The One Question to Ask When Setting Goals

It's far too easy to set goals—my journals are packed full of them—and far too difficult to achieve them. Despite making my goals SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely), I often end up looking back at my old journal entries and feeling disheartened at the lack of progress I've made.

Recently, I've begun to realise why I haven't been achieving certain goals. It's because I haven't articulated the reasons that achieving a goal would be so great. Simply put: I don't know why I'm setting out to achieve the goal.

It sounds ridiculous. You might think, well, obviously the reason that I want to give up sweet treats is so that I am healthier. But what does being healthy mean to you? Do you want to give up sweets and be healthier in order to live longer? For better skin? For whiter teeth? And hold up: Why do you even want white teeth? Is it so that you look better in photos, to feel better about yourself, or to feel more confident?

Boost your likelihood of achieving your goals, simply by asking: why? Why do I want to achieve this goal?

It's only when you get really specific about the reason why you're doing something that you crystallise your intention and get motivated enough to actually put the hard work in to achieve your goal.

Think about it. When you've got to get to the airport for an early-morning flight, how easy is it to get out of bed the second that your alarm rings that day? But try setting your alarm for 6.30am on a Sunday morning and see how many times you hit the snooze button...

I have first-hand experience with this particular struggle: one of my personal goals is to get up earlier. But every morning, when my alarm blares, I hit snooze over and over again until holy shit I'm late for work-o'clock.

It's only when there's a flight to catch that I actually achieve my goal.

Clearly, there's a big difference between the two situations. When I've got to get to the airport, there's a crystal clear reason why I've got to get out of bed: if I don't I'll miss the plane, miss out on an incredible holiday, and waste a lot of money.

But on a regular day, there's no obvious reason why I should wake up... If I'm a few minutes late for work no one will mind... So I snooze. A vague notion that early-risers achieve more, doesn't work. If I really want to start waking up early I need to let myself know why I should bother.

In order to increase the likelihood of reaching your goal, you should know concrete reasons of why this is important for you.

Here are some questions to ask yourself in order to achieve clarity on your goals:

1. What happens if I achieve my goal?

2. Why does achieving this matter to me?

3. How will I feel when I achieve this?

4. What areas of my life (such as health, wellbeing, career prospects, relationships, etc.) will improve if I achieve this?

For the best results, write down your answers on a notepad or on your phone app.

You can also simply write a list of the benefits that you will experience if you reach a goal. If you're struggling to think of more than one solid reason that you're attempting to achieve a goal, Google it! When setting my goal to wake up earlier I found out that studies show early-risers to be more productive, so I added that to my list!

If you're still finding it difficult to come up with a list of reasons to achieve a goal after some thinking, perhaps it's time to reconsider the entire goal. Will you really dedicate time and effort into achieving this goal if you can't even list off the benefits of it? Asking this question gives you a chance to prioritise the goals that will bring about the most positive change in your life.

With a clear understanding of why you want something, your willpower will skyrocket. With my list of reasons to hand, there's nothing left to do except my alarm for 6.30am and get the hell out of bed!

If you enjoyed this article, I'd love if you could follow me on Instagram, @byclairep. Why, you ask? Firstly, great question! ;) Secondly, I'm a photographer who shares pretty photos of my life in Berlin and beyond, is that enough reason?