3-21 Setting Achievable Life Goals

Can achieving your biggest life goals really be as simple as setting the right kind of objectives? Imagine breaking down the overwhelming process of buying a house into manageable, bite-sized tasks. In this episode of the Bella Grace podcast, we reveal how SMART goals—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based—can make even the most daunting aspirations attainable. Listen as we share personal anecdotes and practical tips to help you identify the next actionable step in your journey, making progress feel not only possible but inevitable. The promise here is crystal clear: transform your life by mastering the art of SMART planning.

But what happens when life throws you a curveball? Flexibility and support are just as crucial as the goals themselves. We'll discuss how tools like digital note takers and simple pen and paper can help you pivot without guilt, and we'll provide actionable strategies for overcoming common challenges, such as reducing alcohol consumption or finding alternatives to unhealthy habits. Celebrating your milestones and tracking progress are crucial, but so is being kind to yourself and adjusting your plans as needed. Join us as we empower you to reach out for support, stay adaptable, and find joy in every step of your journey towards a balanced and fulfilling life.

Chapters

• 0:05 Achievable Life Goals Through SMART Planning
• 16:04 Encouragement to Adjust and Achieve
• 21:46 Personal Empowerment Through Setting Goals

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Bella Grace podcast. Whether you are struggling to find balance, using unhealthy behaviors or substances to cope, or you just want to unlock the root cause of what's holding you back, bella Grace coaching can help you transform your life mind, body and soul, and this week we are doing that by talking about setting achievable life goals. Yeah, this is a big one. I feel like a lot of times, we get stuck because we don't know how to make things happen and we get overwhelmed by decision fatigue, and so I want to take a second and talk about working through situations by setting achievable goals. So, whether life has knocked you down because of a recent financial situation or a breakup, or you are having a midlife crisis because you suddenly discovered that you don't know what you want to do, but you know you don't want to do what you've been doing anymore, whatever the case may be, whatever the reason is that you want to change the way that your life currently is into something else, the way to do that is by setting achievable life goals. So we're going to break that down. We're going to talk about it today. It can be so daunting Whenever I decided to quit my corporate job. To do this, I had to set some goals and I've had to adjust those goals. When I was faced with being a single mother, like I suddenly couldn't afford the rent on my own, I couldn't afford the utilities on my own, because I was a college student working part-time and going to school full-time, and so I had to set some goals to start to move my life into the direction that I knew I wanted it to go. And so today we are going to break down setting achievable life goals. So the first thing I want to talk about is SMART goals, because I think if we can set SMART goals, then we set ourselves on the road to success.

Speaker 1: 2:32

So what are SMART goals? Smart goals are goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound. So it starts. It stands for smart, sorry. So specific goals. What does that mean? It means that your job I mean your goal needs to be specific and narrow, to be more effective with your planning. So we want to set specific goals that are measurable. So they need to be goals that you can actually measure. They need to be achievable, so nothing lofty or out of this world, like crazy, that you're not able to achieve. They need to be relevant to what you're trying to accomplish and they need to be time-based. So setting a specific time frame for when you will achieve these goals. And why is all of this important? Because when your goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based, then it signals to your brain that you can actually do these things and your brain doesn't say, eh, that's crazy, we're never going to get there, so why even try? So take, for example, if you want to be a millionaire right, that sounds insane. Your brain is going to say there's no way we can do it because we work this job and we only make X amount of dollars and we don't have time to start our own business. We're too old, we're too uneducated, whatever it is right. So your brain immediately like flushes that down the tube and is like that's never going to happen, so why even try? That is a huge goal, but if we break it down and make it a smart, achievable, bite-sized thing that we can do, then our brain focuses on that next right step instead of on the big, crazy, grandiose goal of becoming a millionaire. Okay, so, let's break this down. Okay, so let's break this down.

Speaker 1: 4:42

If your goal is to buy a house, then you need to break that down into small steps. So what would that look like? If your goal is to buy a house, then the first thing that you need to do is you need to figure out if your credit is up to par. You need to set aside a down payment. You need to set aside a down payment. So these are taking the big, lofty goal of buying a house and breaking it down into specific goals that are measurable, achievable, relevant to your big goal of buying a house, and make them time based. So for this example, we're going to say we need to look at our credit score. So maybe you are terrified to see what is on your credit, but that's step number one. So we're going to say, by the end of the week, I'm going to look at my credit score and write down any negative or derogatory remarks from your credit score so that you can then start to focus on those things and bringing those up to par to help you move towards your goal of buying a house. Okay, so the other side of that is you need to have a down payment and you're like well, I don't have two pennies to rub together. So how am I going to get a down payment. Well, maybe you start with two pennies, right? So, setting a smart goal of saving one, two, three, if you really can, 10% of your income, every paycheck. Set it aside for the down payment and put it in a savings account or somewhere where you won't be tempted to touch it. So then that becomes a weekly, biweekly, monthly, achievable, relevant, time-based, specific and measurable goal of setting aside a certain amount of money each paycheck to go towards your down payment. So can you see how the SMART goals can help you move towards your big goal of buying a house? Okay, so that is SMART goals explained.

