As the beginning of the year has begun, it may be the perfect time to think about or consider setting some personal goals! Whether that be for the week, month, year or over the course of a lifetime, goal-setting can be a powerful tool in feeling and becoming successful. Here are some tips on how to set and achieve your personal life goals:
1. Set SMART goals.
SMART is a pneumonic used to describe a useful way to make a goal. It stands for:
S- Specific (or significant)
M- Measurable (or meaningful)
A- Attainable (or action-oriented)
R- Relevant (or rewarding)
T- Time-bound (or trackable)
This is a great way to hold yourself accountable and track each goal you set for yourself while making sure your goals are also attainable and manageable for your lifestyle and set an appropriate timeline.
2. Write them down.
Writing goals down solidifies them to give them more strength and power. This step can also help to hold you accountable for working towards your goals if you are able to hang them or post them somewhere visible for you to look at daily.
3. Set priorities.
Prioritizing can help decrease the feeling of overwhelm when setting goals (whether they be long term or short term). Using a numbered list to prioritize smaller goals can be helpful, while using a timeline and dates for goals that are larger and might take more time and effort could be beneficial.
4. Categorize your goals.
To further increase the organization of your list of goals, categorizing them can be helpful. Creating categories such as: career, health, financial, and leisure can help to organize your thoughts and make it easier to break them down into smaller/more attainable goals. For example, in the financial category you may have a short term goal of “put $50 into saving account” or a longer term goal of “decrease financial burden by setting up long-term care options”. These long-term goals can be further broken down into short-term goals to make them more attainable, such as “ research long term care options on npfba.org”.
5. Reward yourself.
Make sure you reward yourself after completing a goal (small or large) as this will increase your chances of success as well! Telling yourself “if I complete this goal this week, I will take myself out to dinner at the end of the week” can be great motivation to complete the goal. If you are working towards a large/long-term goal, rewarding yourself every step of the way (for each small/short-term goal met) will help to continue to drive you forward toward the end goal!
Have fun setting goals for yourself and remember to make them “SMART”! Start with something small today, like researching long-term care options through npfba.org to support your financial goals and financial success!
If you have questions about long-term care coverage or how NPFBA can help serve you, feel free to reach out to us via our website, phone, email or schedule a zoom meeting and let’s grab some face time!
