MAKING YOUR GOALS A REALITY - WHITNEY OLADEINDE (25/05/2015)

I cannot stress enough how important it is to have goals, and you can never be too young to start setting and reaching your goals. Richard Branson once said, ‘I believe in goals. It's never a bad thing to have a dream. If you really want to do something, just do it. Whatever your goal.’ If dreams are not age-specific, then goal setting is something that people at all ages can have and achieve!

Why are goals important?

1. Goals can make your dreams a reality. You can’t wake up one day and say I want to start my own business without a plan to get you there? Winning or becoming successful never comes by accident.

2. A breakdown of your dream into achievable goals motivates you and is a constant reminder of where you want to be in a year, 5 or 10 years’ time

3. Without goals, you can’t measure your success or progress

4. If you can’t measure your success, you may not reach your full potential, preventing you from living life to the fullest! And who wants to look back and regret never reaching their full potential?

And for those of you who already have goals, I’m sure we can all admit that we fall into the same trap of writing out our goals and not fulfilling all of them each year. Who wants to look back at the end of 2015 and feel it was a wasted year? 

So here are a few tips that I have recently started using to make every year more productive than the last:

Tip No. 1 – Have goals for ALL areas of your life

Growth is important in every area e.g. academic (maybe getting those top marks), personal (challenging yourself to learn a language or an instrument, for example), goals for your future career (this can be to get work experience in that field). 

Tip No. 2 - Break down your goals – The “how” part of making your dreams a reality

One of the main reasons that people never fulfil their goals is because they make them too big and this can be discouraging. Breaking them down into smaller, more achievable goals can help with this. I tend to break my goals down into monthly and then weekly goals. For example, one of my goals for this year is to improve my cooking skills. I’ve broken this down by choosing 12 dishes that I want to learn to cook this year and I’ve set one for each month. Another thing that works for me is phone reminders; I have a weekly reminder every Sunday evening to remind me to set my goals for the week. I also have a monthly reminder on my phone set all the way to the end of 2015. This reminds me at the end of every month to look back at my goals of the year and see whether I am happy with the progress that I am making. This “How” part is what makes achieving your goals possible and realistic.

Tip No. 3 - Share these goals with someone who can hold you accountable

In the same way that I suggest you split your goals into academic, personal, career, etcetera, I also suggest you get a mentor for each of these areas. This is extremely important in making your “how” part effective. Someone who has experience in a specific area that is important to you can be very valuable and at least you can save some time by not making the same mistakes that they did!

Tip No. 4 – Where do you falter every year?

What are the problems that prevent you every year from fulfilling all your goals? Are you prepared to not let them make you falter once again in 2015? If not, what can you do? You might be someone that lacks organisation? To prepare, you could use the weekly phone reminder idea to make sure that you use your time more effectively. Or keep a diary, or stick notes around your house. Whatever way that will work effectively for you, start putting it into practice and make the rest of your 2015 a successful one.