Setting and Meeting Your Self-Development Goals

People are always trying to improve themselves and their lives. Whether out of holy discontent or other possibly impure motives, we want to get better at things, start new journeys, have fresh experiences, and expand our horizons. Whether they’re centered on your relationships, your career, your health, self-development goals, or a catalog of experiences, being able to plan for and reach your goals is a valuable skill. Some of us are more intuitive by nature, and so step by step planning isn’t an easy go-to, but if you have a basic understanding of how to set and achieve your goals, which can serve you well.

How then do you go about setting and reaching your self-development goals?

Setting Your Self-Development Goals

You need to know what you want, and why. Knowing what you want to accomplish is a great first step toward your self-development goals. Do you want to visit Europe and see the major sights, tasting the various regional cuisines? Do you want to complete your GED to advance your employment prospects? Do you want to lose a few pounds and get ready for a marathon? Do you want to read 100 books by the end of the year?

Perhaps you want to learn a new language, or get married, learn how to code, or cook. These and any other goals you may have are all possibilities. Just know what you want to accomplish, and why you want it. The “what” gives you a tangible destination, and the “why” gives you the motivation to get there.

Your goals need to be clear.

Clear goals are goals that are defined; saying you want to read isn’t clear as a goal. Saying you want to read books is clearer; clearer still is putting a number on that. Beyond that, you can be even more specific, such as I want to read 100 science fiction books by the end of the year, or all the books from a certain author.

Wanting to get healthy is a good goal, but it needs parameters. That might mean losing ten pounds, doing cardio workouts every day for at least fifteen minutes, cutting out fast-food and eating only fresh food, and so on. When your goals are vague, you can also be vague about whether you’ve actually accomplished them, and that can work against accountability.

Your goals must be measurable.

Measurable goals are goals you can quantify, and it matters that you know what it looks like to reach that goal – you can speak that language, you’ve lost that weight and gotten fit for that marathon, you’ve read those books and have now visited all the countries in Europe. When your goals are measurable, you can track your progress, see where you need to dig in further, and know when you’ve arrived at your destination.

Reaching Your Goals

When you’ve set your self-development goals, you now need to go about doing what needs to happen to bring the goal from a dream to its fruition. There are several ways to do this, and below are a few pointers to help you on your journey.

Have a plan.

You’ve set your clear and measurable goals. What’s next? Plan for how you’ll go about reaching that goal. Not everyone likes to plan things out in advance – sometimes it seems easier to simply forge ahead and feel out your way toward the results you want.

This is where many goals start to fall short and don’t go beyond the early phases. Your plan doesn’t have to be elaborate, but it should let you see your path of progress toward your goal. If you want to go to Europe, but you don’t have a passport, perhaps step one of the plan should be to get a passport. Then you can look up where you want to go and how much it’ll cost to travel there.

Having a rough idea will let you know whether you can use your savings or need to dig deeper or think about working extra hours to cover the costs. When you’re ready, you can set out your itinerary, so you know the broad shape of your trip. Having a plan lets you know what you need to do to get to your goal, and so it’s an important step.

If you want to learn a new language, you can figure out how you’ll do that – in person (if so, where can you get lessons, and how much does it cost?) or online (if so, using which app of service, and how much does that cost?). A basic plan helps you figure out your next steps so that when you get going, you know where you’re headed and how you’ll get there.

Start small.

Planning big things (let’s be honest; even the little things) can be daunting. Starting small with your plan is a great way to earn a few early victories. This can be remarkable for gaining confidence and energizing you to keep going.

Starting small is also a more manageable way to get going on a project, as it can be overwhelming to try and get everything done right away. Many people who are trying to get healthy, for instance, get tripped up by wanting to do all the things at full throttle in one go – exercise, changing diet and other routines all at once.

When they can’t pull off the dramatic start they want, despair and demotivation set in. That can derail the project in its entirety. Starting small might mean tackling one area first, or just doing a little bit of everything to get you going. It takes time to set new habits, so a little bit every day goes a long way to embedding new behavior and thought patterns.

Consistency, consistency, consistency.

When you get started, stay on your path. With goals such as fitness, language learning, or acquiring and developing a new skill, consistency is key. Doing a little bit every day, as noted above, is key to developing new habits that stay with you.

Consistently applying yourself to your plan to meet your goal is the best way to get there. Consistency doesn’t mean you don’t get to take a break now and then – the best workout programs, or language learning platforms often will have a cheat day or day off included as part of the program.

You’ll have bad days, but keep going.

Things don’t always go according to plan. When disappointment comes, it threatens your motivation and your accomplishment of your goal. You need to prepare yourself mentally ahead of time that things may not go as well as you’d hoped or planned.

When that happens, take it in stride, recalibrate your plan if need be, and keep pressing on if you still want to meet your goal. It might be the case that something makes reaching your goal impossible or at least delayed; plans for taking a semester abroad were stymied for many people due to the pandemic, for example.

You can postpone some plans till a future date, where possible. In other cases, you may adapt those plans, like going abroad for a few months after you graduate from college. Meeting your goals requires perseverance, and at times an equal dose of creativity when you encounter obstacles.

Keep track of your progress.

Part of having measurable goals is to be able to measure how far you are from reaching your goal. The point of this is to motivate you with the fact that you’re making progress and should keep going. When progress is slow, knowing that it’s going slow provides you with vital information so that you can adapt, put in more effort, and get creative toward meeting your goal.

If you’re fundraising for your local food bank and you’ve reached 75% of your goal, you know precisely where you are, how much you still need to get done, and you can communicate your progress to your donors. This can motivate them and others to give you your final push to put you at 100% and over.

If it’s going slow, you can decide to change your marketing appeals or expand your pool of potential supporters. Keeping track of your progress gives you vital information to know where you are, and what you need to keep doing (or what isn’t working) so you meet your goals.

Be accountable.

You can set goals by yourself, but it’s always advisable to let someone else know what your goals are. It could be your friend, your pastor or counselor, a workout buddy, a colleague, or an online community. Motivation can come from two places – from ourselves, and other people.

Involving other people and being accountable for meeting your goal gives you added external motivation to keep going when the going gets rough. Accountability simply means having someone who can remind you what you’re trying to accomplish and why.

Christian Counseling for Personal Development

If you’ve set a goal to quit smoking or drinking, having someone who walks alongside you and reminds you of your commitment, is there when you fall and continues to spur you on toward your goal is a great gift.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 says, “Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor: if either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.”

If you’re looking for some additional help setting and reaching your self-development goals, feel free to contact one of the therapists in our counselor directory to schedule a counseling appointment.