How to Break Down Goals into Steps
Having something to work towards in life is so important. It gives you purpose, a sense of fulfilment, and even something to peek your interested and keep you engaged if daily life can get a little stressful.
The issue with goals
One of the biggest mistakes is setting a goal that is too large, broad or general. That is not to say that big goals are bad at all, we all want to achieve big things and there is absolutely nothing wrong with dreaming big. However, sometimes these can feel unachievable or difficult to accomplish without knowing where to start.
Your goal might not be something you are genuinely interested in achieving. Sometimes we set ourselves goals, or aims in life, based on what other people feel we should be doing and working towards. By doing this, it is going to constantly feel like a chore to make any progress and it is just not going to be enjoyable for you (or likely productive). Instead, really think about goals which you value and want to work on for yourself.
Why you should break goals down into steps
By breaking goals down, you are less likely to procrastinate since the next action step is already broken down for you. It is therefore much easier to see the next small step to take and does not involve trying to work anything out, or deciding where to go next.
Goals can be broken down into short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals. This in turn makes them more realistic to achieve as you have already worked out what you should be able to get done in any given time-frame. Sometimes we can be too optimistic in setting larger goals if we do not work out whether they can actually be achieved or not. By breaking them down we can make sure we are not asking too much of ourselves or will end up feeling overwhelmed.
Setting smaller goals also means that we are subconsciously constantly making achievements. Any progress that we make towards a big goal is definitely a step in the right direction. Having these broken down into smaller individual goals along the way, makes us feel more motivated and helps to build momentum in a more positive way.
By breaking goals down, it forces us to think through some of the details and also gets us thinking about time-management. All of these things make a big difference when working to a large goal or aim.
Set your large / main goal
First, define your goal. Make sure as we have discussed earlier that it is not something too broad, the more specific the better.
Assess steps / accomplishments
Break your goal down by focusing on what you would need to achieve in order to fulfil your main goal. So for example, if your aim is to gain 10,000 followers on instagram, then your steps might be to gain 500 followers, 1000 followers, 3000 followers etc. Or if your goal is to eat a balanced diet every week day, steps might be to research some facts on nutrition for your body-type, eat healthily for 1 day a week, 2 days a week, 3 days etc.
These do not need to be specific steps and can be broad milestones on the way to achieving your main goal.
Break down your milestones
Take each of your milestones from the previous task, and break these down further. Think about how you will achieve each step, what process is needed, what steps will you need to take? For the balanced diet example, this could be reducing the number of carbs you eat, adding fruit/veg to each meal, trying a new recipe once a week, going shopping for fresh produce etc.
This should then give you smaller, more achievable steps and should start to make your overall goal feel achievable.
Adding time-scales
To even further hold yourself accountable, think about how long you would need (or would like to give yourself) to achieve all of the broken down steps. This not only gives you accountability, but also makes sure that your goal is not putting yourself under too much pressure, or is not too easy to obtain. It gives you a more realistic idea of what you can achieve and allows you to plan a little more accurately.
Getting started
Choose the first milestone and focus on how you will get started. The smaller the action steps you can break this down into, the easier and more achievable making progress will feel. Our brains are programmed to want to do tasks which feel easier, faster and ultimately make us feel like we have accomplished something. This creates positive reinforcement and makes us feel good about what we have achieved, even if it is something small. Remember, every step (no matter how small) really will add up.
You do not have to plan absolutely everything. It can be very easy of falling into the trap of feeling like every step of a goal should be researched, meticulously planned and written out before any action is taken. This can lead to lots of procrastination and very little actionable progress.
Yes, breaking down goals can be hugely beneficial. But make sure to not put so much focus on this that you never actually get started. Take the leap, all of the planning can be re-visited and even altered at any stage.
Adjust as needed
Even with the absolute best and thought-out goals, change is inevitable and ultimately life sometimes just happens. Your steps and broken down goals are never going to be 100% accurate and this is why reflecting and revisiting these regularly is so important.
You may find certain things take longer than you initially thought, are more difficult, or even can experience delays which are entirely out of your control.
The main thing is to not beat yourself up about it. Broken down steps are here to help you at the end of the day, not make you hate working towards a goal.
Take some time to go back to the planning stage, and reassess. Add new steps, slightly change your goal, alter your milestones to align more with your interests. Goals are for yourself, no-one else.