Hi guys, welcome back to my channel. In today's video, I'm going to be talking to you about
how to set goals that you can actually achieve. And I've purposely left this video until mid-January
because around now is the time when people are failing on their New Year's resolutions
already. So today I wanted to talk to you about why you shouldn't set New Year's Resolutions
but you should set goals. The difference between the two for me is a New Year's Resolution
is something you say you're going to do or say you're not going to do anymore and it
can be quite vague and unrealistic at times. Whereas a goal is a plan. It is your ambition,
it's your focus, and it will help to motivate you every single day.
So in today's video, I'm going to talk you through step-by-step how I set goals for myself
and my family. And I'm really hoping that if you take one thing away from this, it is
that you go away and you write down your goals. Apparently, only 3% of people actually write
their goals down. Apparently, 84% of people don't set goals at all. 13% of people do set
goals, but it's just in their head. And it's just that 3% that actually put it down on
paper and focus on it.
Matt and I set goals every single year together and we have done for about the past 10 years.
And I would say that it has drastically changed our lives in the past 10 years since we have
been putting our goals down on paper and have had a focus. You could say that life changes
a lot in 10 years, anyway. But it has been really amazing for us. And I believe in setting
goals so much, I've made a whole section in my planner, so that hopefully you guys will
use that space, as well. But yeah, I'm really passionate about this. I have a real hobby,
which I don't talk about much on this channel, which is reading self-development books and
watching TED talks and trying to get as much inspiration as I can from successful people
and just learn new things. So that is something I'd love to talk more about on this channel.
I'm a big believer in The Secret, as well, which I've never talked about, but I definitely
will. So subscribe if you're new. And I'm massively digressing, so let's get into how
to set goals.
The first thing that is really nice to do is to reflect on where you are right now.
Reflect on the past year. Think about what you really liked about it, what went well,
and what didn't. And by reflecting on it, you're not only giving yourself a pat on the
back, but also seeing where you failed and where you could've done better and where you
can do better next year.
Yeah, so for me, in terms of work and YouTube, I like to go over my channel, look at my analytics,
you can see how many views you've had on videos and things like that. So I like to go back
and see what videos have done really well, what people really engaged on and really enjoyed,
and then I know to make more videos like that in the future. So I kind of look at the progress
I've made. And then any real fails, you know, like I failed massively last year with fitness.
I said I would like to get fit, but I definitely didn't. So I need to put some things in place
this year. And each year, I write my goals, but then I make a couple of them my priority.
And fitness has actually never been a huge priority for me. It's always been the kids
or work, that's it. So this year, like I've said on Instagram, it's finally my year. And
I'm going to really focus on fitness, because that was a huge fail for me. So just to start
out, it's really nice to just reflect on where you are.
So when I set goals, I use the SMART framework. Now, this is something you may have heard
of before or you might have even used at work. But it does work just as well for personal
goals. So the S in SMART is for specific. So when you write your goals down, you need
to be specific. Rather than just say, "I want to be fit," what does that actually mean to
you? Because being fit, to different people, will mean different things. Now for me, because
I am so unfit, I would like to be able to run five kilometers without dying or, you
know, make it up the stairs without running out of breath. And I also have a weight in
mind that I would like to reach. So those are specific numbers and specific goals. I'd
actually like to be able to do five km after six months, and then maybe 10 km after that.
And a really good way for me to focus on that would be to book onto running a 10k run. And
then have something to literally aim for and something in the diary to focus on. But whether
it's, "I want to earn 100,000 pounds a year, I want to earn a million pounds a year, I
want to earn 30,000 pounds a year," you know, put a number on it. Be specific.
The M in SMART is for measurable. So ideally, your goals will be measurable. And this is
very easy for things like weight loss, for instance. You could put a number on it and
say, "I want to lose a healthy two pounds a week for x amount of weeks." And you can
literally measure that and try and stick to that goal. It can be more difficult for other
types of goals, but if you are finding it difficult to measure, you might want to go
back and make sure that they are specific enough. Even if you say, "I want to travel
to Dubai," that's one of my goals. You might want to look at how much you need to save
per week to make that holiday happen. Make sure you're saving the right amount of money
and measure it that way.
The A in SMART is for attainable goals. And for me, that means that you can't be dependent
on anyone else to reach your goal. These are your personal goals. You can also set family
goals with your partner. But really, this is all down to you. So don't set yourself
a goal in which you have to rely on someone. Make sure it's something that you can do by
yourself.
And the R is for realistic. So for me, I think about this one a little bit differently. I
don't think that you necessarily should set very realistic goals. Obviously, you need
to make your goal a reality. But for me, I take the R and I think of it as being realistic.
I imagine that it's happening. I act as if it's already happened. And I think you can
really be a bit of a dreamer when it comes to goals. You can sit down with a piece of
paper and think, "What do I want my life to look like in five years? What do I want to
happen?" You can dream a little bit. Even if you feel like it's a little bit out of
reach, it's definitely worth putting down on paper.
Two years ago, in the January, I had 24,000 subscribers on YouTube. And I just really
wanted to get that 100,000 play button. So I put down in my goals that I wanted to get
100,000 subscribers in that year. But even when I wrote it, I didn't really feel like
it could actually happen. But I was like almost make believing, and I even wrote, on my mirror,
100,000 in my lipstick. And it was something that I just focused on all the time and I
saw it all the time. And I reached 100,000 subscribers in August of that year. It just
snowballed. My channel just seemed to grow. And I'm not saying it's just because I just
like put it down on paper. Obviously, it was a constant thing on my mind and I really did
put in the work to make that happen. But in the January, if you had told me that I would
have hit 100,000 that year, I would not have believed you.
The T is for timely goals. So put a deadline on your goal. And even better, evaluate as
often as you can, maybe every three months would be a good time to evaluate and to see
where you're at, see if you're on track. Or like I said, you can do things like book a
race or even look at when you think you could go on that holiday that you really want to
and just manage, you know, saving up towards that holiday. But yes, have a time limit on
it.
Huge tip from me is that put your goals in sight so that you see them often. I have mine
in my planner. But Matt and I, in the past, have even printed them onto canvas and hung
them in our bedroom so that every single day, you see them, it makes you think about the
things that you have to do to achieve them. And there's nothing better than ticking something
off of the list, as well.
And my final tip is to visualize your goals actually happening or act as if they've already
happened. So share your goals with your friends and family. You never know, they might even
be able to help you with them. And just imagine already having it. I know this is like a bit
hippie for some people, but I love The Secret and I will often go to bed dreaming about
a holiday that we're going go on, or a house, like walking into the house that we're going
to have and that kind of thing. If you want to see a video more about The Secret and the
basics of that and how I do it, I would love to make that for you guys. I hope you found
this video helpful. As I said at the beginning, if there's anything you take away from it,
just write down what you want or you're just going through life without a plan. Whereas
if you actually write down what you want, then there's your plan right there and it
will help you keep your focus and help you stay motivated. So yes, I hope you enjoyed
this video and I will see you in my next one. Bye, guys.