What do you want from life? What do you want to achieve?

Goal setting helps us to become more aware and purposeful in making the decisions that create our reality. Without clear goals and a plan to achieve them, our dreams and wishes remain just that- dreams and wishes.

When you set goals, you take control of your life and focus on what is important. You make improved decisions and better use of your time and other resources.

Follow these steps to create your own action plan. You can also download our personal action plan template to fill in as you go through each step.

1: Get in the right mindset

Make yourself important
By setting personal goals, you are choosing to improve as a person and live a better life. Spend a moment thinking about where you are right now and where you would like to be.

Accept what you cannot change
To move forward, you need to let go of the past. Learn from it and let it go. Your new life can start now.

Identify what motivates and inspires you
It is hard to achieve a goal you do not care much about. Decide what is really important to you. Which ideas give you a feeling of excitement?

2: Write your action plan
Consider short, medium and long-term goals
What do you want your life to look like in 3 months, 6 months, 12 months and beyond? It can be helpful to have goals that are both big and small.

Consider all areas of your life
Think about whether you have dreams and goals for different areas of your life:

* health and fitness
* relationships and friendships
* home and family
* finances
* work and career
* community
* spirituality
* travel and recreation
* hobbies and skills

You might have goals for some areas but not others, and that’s okay. Start writing down your ideas.

Write your goals
Goals that are not written down are at risk of remaining just an idea. Writing them down makes them concrete and important.

3: Take action
The only way to achieve goals is to do something. Actions are the building blocks from which you create your life.

Keep your action plan in a place where you can see it and refer to it regularly. You may also wish to place reminders or prompters around your home environment.

Check your progress daily or as appropriate for your goal. Track progress on the timeline.

4: Accept challenges and stay positive
Achieving goals takes effort. If it were easy, you would have it already. Know that ups and downs are a part of the process. Reflect on these challenges and so that you can learn and grow from them.

Your plan may need to be adjusted as you progress. The important thing is to not allow self-doubt and discouragement to sneak in. Regardless of where you are in the process, there is always a way forward. Back yourself and stay positive.


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