Do you wish you had the time to achieve your goals?
They could be small goals, or a really big dream.
You could be wanting to go on a holiday, or achieve a particular fitness goal, or find a new job, or declutter your house – there are so many possibilities.
Although there are lots of tools and options available to help with the planning side of things, what if you don’t quite know where to start, or how to commit the time?
I know that when you are busy with work, family and all of the hustle and bustle of a normal week, it can be really hard to create the space to fit something new into your routine.
If you are stuck with where to begin, here are five ways to help you make time to achieve your goals:
1. Be specific.
If you only have a vague goal, it will be harder to know where to start, to find a path forward, and trickier to keep the motivation going. It will also be hard to work out how much time will be needed.
A couple of examples of ambiguous goals could be if you were to say:
“I want to be healthier by the end of the year”, or
“I wish I could travel to Paris one day” …
Both of these are quite unclear, while they do have great intentions behind them.
However, if you change these to something like:
“I’m going to walk for an hour every day for the rest of the year, so that I’m healthier in January than I am now in August”, or
“I’m going to save up and plan for a trip to Paris at Christmas next year, as that’s always been a dream” …
Suddenly, you have some actual timeframes and much clearer plans to focus you on where you want to head. And I don’t know about you, but it already makes it feel more real and exciting!
2. Be realistic.
From our two beautiful, specific, goals we just came up with, the next step is to make sure they are realistic. The last thing you want to do is set yourself up for failure.
For the walking example – is it realistic that you will be able to walk for an hour every day? Do you have a backup plan if it rains? Do you have particularly busy workdays? It would be horrible if the goal was unachievable from the very first week. How demotivating!
What if you decided that you are going to walk for an hour, five days a week? Or four? If it rains, can you have a treadmill in a spare room or garage to use? It could be worth seeing what is being sold cheaply (or even being given away!) online. You then remove the excuse of it being too dark or wet outside, and give yourself a better chance of success. Also, committing to an hour four or five days a week, may fit in better for you, than trying to make it happen every day.
If we come back to our travel example, is it realistic to save up the amount of money needed for the trip to Paris? Remembering that things like flights will need to be paid for well ahead of the actual travel time.
This is where using a travel budget planning document can be helpful. Once you have worked out how much you will need for the trip, you can work out how much you need to save per month (or per week, however you like to think of it), to reach that amount.
If it looks like it might be a challenge to reach that goal, what adjustments can you make. If the dream is to be at Paris specifically at Christmas time, can you go the following year instead, to give yourself more time to save? Or if the time of year doesn’t matter, can you go at an off-peak time? (Bonus: less crowded!). Or is there another location on your bucket list that you can aim to go to first, instead?
If you don’t want to sacrifice that specific dream, then identify where the shortfall is, and how you will make up the difference. Would you need to save another $500 a month? If so, can you get another job or side hustle? Can you sell any of your household items or clothes that you no longer need?
Only you can decide the level of commitment you want to put in and can realistically manage.
3. Track your progress.
Maybe it’s just the nerdy side of me, but tracking things is both helpful, and gives a dopamine hit! Knowing that you are moving forward, seeing how far you’ve come, these things give confidence and a clear indication that you are heading in the right direction.
There are heaps of ways to track your goals, including:
- Go old school and print out a chart. It could be colour-coded boxes that get filled in as you go, a list to check, a thermometer picture that fills up – the possibilities are endless. Hang it somewhere you look at often, to give you incentive to keep going.
- Use calendar reminders in your phone. Depending on the calendar you use, you’ll be able to look back and see the ones you’ve ticked off (I know Google calendar does this).
Block out time in your calendar each week to commit to your goals. Protect that time, so that other things don’t get booked over the top of it (as much as you can).
- Record your progress in a journal. Why not combine two positive habits and record it in a gratitude journal?
- Have some rewards and incentives. Once you have saved up enough for the flights for your Paris trip, treat yourself to a French dessert to celebrate! Have you hit 20 days of walking for an hour? Give yourself a little luxury like a relaxing soak in a bath or a pedicure – something that makes you feel good.
4. Be flexible.
One thing that is guaranteed is that life will – most likely, at some point – get in the way. This could be an unexpected expense that comes up, or you fall ill and can’t get out of bed for a week..
Rather than get disheartened and give up (which is, honestly, a very easy thing to do), just do a reset.
You’ve already come so far, don’t let a small hiccup get in the way.
Once you get back into your walking, the small amount of time you missed won’t derail your fitness goal.
If part of your travel savings needs to be diverted to something else, that’s okay, too. Can you make up that difference over the coming months with some creative thinking?
5. Tell others.
A little bit of extra accountability never goes astray! Share what you are trying to achieve with others who will support and encourage you. I mentioned the “support and encourage” part as, let’s be honest, we all come across people in life who are either a bit negative by nature, or will try to distract you from your goals (even unintentionally).
So, we want to avoid these kinds of comments, if we can:
“Why would you want to go to Paris? You should go [inserts their own dream] instead?”
“Walking won’t do much, you should go to the gym and do weights”.
“Good luck, you’ll never save that much!”
Honestly, my eyes are rolling just writing that!
Gravitate to people who will have a more positive and helpful perspective, instead:
“I’ve been meaning to do more walking – can I meet up with you sometimes and walk together?”
“Paris sounds wonderful, and at Christmas? What a great idea!”
“Can’t wait to hear how you go!”
Sometimes I think it would be easier if we could have a few more hours each day to fit in the things we love. What a shame that’s not the case!
One thing we can do, though, is really focus in on the specifics of our goals so that we have a clearer understanding of the time we need to commit to achieving them.
I’d love to hear about the goals you want to achieve! Leave a comment below!