Speaker 1: 6:52

The next thing that we're going to talk about and really dig into is breaking down big goals. So, just like I said at the beginning, if you give your brain a huge elephant to eat, it's going to walk away and say I can't eat this elephant, right? And so then your big, lofty goal just goes to the wayside, like many of our New Year's resolutions or our goals to weigh X amount by the summer, whatever. So instead we need to break down big goals into small, bite-sized pieces that you can do every day. So I have a journal where I have, like, my big goal, my big goal, my crazy goal is to be a millionaire. I know it sounds crazy and here I am three years into well, almost four years into having my coaching business and I am nowhere near that goal. But but I have small strategic steps that I take every month, every quarter, every week, every day to help move me towards that goal.

Speaker 1: 8:11

And it all started by breaking down what I need to do to make a million dollars, and I know down to the penny how much I need to make each week to reach that goal. I know how many clients I need to take on. I know how many group clients I need to take on. I know the marketing strategy that I need to use. I know all these things and every week I set little, tiny goals that are going to move me towards that goal. So I have broken down my big, lofty goal of becoming a millionaire into bite-sized pieces. So every week, I reach out to X number of people and offer my services. Every week, I reach out to X number of businesses and offer my services. Every week I reach out to X number of businesses and offer my services. I had an initial goal of hiring a virtual assistant and I'm glad to say that I have finally done that. I have finally gotten to a financial situation where I am able to hire my virtual assistant, and I'm so excited about that. And so what she does is she reaches out to the people for me. So I am able to reach out to X number of people every week and I'm super excited because it moves me a little bit closer to my big, huge goal.

Speaker 1: 9:38

And so the next piece of that is tracking your progress, because I could very easily throw in the towel and say it's been almost four years, I'm not at my goal, I should just give up, I'm never going to get there, I'm never going to make it, I'm never going to make the money that I want, and I could just throw in the towel. But instead I track my progress and I do that through a variety of ways. I have a spreadsheet where I track my clients and I track the income and I track leads and I track all the things. But it is important to track your progress because at the end of the week it is easy to say, well, I had absolutely no traction this week. I had no movement towards my goal of moving out of this house. I had no traction in finding a new place to live. I had no traction in stopping drinking this week. I have made no changes. Nothing is giving, nothing is changing.

Speaker 1: 10:50

It's so easy to say that, but when you're tracking your progress, you can see that, hey, last week I would have. Last week I drank three bottles of wine. This week I only drank one and a half. That's progress. That is something that needs to be celebrated. And so that takes us to my next point of celebrating the milestones, and the only way you can do that is if you're tracking your progress. So the way it looks is having your big, huge, lofty goal up at the top right. Let's write that down, let's get it out of our brains, let's tell our mind that we want to achieve this. So we need to put that big, lofty goal on paper and then from there we need to break it down into bite-sized pieces.

Speaker 1: 11:44

I always suggest breaking it down into quarterly goals. So every three months, this is your goal, and so then you're going to have goal, and so then you're going to have what is it? Four quarters in the year? So every three months you're going to have January, february, march. What is your goal? What do you want to have completed at the end of March, april, may, june. What do you want to have completed by the end of June, july, august, september? What do you want to have completed at the end of September, september, october, november, december? What do you want to have completed at the end of September, september, october, november, december? What do you want to have finished at the end of December?

Speaker 1: 12:20

Have those quarterly goals, and then from there, you're going to break it down by month. What am I going to do this month that is going to help me achieve this quarterly goal? And you're going to do that for every single month. And then, after that, you're going to break it down into weekly goals. What am're going to do? That for every single month, and then, after that, you're going to break it down into weekly goals. What am I going to do each week, this month, to take me to that monthly goal? And then from there, every day, you're going to set aside three things, three things that you can do that day that is going to move you towards your weekly goal. And, before you know it, you're going to be knocking out those quarterly goals. You're going to be knocking out those annual goals, and then you will see your big, huge goal come to fruition, but it starts with having those daily tasks that are going to move you towards your big goal.

Speaker 1: 13:19

Okay, so at the end of the week, whenever you look at your to-do list and you see that each day you checked off your three things, your three tasks, I want you to celebrate it, celebrate the fact that you went X number of days in a row meeting your three tiny goals. So maybe your three tiny goals literally looks like logging into Credit Karma. Maybe it looks like today I'm going to log into Credit Karma. Write that as a to-do. Write it down as a to-do. Write it down as a to-do because when you actually gain the courage to log into Credit Karma and check your credit score and check your credit report, that is a win, because for months you've probably been avoiding it. You've just been saying, well, I have crappy credit, so there's no point in trying. Don't do that to yourself.

Speaker 1: 14:15

Put it on the to-do list as one of your three tasks for the day and check it off and then celebrate. Have a little celebration to yourself. Drink an extra cup of coffee, have that latte, whatever it is that you want to do to celebrate. Celebrate that little win for the day, and then maybe your next goal for the day is to write down the derogatory marks that you have on your credit score. Put it on the to-do list, because that is moving you towards your goal of moving out. But you've got to write these things down because as you check things off of your to-do list, your brain gets a rush of dopamine and it's like yay, I accomplished something today, and then it wants more, and so then you're going to achieve more of the things on your list. So we want to keep moving towards accomplishing the small, smart goals each day so that it moves us towards our big goal at the end of the month. Okay, so that's all about achieving or celebrating milestones.

