A new season can be a good time to refresh or establish goals. What do you want to accomplish from September to December? What makes for a happier, healthier you at the close of 2024? Below please find some goal setting tips and tools to help you get started. And remember the saying – it’s about progress, not perfection.
Goal Setting Techniques
- Ask yourself questions to identify goals. What are my values? What drives me? What do I ultimately want to achieve? Why do I want to achieve that?
- Backward goal setting. Consider an ultimate goal already achieved and establish milestones by working backward from achievement to current daily reality.
- A perfect day. Imagine and visualize what your perfect average day looks like. Include your perfect morning routine, commute, workday, family and social interactions, etc. What would it take to make that perfect day your every day?
Based on what you identified as goals, choose and use tools that will work best for you and help you progress toward goals.
- Make a vision board. Identify a picture(s) or draw an image(s) to represent each goal or milestone and place together on a surface you see daily to visually remind you of your goals.
- Maintain a journal. Identify tangible actions to take that move you toward goals, take action, and write about your experience. Repeat this process to track progress toward your goals and take note of smaller daily achievements.
- Automate it. Set phone reminders for each goal and set an alarm to reflect on daily activity taken toward those goals.
- Make progress social. Share your goals and weekly actions with friends and family and request support. Join or gather a group of individuals working toward personal goals and meet regularly to discuss progress.
Digital tools
- Way of Life is a daily habit tracker app
- Coach Me is for group-based support and tracking
- Momentum helps you create daily habits that help you work towards achieving goals. 30-day free trail, $10/month
- Habitica uses a video game design to track progress toward goals