Whether it’s fitness, health, finance, or sport, setting, and achieving goals is vital to progress in any arena. For those who are hoping to advance in their specific martial art, your goals can be set based on class attendance, skill learning, or competitions. No matter what you’re setting goals for, there are some basic ways to create goals that help make them achievable and realistic:
Make them measurable.
Often, we set goals that don’t have a measurable quality and therefore can’t actually be held to any sort of standard. Goals like “lose weight” or “learn a language” are too broad and generic to actually be measured. Instead, try setting goals to “lose 10 pounds” or “take a three-week French course” to really create a “checkable” goal.
Create stepping stones.
You may have a far-off goal that takes time, so set yourself up for success by creating little goals along the way. You’ll find that checking off the smaller goals motivates you to ultimately complete a goal you may have never thought possible!
Be realistic.
When you set goals that are near impossible to complete, you won’t be motivated to try once you see that reaching the end isn’t achievable. Instead, set a tough but doable goal to get you further along, then reassess and continue moving forward from there.
Get your priorities straight.
At certain times, like the beginning of a new year, we often set multiple goals for ourselves as we decide what things in our lives we need to change. Don’t spread your attention too far, however, as working on multiple goals at once can exhaust and deplete your willpower, leading to slip-ups. Instead, focus on one main goal with other, less important goals that aren’t as strenuous.
