Each new year brings on the feeling of hope, new love, and prosperity. We constantly say and hear things like, “this is my year” and we make resolutions. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being so optimistic, in fact, it’s a great way to start the new year.
The only problem I see here is that we don’t properly set our goals or come up with the blueprint to achieve those goals. Even if you find yourself working hard to get wherever you dream to be in life, it can be challenging to achieve anything without a specific goal and a game plan.
I like to compare my goal setting to planning a trip. When we plan trips and vacations, we start with a destination. We may know which country we want to visit, but maybe we still need to pinpoint a city, so we do some research and make a decision, working out the smaller details like flight, car rental, and hotel stay. We’ve just worked backward.
To me, it’s much easier to come up with a grand idea, our ultimate goal that we’d like to achieve in ten years. From there, we work on our five-year and one-year plan. By starting with a larger goal, we can dream big, and make smaller more realistic goals to build upon. So in honor of the new year, let’s make (and achieve) these goals!
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Before setting your ten-year goal, it’s important to understand how goal-setting should work. You always want to do your best to set SMART goals.
Goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. This works no matter the goal, be it a health and fitness goal, a career goal, or a personal goal. With that in mind, don’t shy away from that bold, fearless goal, because we’re planning to achieve it within the next ten years (you have time).
Step 1:
Imagine what your life looks like ten years from now. This is where we get specific. Where are you? Who are you with? What does it smell and sound like? What’s the weather like? What are you doing? Where will you be going? Go through the entire day and write down exactly what you saw.
Step 2:
Look carefully at this description and highlight the points that look like goals. An example of this would be “I wake up in my downtown Chicago loft to the smell of waffles that were prepared by my in-house chef. I get out of the bed to prepare for my day as the Editor-In-Chief of the world-renowned magazine I founded ten years ago.” Owning a loft in downtown Chicago sounds like a goal to me. Having a chef on staff sounds like a goal. Being Editor-in-Chief of a world-renowned magazine that YOU created sounds like a goal. THESE ARE YOUR 10-YEAR GOALS!
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Step 3:
We’re gonna go a little deeper now. We want to separate our goals into three categories. CAREER. HEALTH. PERSONAL.
Step 4:
Once you’ve separated your goals into those three categories, it’s time to back out and work on the fine print. We want to break our goals down and decide wherewe’d like to be in five years, so what’s an attainable halfway point for each category? Do the same for your one-year goals.
Step 5:
Step back and take a look. Each milestone should line up to lead to those BIG TEN YEAR GOALS! They should excite you and get you pumped for the journey ahead.
Step 6:
Your very last step is to post these goals somewhere visible! You need to be able to see this list to remind yourself to be intentional each day.
Nothing’s set in stone. If anything is to change, feel free to adjust your list. Remember, your goals are only as unattainable as you make them, so don't be afraid to Go BIG and Go HARD to achieve them!
Jasmine Danielle is the Associate Editor of BlackDoctor.org. She received her BFA in Dance Education & Performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has since done work as a certified fitness & wellness educator, blogger, dancer, and designer.
