HTL 087: How to Set and Reach Your Goals – 7 Steps to Make Your Goal a Reality, with Dr. Laura Jaget

Since it is a brand new year, I am going to talk about how to set and reach your goals and the 7 steps you can take to make your goal a reality.

Many see the new year as a blank slate. A fresh start. A time to set new goals and actually put some effort into making those goals a reality.

And since motivation is usually at a high at this time of year, let’s use that momentum to really make those resolutions stick.

For the last 7 years, I have been using this exact formula to set and reach my goals. 

Before I started doing it, every year just sort of bled into the next. It was just sort of a sloppy existence waiting for things to happen to me. 

Rather than directing my life, I just accepted whatever.  It has been a good life, but at that time I didn’t know I had a say in how things turned out or that it could be better.

So when I decided to give this goal-setting a try, I was shocked at how possible my goals were. 

I was also shocked when I realized I hadn’t been very deliberate about what I wanted in the past. 

It was like going to a restaurant and saying, “I would like some food please”. You’ll just get a blank stare, or whatever. 

You have to say what you want. 

Is it easy?

Like anything new, it takes some deliberate intent, but with practice, you will find you get pretty good at it. 

It is just a formula and it is a mindset thing.

And right now is a perfect time to start honing that mindset thing.

Making a goals list is more than just thinking about what you want. Thinking is a good start, but those thoughts have to compete with the thousands of other thoughts that go through your mind on a daily basis.

So, I am going to teach you how to go about setting your goals list.

But can I really reach the big goals?

You can use this technique for anything and any timeframe. You can make a list of goals you want to accomplish this year, as I have done, or just one goal you want to achieve this month. 

You can make it as broad and general or as short and super-specific as you would like. The technique is the same. 

In order to reach your goals, follow this framework. It is an easy formula and you probably do most of the steps at some point, just not in an organized fashion. 

So let’s get deliberate and focused.

Here are the 7 things that I do to reach my goals every year. 

I have some other podcast episodes and Mominars that relate to goal-setting.

I mentioned gratitude. Episode 2 is the Benefits of Keeping a Gratitude List and Episode 28 is the Gift of Gratitude, with the Gratitude App founder, Pritesh Sanke.

I love that episode and I love his app. I use it myself and it will change your life for the better. I can’t recommend it enough.

In Episode 80, Wendy Pitts Reeves talks about how to create a plan of action to Do Big Things That Scare You. Her D7 framework correlates nicely with the steps I have outlined here.

And if you want to see my face, I have a Mominar that I did called How To Get Started on Anything. It will help you prepare for your goals list.

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