This is the stuff they don't teach you in school. Yes, reading, writing and arithmetic are important subjects, but what I'm about to share with you is the very foundation for achieving your dreams. This will take you step by step through setting up goals that you can achieve. By the time you finish reading, you will have the keys to reaching your dreams. A quick word of warning once you know the secret for setting amazing goals, you will be unstoppable. Are you ready for an amazing life? 2014 GirlsCantWhat.com How to set AMAZING GOALS and achieve them! Page 2 of 16
It starts with vision We all have dreams. I'm not talking about the ones where you re standing in front of your class giving a speech in your underwear and then you wake up. I'm talking about the things you want to achieve in your life. Some dreams are wild and vivid and others not so much, but every dream starts with a vision. The clearer you can see your dream, the more likely you are to actually achieve it. Successful people start with a clear vision of what they want and what they don't want. They write down their goal in as much detail as possible so that if someone else were to read it, they would have no trouble imagining every detail. 2014 GirlsCantWhat.com How to set AMAZING GOALS and achieve them! Page 3 of 16
Writing about your goal is very important. It gives your brain the freedom to explore and create your future life. Imagine how you will feel when you achieve your dream. What does your life look like? Who are the people in it? What changes will you see in yourself? Make notes of everything you can think of. The other reason this step is so important is that you need to know what success looks like so you know when you have arrived. When your goal is clearly defined, you will know the moment you reached it. Dream big here if you wish or focus on a smaller, short term goal. It's your life. You get to choose. What are you aiming for? 2014 GirlsCantWhat.com How to set AMAZING GOALS and achieve them! Page 4 of 16
Measure Don t set a goal like "get in the best shape of my life" because you can't measure that. Basically what you want to do here is attach a number to your goal. The number is what you will use to determine if you have achieved the goal or if you need to make adjustments to your plan. Try framing your goal as something with a start and a finish, like "eat a nutritious breakfast every day for a month". You can easily know whether you achieved that goal or not because it's very specific. That is a date based number. It s well defined by the number of times you will perform an action within a specific amount of time. Bonus tip: Measurable goals like the one in that example are a great way to kick start better habits or develop new routines in your life. 2014 GirlsCantWhat.com How to set AMAZING GOALS and achieve them! Page 5 of 16
Other ways to attach a number to a goal can include money. With a money based goal, you have to be careful especially if you are relying on other people in terms of sales. However, financial goals are very achievable. Money saving goals or goals that help you changing your spending habits can be life changing. You can also use a percentage based goal where you strive to increase or decrease something. It still boils down to an actual number but sometimes a percent is easier to track than an individual number. Since your goal can be anything you want, use whatever number format attracts you. Personally, I tend to use both. I like to track my goals in a spreadsheet so I have a quantity written down and then another column that tells me what percentage of my goal I have reached so far. It s very motivating and also very exciting to watch the percentage go up as I get closer to completing it. Start by setting a date. Smart goals have dates attached to them. Even smarter goals have multiple dates attached. At the very least put a start and finish date on your dream. You can make adjustments later, but pin down a time frame so you can measure your progress along the way. 2014 GirlsCantWhat.com How to set AMAZING GOALS and achieve them! Page 6 of 16
Break it down This is where we get down to business. Goals are awesome and exciting at first and then Monday rolls around and it s Oh crap... I promised myself I d do WHAT? Yeah. We ve all been there. So here s what needs to happen to get over that hurdle. You ve got to take your big, amazing dream and break it down into small steps. No, I mean really tiny steps. Like if your dream is to write a book, then your first task would be to sharpen your pencil (or open a new document in your word processing program). The smaller the step, the better. Why so tiny? Because when it s Monday and you re tired and you don t want to do the thing you said you d do because of all the other things you have to do, do you know what you re most likely to do? You are most likely to cherry pick the smallest, easiest task from your list. So make sure that the first step toward your goal is the smallest, easiest task on your to do list. It s like procrastinating, except you win. 2014 GirlsCantWhat.com How to set AMAZING GOALS and achieve them! Page 7 of 16
Breaking down goals doesn t have to be hard. You can be detailed with this or you can just write out a few basic steps. The amount of steps you need to break out are highly dependent on the type of goal you have so you ll have to use your best judgement here. Some pointers I have to offer on this step is to break out the big chunks first. Then break down those big chunks and so on and so forth until you have some very manageable action steps. I prefer to make an outline as I break each step down. It helps me connect all the pieces and creates a map I can follow. Another great tip is to think through things chronologically. If your dream is really big with a lot of steps, try to lay it out so you can see the path you need to take. There may be some steps that can t take place until other steps have been completed. This is another reason why I like to create outlines of my goals. Take your time with this step and if you feel overwhelmed, just start with the big chunks and only break down the first one. This is your dream so there s no right or wrong way to do this. 2014 GirlsCantWhat.com How to set AMAZING GOALS and achieve them! Page 8 of 16
Schedule If it's not in your schedule, it won't happen. Truth. I used to hate schedules and planning and all of that stuff. It annoyed me because I m an intuitive thinker and I could instinctively figure out what I needed to do at each level. But as my life got crazier and crazier and my dreams got bigger and bigger, I realized the only way I could manage them was by learning to manage my time. Tip: Setting time management goals can help you learn new skills fast and you ll pick up some great new habits in the process. Scheduling your goals means putting everything on the calendar. Yes everything! Especially my goals. Mastering a calendar is not that hard. You need to be diligent in writing down everything that you do in a day. If it takes you 90 minutes in the morning to workout, shower and grab breakfast, then just block off that time slot and write Morning Routine. You don t have to go overboard, but you do need to see where your time goes. 2014 GirlsCantWhat.com How to set AMAZING GOALS and achieve them! Page 9 of 16
