Take Your Goal Setting to the Next Level with Personalized Visuals

I hate when I fail to achieve my goals. Don’t you? We often start a new year with new goals, feeling energized and hopeful. Then, by February, we’re into our old rhythms, overcome by busyness and left with little time to focus on the goals that seemed so important a month ago. Why do we lose focus? More importantly, how can we keep that from happening again? 

Make Goals Visual

As a runner in high school, I would often write my goal for the season, my target time, on my training shoes. I saw it everyday as I stretched, warmed up and ran. It was visible. The time became a symbol and reminder of why I worked so hard and what I was shooting for. It prompted me to push myself when I didn’t feel like it. Having that reminder kept me focused on my goal. Most importantly, it worked. I reached my target times and I continued to set new personal records (PRs).

I still leverage this strategy of intentionally putting my goals in front of my face in other pursuits. As I coach clients to pursue their goals, this is a critical step in the process.

Here are my top 5 ideas to get you thinking about how you can keep your goals visible everyday. 

#1. Post a Goal Sheet. You can keep this simple or make it as elaborate as you’d like. At a minimum, an effective goal sheet should include your written goals, their deadlines and an action or two that pertains to each goal. This makes for a one page overview of what you’re trying to accomplish and a brief reminder of how you’ll get there.

#2. Create A Vision Board. These are fairly common and highly customized. A vision board is a cork board or other place to gather and display goals, pictures, quotes and symbols. These ought to be things that provide you with encouragement, inspiration and motivation to start and persevere along the way to achieving your goals.

#3. Set Digital Trip Wires. With so much technology and visual input, we’d be crazy not to leverage it to help us achieve our goals. Turn your goals into images and use them as a screen saver or backdrop. I did this for my first year in a new job and it really kept me focused on excelling everyday. Quotes and other inspirational images work great too. I keep one on the Lock Screen of my iPhone, so I see it every time I unlock my phone. Can there be any one action I do more times a day than that?!

#4. Scatter Sticky Notes. These might be the greatest invention in the office supply industry, ever! I’ve attached them to my desktop screen at work with focusing statements. One I have right now says, “I push my limits everyday!” Its a reminder to stay focused on what matters most and not settle for the path of least resistance. You can put them on the bathroom mirror, in the car, or even on the refrigerator. Write your goal, jot down a quote, or draw a picture that reminds you of your goal every time you see it.

#5. Leverage Evernote. Confession: I’m one of those crazy Evernote users who tells everybody I meet how awesome it is. That said, it is a phenomenal tool for writing out your goals and your strategy and for collecting things to spur your efforts along the journey. I keep a copy of my goals for the year in Evernote and have a shortcut that takes me directly to them in a single click. This allows me to review my goals quickly and easily. The best part is, I have Evernote with me wherever I go. I can review my goals while in line at the grocery store if I so desire.

In coaching clients to be creative and come up with their own strategies for making their goals visual, I’ve come across lots of other great ideas too. Someone wanting to lose weight and eat healthier posted a “before” picture on the refrigerator. One young man wanting to finish his college degree hung an empty diploma frame over the TV in his family’s living room as a reminder to study. Another gentlemen had a son who wanted to be an Olympic athlete, so the father bought an Olympic flag and hung it on the ceiling over his son’s bed. Brilliant ideas!

The bottom line is that we need to bump into our goals regularly. When we do, they stay top of mind. These visual reminders encourage us to take action on our goals and make consistent progress toward the things that matter most to us.

Question: What visual reminders could you use to keep your focus on your goals in 2015? I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments section below. 

Link: