9 Ways to Stay Focused on Your Personal Growth Goals

At least 41% of Americans set a New Year’s resolution every year.

With New Year’s around the corner, you may be thinking about your own personal growth goals.

If you want to achieve your goals, you’ll need to commit to focusing on those goals. After all, 80% of people who set New Year’s resolutions have already failed by February.

Luckily, we’ve got some great tips to help you focus on your goals so you’ll have a better chance of achieving them. Here are nine ways to stay focused on your personal growth goals.

1. Define Your Goals

Setting goals is a fundamental part of achieving them. This may sound simple. Oftentimes, though, people set undefined, vague goals and then wonder why they haven’t achieved them.

If you only have a vague idea of what you actually want, how can you focus on achieving it?

If you’re going to set a goal, you need to take the time to define that goal. Grab a pen and a piece of paper and write down exactly what you want. You may only have one goal, or you may have five.

Either way, use basic, focused language. Next to each goal, write exactly why you want to complete this goal.

For example, if you’ve been wanting to lose weight for a long time, set a specific goal. Maybe your goal is to lose 20 pounds by March. Write this down, and then write why you want to lose this weight. Maybe you’re tired of not fitting in your clothes or you’re having health problems.

Whatever the case, defining your personal growth goals is a critical component when it comes to achieving them.

2. Remove Distractions

What’s keeping you from achieving your goals?

Maybe you’ve always wanted to write a novel, but every time you set down to write, you end up on social media instead. Perhaps you’re trying to start a business, but you keep getting distracted by your favorite TV show.

Staying focused on your personal growth goals is all about removing outside distractions. That means getting rid of the things that don’t help you achieve those goals.

Don’t worry–TV and social media will still be there when you’re finished.

3. Measure Your Goals

You’ve probably heard of S.M.A.R.T goal setting. Your goals should be:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Time-based

This allows you to set up milestones and know when you’re close to meeting your goals.

When you set your goal, you can decide how you’ll quantify success. Maybe it’s raising a specific amount of money, getting a certain number of clients, or running a marathon.

Whatever it is, setting a measurable goal allows you to track that goal and honestly know where you stand as you try to meet it.

4. Talk About Your Goals

Talking about your personal growth goals is an excellent way to keep them top of mind. Plus, it helps keep you accountable as friend and family members ask how you’re going.

Once you’ve set your goals, regularly tell people about them. Let them know if you’re making progress, or even if you need some help.

This also helps you avoid sabotaging yourself. You’ll have people who will know if you’re doing things that are making it more difficult for you to meet your goals.

5. Meditate

Do you suffer from monkey mind? It can be difficult to focus on your goals when your mind seems to be running 100 miles an hour in different directions.

Recently, mindfulness and meditation have gained in popularity. People are realizing the benefits of “tuning out” and paying attention to the present.

Just 10 minutes of meditation or mindfulness a day can have incredible benefits. Check out Headspace, which makes meditation easy and can give you back the focus you need.

If you’re not the app type, just try to sit in silence for five or ten minutes.

6. Remove All Vices

Vices aren’t the same as distractions. Distractions are social media, TV, or the party next door. Vices are the types of things you turn too when you really don’t want to work.

Once you begin removing them, you’ll notice you have much more focus available to achieve your personal growth goals.

If you tend to eat when you’re stressed, or you’re a smoker or drinker, start by removing these vices. You’ll soon see when you begin craving them and also when you have no cravings.

Often, those cravings will hit right when you’re working towards your goals.

7. Delegate Personal Responsibility

How often do we take personal responsibility for the things that go wrong in our lives? It’s important to recognize that your ability to achieve your goals is your personal responsibility.

You have two choices: Accept things the way they are, or take responsibility for changing them.

Once you acknowledge that you’re the only one responsible for your actions and decisions, you’ll find it much easier to focus on your goals.

8. Acknowledge Resistance to Change

Your brain hates change. It assumes that any changes are a threat and will do anything it can to discourage you from changing your ways.

One of the best things you can do to focus on your goals is to acknowledge this. Make a list of all of the ways you’re rewarded by changing your ways.

There’s often a sense of security when it comes to the habits that don’t actually serve you. Letting go of these things can be challenging, but will make it much easier to achieve your personal growth goals.

9. Discard Limiting Beliefs

You probably have ingrained beliefs about who you are and what you are (and are not) capable of.

These beliefs form your self-image and can make it difficult to focus on your goals. You also use these beliefs to form assumptions about whether or not you’ll actually achieve those goals.

For personal growth, it’s crucial that you regularly evaluate these beliefs to see whether they’re serving you or limiting you.

Ready to Meet Your Personal Growth Goals?

The above tips will help you break through the noise and focus on your goals.

Don’t forget to write your goals down and track your progress. Hopefully, you’ll have achieved some or all of those goals by this time next year.

Want to learn more about personal growth? Check out our latest self-improvement blog posts.