Once you have your basic schedule down, start taking some of the pieces you ve just broken down in the previous section and start adding them to your calendar. Remember to keep them small so you won t feel overwhelmed or crunched for time if your day gets out of control. Smart phones are really great for scheduling and I will post some app recommendations on the Girls Can't WHAT? blog. For now, use whatever method you feel comfortable with and start making your schedule. Most successful people are very disciplined with their time. It takes some practice, but it s worth it. Now we all know that our days never go as planned, right? So why bother to even create a plan? Here s the thing... your plan is just a roadmap. Use it as a guide to get where you want to go, but don t worry if you hit a detour from road construction or get stuck behind a really slow truck. It happens. Reschedule and move on. I treat my goal appointments the same as I would a doctor s visit or a lunch date with a friend. If I have to reschedule, then I reschedule. I do not skip them or delete them. 2014 GirlsCantWhat.com How to set AMAZING GOALS and achieve them! Page 10 of 16
Review and revise Doing this step increases my productivity by 500% every time. It s called The Weekly Review and you guessed it it s on my calendar. Reviewing your goals often is critical to your success. Goals are not always straightforward. Big dreams require lots of edits and changes happen along the way. People change their minds, ideas shift and life happens. You will, at some point, need to modify your plan to make it work. This step is the one people get the most hung up on. It s easy to give up and quit when you have setbacks. But here s how successful people handle it. They stop, review the circumstances and revise their game plan. It s that easy. I recommend doing this weekly, no matter how big or small the goal is. Here s a really cool tip that professional athletes use to breakthrough performance blocks. They learn how to anticipate the pitfalls. Here s an example... 2014 GirlsCantWhat.com How to set AMAZING GOALS and achieve them! Page 11 of 16
If your goal is to stop drinking soda and you know you re going to be out with friends where soda is going to be in your face at every turn, take a moment to walk yourself through that scenario. Close your eyes and picture yourself choosing an ice cold bottle of water. Imagine drinking the water and think about how good you will feel when you make that healthy choice and stick with your goal. Play that over and over in your head a few times. Repetition is key. Now when you get together with your friends, press that replay button in your head and make the right choice. It works! But it only works if you do it in advance. Trying to exert willpower in your moment of weakness is setting yourself up for failure. You re going to have to brainstorm as many scenarios as you can think of where temptation might throw you off track. In fact, add a brainstorming session to your calendar and make some notes on what could go wrong and how you will handle those situations. Be your own superhero! 2014 GirlsCantWhat.com How to set AMAZING GOALS and achieve them! Page 12 of 16
Celebrate Right now, I have a reward sitting on my desk. It s a little gift I m giving myself for completing the daunting task of creating this ebook and also for the work it will take to get it on the Girls Can't WHAT? site, promote it and all the other technical stuff that goes along with it. Yes, I am excited about writing this and I m motivated to do it, but it still takes a lot of work. Having a reward waiting makes it even more fun. So when the last task is complete for my goal of launching this project, you can bet I will be diving into that 20lb. box of vintage LEGO bricks and a celebration will follow. Reward yourself for crossing that finishing line! Rewards can be anything you want. They can be large or small. Usually the larger the goal, the bigger the reward should be. This is another judgement call on your part. Make it something you REALLY want. If it s only sort of interesting, then you won t push yourself to get to it. Make it worth your effort! 2014 GirlsCantWhat.com How to set AMAZING GOALS and achieve them! Page 13 of 16
Your reward should also be visible. You should place it out where you will see it daily. Whether that is a photo on your bathroom mirror or an unopened box of LEGO on your desk, make sure you are seeing it every single day. If you don t have the item in your possession, snap a photo of it and make it the wallpaper on your phone. Just make sure it s posted somewhere that you can t miss it. Don t let it get lost on your refrigerator door, either. If you re posting it on the fridge, then remove everything else so it s the only thing you see. 2014 GirlsCantWhat.com How to set AMAZING GOALS and achieve them! Page 14 of 16
Make It Happen I hope you ve picked up some great tips on setting amazing goals and making them happen. I know this is a lot of information to digest so take it at your own pace. You can do it! There s one more huge tip that I d like to share, but I ll give you some time to work on your main goal and begin to implement some of these ideas before I send it. You won t want to miss it so check your inbox in a couple of days. If you have any questions on setting and achieving your goals, post them on the Girls Can't WHAT? Facebook page. I d be happy to help you sort it out! We d also like to hear what your crazy, awesome goal is so please post it on our Facebook page as well so we can cheer you on as you work to achieve it! 2014 GirlsCantWhat.com How to set AMAZING GOALS and achieve them! Page 15 of 16
Who am I? My name is Gretchen and I am not your traditional girl. You won t find me in a dress picking flowers and talking about cute shoes. I am most likely out doing something that someone said couldn t be done. My childhood experiences prompted me to create the Girls Can't WHAT? website in 2005. It is here I share my personal experiences along with amazing stories and interviews from some truly inspirational women. Together, our purpose is to encourage women to pursue their dreams no matter what roadblocks they may encounter. P.S. Did you like the artwork on these pages? You can make your own custom Girls Can't WHAT? image with our ColorizeME designer. Create your own avatar or order personalized t shirts, hoodies, tote bags and more. Check it out! 2014 GirlsCantWhat.com How to set AMAZING GOALS and achieve them! Page 16 of 16