How to set up goals and execute them fast?

December 29, 2021 / 6 minutes of reading

Most people struggle in life because they don’t set up goals or execute goals they have set for themselves. In order to achieve meaningful goals in your life, you need to know what they are and make a plan that helps you achieve them.

If you want to know how to easily set up goals and execute them, you have come to the right place.

In this article, you are going to learn about 5 important steps you need to use to set up goals and achieve them much faster without delays.

Table of Contents show

1. Understand why you need your goals and be specific

If you want to set up goals, it is very important to understand why you need those goals in the first place. This is a step that many people miss and later struggle to meet their goals.

Always remember that the reason you are taking on this journey is the only thing that will keep you up and working hard on your goals. If you don’t understand why you need goals, it will be difficult for you to achieve them.

A good example of a goal could be saving money to buy a house. Your goal here is to save money for your house not to upgrade to a more expensive apartment.

Knowing the actual reason you want to set up goals becomes your sole reminder and motivation of what it is you are chasing. If the reason you started is strong enough, you will find it easy to move forward and avoid distractions.

You should also be honest with yourself on what you really want. Some people become attached to something because their friends own it, and all of a sudden, they decide to own it. As a result, they start working hard in an effort to get it.

The problem with this mindset is that the decision to pursue this goal is random and not supported by intentional decisions. Instead, it is an emotional decision, and therefore, it becomes difficult to sustain it over a long time. You are more likely to give up when things get tough down the road when pursuing emotional decisions.

2. How to set up goals: Know your time-line

A goal without a timeline is hard to prioritize, and therefore, hard to achieve.

Timeline is very important when it comes to setting up goals and executing them. You should have a rough idea of how long it will take you to achieve a particular goal. Let’s revisit the down payment example we used in a few paragraphs above.

You should know how much time you need to save money for your down payment. In order to know how much you need to save, you first need to know how much house you can afford. Let’s assume that you want to buy a $300,000 home.

With this house, you will need a 20% down payment which translates to $60,000. That is your goal is to save $60,000.

Your next question is: How long do you think it will take you to save this money? Assuming that you can safely put aside $2,000 every month, you will need 30 months or 2.5 years to save $60,000.

The idea here is that you must save at least $2,000 every month. Anything you save over this amount will help you achieve your goals (saving for your down payment) much faster. At the same time, falling short on your monthly savings could easily increase your timeline.

Your timeline is there to help you track your progress and make improvements as needed.

3. How to set up goals: Break your goals into smaller goals

One of the most important steps when it comes to setting up goals and achieving them is to break them into smaller goals.

Your main goal could be intimidating and too big to achieve at once. It is also easy to underestimate its complexity.

What you can do to make your life much easy is to break your main goal into much smaller goals and focus on achieving those little goals.

In our previous few paragraphs, we elaborated that in order to save $60,000 in 2.5 years, we need to save at least $2,000 every month. What we did in that example was to break our main goal into smaller and manageable goals.

Instead of worrying about the $60,000, we will only concentrate on $2,000 a month. As long as we are able to put aside this amount every month, we will be able to accomplish our main goal.

Saving $60,000 seems impossible to achieve. But, $2,000 sounds easy and manageable.

TIP: The best way to tackle a hard and complex problem is to break it into smaller and manageable problems. As long as you accomplish those little tasks, you will be solving your main task one step at a time.

4. Use proper tools for each goal

Another important step in setting and executing goals is to understand tools you can use in your processes.

Tools are there to make your life easier and help you achieve your goals much faster and efficiently. For this reason, it is your responsibility to know the tools that will help you achieve your goal.

The tools you need will depend on your goals. For example, if you are interested in budgeting, you will need budgeting software such as Microsft Excell or similar software.

On the other hand, if you want to build computer software, you will need to learn some programming languages and software building tools.

After setting up your goals, writing down your priorities, do some research, and figure out the tools you need. Master those tools and use them every single day.

5. How to set up goals: Solve each goal as planned

This step is probably the most important one. No matter how much you dream, plan, or think, you will not achieve your goals without working on them.

You need to work on your plan as hard as you can. Only then, you will be able to achieve your goals.

This is the most complicated and hardest step you will ever face when executing your goals.

At this level, you will face setbacks, doubts, failures, negativities, or much worse. People will doubt you, tell you that it is impossible, and probably think you are insane.

Only what you believe in, worry about, and care about will keep you up and going.

Most people fail at this stage simply because they can’t handle the pressure from all sides. Things hit up and they give up. Your internal desire to achieve your goals is what will stop you from giving up.

Go to work and work as you have never done before. What people say doesn’t matter. What people think is not that important. What matters is what you believe in, worry about, and more importantly, care about.

Keep your thoughts up and keep working. Execute every small plan you made until you have achieved your main goal. Never ever stop until you have achieved your goals.