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Setting Goals in Life, Pacing Yourself for Success

Written by juicebox on May 9, 2008 9:38 pm EST

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Have you ever felt beaten around by missing goal after goal in your life? Maybe you can just never finish something on time? When you feel like your getting nowhere in life, maybe it’s time you re-evaluate how you determine your goals.

When we have failures (which will now be called non-success) with goals or deadlines, we start feeling unmotivated, and then our quality of life begins to diminish. The result of this can lead into a spiral of instability and recollections in our lives that we cannot get out of, until we stop the cycle.

In the past, I myself use to beat myself up over not meeting my goals and deadlines. Many of them were out of line with reality, and I never gave myself enough time. I consider this a thinker’s disease. When you think up so many idea’s and processes throughout the day, you lose perception of these important aspects in determining your goals, and it leads to inevitable non-success.

So if you’ve been in that vicious cycle, it’s time to take yourself out of that cycle. Grab a pencil or pen, grab some paper, and get ready to pace yourself for success.

First, the fact is that success can be anything. Celebrate the minor achievements, because they can be just as important as the larger acheivements, when in fact without those minor achievements, the larger one would of never been an option.

So for now on, live by what I call the “3×3 Goal Rule”.

That is:

Setting and achieving 3 goals every day.
Setting and achieving 3 goals every week.
Setting and achieving 3 goals every month.
Setting and achieving 3 goals every year.

Why 3? I’ve found that it is the easiest for our minds to perceive. It doesn’t seem like too little, but it doesn’t seem as too much. It allows for you to celebrate, and separates your goals in a manageable manner. So just how many goals do you end up acheiving with this model?

24 goals a week.
99 goals a month.
1,191 goals a year.

Now it doesn’t seem like such a small number anymore does it? At the end of a week, a month, a year, you sit back and realize one thing. You’ve accomplished a lot. Now you’ve just began to set your pace for success. Considering setting your goals only a few days in advance at the most before the period it starts. Making long-term commitments to the future with goals can also affect your overall rhythm.

So now that we’ve got that down, Here are some other tips for pacing yourself for success.

Avoid Life Goals - It’s tempting to make a life goal, but consider this. Most life goals are extreme, or out of balance with an individual. They also tend to change constantly throughout someone’s lifetime. Would you really want to decide the rest of your life with one thought? I didn’t think so.

Be Realistic - If your thinking of something big, consider its potential timing, and multiply that by three. It’s best to under deliver and over promise, than the other way around. Consider breaking down the goal into smaller portions if it seems to big.

Make Em’ Small - You might enjoy tackling mountains, but break that mountain down into more manageable pieces. More smaller successes can lead to increased interest, encouragement, and the reaching of a larger goal.

Give Them Meaning - Most individuals think for a purpose, which could be on their life goals, or vision. If you do, consider giving each goal a meaning. This may encourage you.

It’s Within Grasp - Don’t be afraid of reaching for whats within your reach. There is very little that is within a person’s reach if they work at it. No mountain too high, no valley too low.

Don’t Be Ridiculous - When thinking of your goals, don’t consider “getting up” a goal. Consider actual actions. Things that may improve your quality of life, or advance you. Such goals will discourage you.

Consider Open Ended - Goals should not necessarily be defined actions set in stone. In fact, open ended ones that just represent progress are a great way to reaching a larger goal.

Take Out Deadlines - Unless the goal is on a day-by-day basis, don’t make a deadline, as one has already been set by your goal sheet you’ve written down. It doesn’t specify when to exactly complete a given goal in a week or a month, or even a year. It just needs to be satisfied within that time.

Failure is a Dirty Word - Drop it out of your vocabulary now. Immediately. Begin calling it non-success. This simple perception change can greatly reduce the time you reflect on non-success.

Remember, no matter what you do in life, goals are there to be your encouragement. Don’t consider them as a wall, consider them as a never-ending opportunity to improve yourself.

Here is a sample list of some goals I made for myself this month to help you get started:

Year Goals

Get back into my favorite sports
Get healthier
Reduce my debt

May Goals

Lose 20 Pounds
Increase Flexibility
Be more social

My Week’s Goals

Resume my German language lessons
Clean my computers “My Documents” folder
Begin running

My Daily Goals

Perform 30 minutes of cardio
Checkout my Yoga clips
Finish an important proposal

As you can see, the types of goals I selected were varied. Some were open ended, and some were to the point. With this method, I was able to get my life back on track, because now it doesn’t seem so complicated, and much more gets accomplished.

In addition, you can see how some of the goals link up indirectly to my year’s goals,and all the year’s goals remain open-ended, because progress is more important than the completion to me on those goals.

So now, go ahead and try it out for yourself! I’d love to hear if this method of pacing yourself works, or if you have an idea on how to pace your success, i’m all ears!

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