Speaker 1: 15:20

So let's talk about adjusting goals. Yeah, because sometimes we bite off a little bit more than we can chew, or we think that something is going to take less time than it actually does and we can't quite meet that deadline that we set for ourselves. So what do you do? Nothing, you just adjust the timeline. Don't beat yourself up about it. Sometimes things take longer than we anticipated, sometimes we get held up by red tape, sometimes we can't move forward with this because we're waiting on an answer from someone on that, and that is all OK. It is a part of life and it is a part of making changes.

Speaker 1: 16:04

So I want to encourage you to simply adjust your goals. Simply move the needle a little bit, move it from this day to that day. I use a digital note taker and so I can literally like just cut and paste it onto the next day. That is why I like my digital note taker is because it allows me to move things around without feeling guilty, and so I use the digital note taker. Maybe you are a pen and paper kind of person. That's fine too. Just scratch it out, move it to another day, no big deal, and you know what. You can replace it with something else on your to-do list for the day, or just leave it alone and say you know what? Sometimes this happens. It doesn't mean it's the end of the road, it just means we have to pivot and pivot. I bring into mind Ross on Friends going pivot. All we have to do is pivot right Like pivot, switch gears and find an alternative, and it is okay. It is okay to pivot and switch gears, and it is okay. It is okay to pivot and switch gears. So that is my spiel on setting smart goals, breaking down big goals, tracking progress, celebrating milestones and adjusting your goals as needed.

Speaker 1: 17:32

You trying to achieve work-life balance. This might be you trying to stop drinking or using drugs. Whatever the case may be, set goals for yourself. I often get questioned about my coaching techniques because when someone comes to me and they say I want to quit drinking, I tell them okay, are you ready to stop today, like right now, are you ready to stop? And a lot of times I'm. They will say, well, no, I don't know, you know whatever. Or we've got a wedding coming up and I'm going to probably drink there. And I will tell them don't set yourself up for failure, right, like, let's set some manageable goals, let's set some smart goals and let's try to work together to find a way to help you achieve those goals.

Speaker 1: 18:28

So maybe it looks like okay, today we're not going to drink until nine o'clock at night. That might seem easy for you, but for someone who is used to coming home at 5.30, 6 o'clock and cracking open a beer or popping their bottle of wine, that can be a daunting task. So what I do is I work with my clients, I check in with them, I hop on a phone call with them. I help them set some goals for the evening that will help them stay out of the kitchen, stay away from the bottle of wine, stay away from the beer, by diverting their attention to something that will actually help them decompress, replenish them and help them set the mood for the evening in a different light. So maybe that looks like, instead of them going straight home, instead they go to the grocery store and find something to cook for the evening that's healthy, that's going to encourage them to make wise choices, and then maybe they cook dinner and then go out for a walk instead of sitting on the couch and cracking open up your bottle of wine.

Speaker 1: 19:46

So then we repeat this we are daily until it's time for the wedding, and then at the wedding, we set some goals. So, instead of going to the open bar, why don't we walk around and try to do a scavenger hunt? Let's try to capture a picture of someone in green, a picture of some food, a picture of a flower, and this task will help them distract themselves from wanting to drink at the open bar at the wedding. And it is a small, achievable goal, right? It's an achievable goal that they can do to help move the needle towards not drinking. So I just want to encourage you and say I just want to encourage you and say you can do this. I know the task seems huge. I know the task seems daunting. Whatever it is, whatever is going on.

Speaker 1: 20:52

I know that I use some lighthearted examples here of making a certain amount of money and buying a house. Maybe your situation is facing a layoff, or maybe it is the recent loss of a child and you are trying to claw your way out of the grief hole that you found yourself in. Smart goals can help you with so much. They can help you move past so much, and if you need help navigating those things, I am more than happy to do. So I would love to sit with you and set some smart goals to help move you forward, move the needle, help transform your life and to help you see that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Speaker 1: 21:45

You're not alone.

Speaker 1: 21:46

I know it feels that way, but talking to someone about your struggles and having them walk with you through this can be so empowering.

Speaker 1: 21:57

It can help you see that you are indeed not alone, that someone is there to walk with you, hand in hand, to find a solution and to help you navigate this dark place. So reach out. I'm here If I'm not able to help you. I have lots of resources, people that I can point you towards who can also help you, that I can point you towards, who can also help you. But my entire life's mission is to help people transform their lives mind, body and soul and I think a huge part of that is setting real, measurable, attainable, time-focused goals that move the needle for you, that move you forward and help you achieve whatever it is that you're seeking. So I hope that this has helped you a little bit. Leave your comments below. Reach out. Yes, we miss Rosie so much. It is just me. For now, I will likely be bringing on some co-hosts, some guest speakers, but until then, be well, be kind, and may you find some joy this week. Bye.