A Quick & Effective Tip For Reaching Goals

How are your New Year’s resolutions coming along? Have you learned that the new language yet? Did you lose those 20 pounds yet? No matter how you choose to live your life odds are that you try to set goals. Setting goals is great, but how often do you meet your goals?

Unfortunately, most college students (including myself) and new graduates have a difficult time with reaching all of their goals. When I first wrote about goal setting here at Studenomics I discussed the importance of SMART goal setting and how sometimes goals need to be broken down into tiny tasks. One thing that I never went into detail on was practical tips for helping you meet your goals. Why not? Because I’m still learning myself how to set goals that I will constantly meet.

Thankfully I came across a great article on LifeHacker that shared a great productivity secret from Jerry Seinfeld. The productivity tip was so practical that I decided to implement it immediately. What is this great goal setting secret? Allow me to put it into my own words.

If you want to meet a goal or improve at something you must practice every single day. In order to ensure you practice every single day- purchase a giant wall calendar that has all 365 days of the year on it and when you work on the goal (no matter how short a period of time) mark a giant X in red marker for that day. After a few days you will enjoy seeing the red X’s on the calendar. Keep on going until all you see on your calendar is a bunch of red X’s. Daily practice will turn this new task into a habit and you will quickly be able to reach your goals.

Common Problems With Goal Setting:

1. Goals seem too time consuming. You get all excited about losing weight but then you suddenly realize that you actually have to move on that treadmill for a full hour. You now come to the realization that losing those 20 pounds will take much longer than expected. In order to get an A in that course your going to have to read 2 chapters every week. Catch the drift? We often fear that we do not have enough time to reach our goals or we simply get lazy by the thought of all of the work needed.

2. Goals seem too big that you don’t know where to start. Once again expanding on the previous point- not only will some of your goals require a lot of time, but also tons of dedication & energy. A 20 page essay seems impossible to complete- especially when you start it the night before it’s due (my life story the first 2 years of college).

How this productive tip helps you reach your goals:

Breaks down your goals into tiny tasks. Losing 20 lbs doesn’t seem so bad when you realize you just need to squeeze in an extra 20 minutes of walking every day for a few months. If you only need to dedicate a small portion of your daily time to an activity you won’t be as stressed out as you would be trying to tackle a major goal without knowing where to start.

Keeps your eye on the prize. If you want to learn a new language and you simply spend an hour every day learning something new you will be constantly improving. If you’re trying to get in shape for a marathon then a little bit of exercise daily will keep your mind on the “prize” of being able to complete this marathon soon.

Less stressful. I kind of started following this tip a few years ago in college when I realized that if I worked on an assignment slowly over time I would get it done relatively stress free. Staying up all night to complete an assignment was taking its toll on me and it was stressing me out to the point that my mind would be all over the place for the next few days.

Now I want to ask you guys, is there something in your life that you are willing to work on every single day?