What does that person’s life look like? What are their daily routines and habits? Set goals in alignment with that image.

What are some steps you can take towards your long-term goals this month?

Where some people go wrong when setting goals is they set a big, open-ended goal without identifying how they will achieve that goal. A better framework for setting goals that you are more likely to achieve is to identify the outcome you are working towards, then break that larger goal down into smaller steps. 

For example, if your long-term goal is to write a novel, you could break that down into sub-goals of how many words you want to write each month. You can then make this even smaller and break the goal of writing a novel down into daily and weekly word goals as well.

Schedule Time to Achieve Your Goals

Another important step to help you achieve your goals is to schedule dedicated time to work on whatever it is you need to do to reach that goal. Once you have broken your larger goal down into smaller, more manageable steps, you are going to want to schedule a specific time to work on those steps. I like to do this using Google Calendars. You can create a calendar event for the task you want to achieve as if it were an appointment. That is now a blocked-off section of time for you to focus on that task that will bring you closer to achieving your end goal.

Continuing with the novel example, say you determined that you need to write 45,000 words per month in order to finish your novel. Now let’s say you broke that down into even smaller segments of needing to write 170 words per day. What you would want to do is set aside a specific time of day to commit to meeting that word count. You can use Google Calendar to create a calendar reminder for yourself, or you can use another calendar app or paper planner. You can also omit using any sort of official calendar or planner, I just find it helpful to have the visual reminder of that section of time being blocked off in my calendar, along with the ability to set a notification to remind me to work on the task. But, you can use whatever planning method works for you. All that matters is that you determine the times when you can focus on each task that makes up your larger goal.

Breaking your goal down into small steps combined with planning ahead and scheduling time to complete each step makes you way more likely to succeed at meeting your goal, than just setting a broad objective with vague guidelines.

What Kind of Goals Can You Set?

If you find it difficult to determine what goals you want to set this month, just know that there is no universal answer. Ultimately, you can put your time and energy into whatever makes you happy. If you want inspiration on how to come up with new goals to set, consider the different components of your life and any changes you would like to make in those areas. Here, I broke down some of the different categories you might consider setting goals in to help you start brainstorming.

Personal Goals

Goals related to anything specific in your life that you want to achieve. Some examples are taking up a new hobby or craft, visiting a new location, or spending more time reading.

Relationship Goals

Goals related to the different types of relationships in your life, including family, romantic partners, roommates, friends, and coworkers.

Health Goals

Goals related to your physical and mental health and well-being.

Career Goals

Goals related to where you want to be in your career.

Education Goals

If you are currently in school or consider yourself a lifelong learner, you might have some goals related to learning something new.

Online courses are a great resource for learning new skills, learning about a subject you are interested in, or earning certifications and skills to advance in your career. Alison.com is an online learning platform that allows you to learn at your own pace. They have many different courses that you can choose from.

Sign up for Alison.com

Financial goals

Goals related to saving for the future, paying off debt, saving up for a big purchase, or any other goals related to managing money.

Free PDF with a Goal Planning Template + inspiration for goals you can set.

Get in the right mindset to achieve your goals

Your mindset plays a huge role in how successful you are at achieving your goals. Limiting beliefs and negative thoughts can hold you back. If you identify as someone who struggles to achieve your goals, your mind might be the thing that is getting in your way. Maintaining a positive mindset can help you so much in achieving the goals you set for yourself. Check out this blog post here to learn how you can shift your mindset to get in the right headspace for success.

Know Yourself: Set Goals Based on Your Values

It is so important to be realistic when determining your goals. It is key to know yourself and to know what is important to you. Some questions to consider when setting goals that are aligned with your values:

What is important to you?

Knowing yourself and knowing what matters to you is crucial for setting goals that are aligned with your values. The point of setting goals is to better yourself and take steps toward being the person you want to be. That means staying true to yourself and focusing your time and energy on activities that are meaningful to you.

Why do you want to achieve this goal?

Identifying your why is a crucial step in achieving any goal. This step requires you to be honest with yourself. You are putting yourself in a much better position to achieve success when you set goals based on things you actually want to do. If you set goals based on external pressure, or based on what other people are doing, it is most likely going to be difficult to stay motivated.

Set SMART Goals

What are SMART Goals? This is a term I hear a lot in the productivity and personal development sphere. Quite honestly, when I first heard this term, I had to look it up, because I didn’t know what it meant. I will give a brief explanation, in case you also don’t know what it means to set SMART goals.

Setting SMART goals is a framework for effective goal–setting. 

SMART is an acronym:

Specific

You are more likely to achieve your goals if you get clear on the details of what you want to accomplish. For example, setting a specific goal to “read for 30 minutes a day” is more effective than setting a vague goal to “read more.” 

Measurable

Determine how you are going to track your success and progress toward achieving your goal.

Attainable

Be realistic with yourself and make sure that you have the tools you need to achieve your goal.

Relevant

Set goals that are in alignment with your lifestyle and the person you want to be.

Timebound

Create a timeline for yourself on when you will achieve the steps for this goal.

You want to think through all of these criteria when setting goals, to increase the likelihood that you succeed at meeting your goals.

Keep track of your goals

Another key step in achieving your goals is remembering your goals and keeping track of your progress. Seeing how far along you’ve come can help you regain motivation at times when things feel challenging.

Notion

Notion is probably my favorite productivity and organization tool. Notion is a super helpful app for keeping track of multiple things in one place. I highly recommend using Notion to keep track of your goals and your progress. One of my favorite things about this app is that it has so many customizable templates to choose from, allowing you to track your goals in the way that makes the most sense to you. 

Sign up for Notion.

Notion AI

Another cool thing you can do is use Notion AI to help you brainstorm ideas for new goals. This might be especially helpful if you find it difficult to think of goals that will benefit you. You could also use Notion AI to help you create a plan on how you will achieve your goal. This really is an amazing tool with so many capabilities that can save you time and energy.

 Sign up for Notion AI.

As I mentioned at the beginning, each new month can feel like a fresh start, which can bring on feelings of inspiration. I find the act of setting new goals to be exciting and motivating. If you are someone who feels similarly, making it a habit to review your goals at the start of each month can help drive you forward in realizing your long-term goals.

Setting aside time to think about your goals each month and create a solid plan of the steps you need to take and when you will take them will help set you to move forward in living the life you want to live.

I hope this post was helpful to you. It is my mission to help inspire people who are interested in personal development (but might feel frustrated with their progress at times) to take charge and create their ideal lifestyle. I have had my own struggles with setting and achieving goals, and day by day I am learning new strategies that work better for me. And I’m sharing those strategies so others can benefit as well.

Disclaimer

Whenever I write about anything relating to goals and productivity, I feel the need to provide this disclaimer. Please don’t feel pressured to change yourself or to try to force yourself to set goals based on what you feel like you “should be doing.” I am providing these suggestions as a tool to help you become your best self by aligning with your values. Please don’t use this activity to set rigid goals that don’t feel good to you.

Photo by Ronnie Overgoor on Unsplash