Does setting goals really matter? The very short answer to this: YES!

You can’t improve your life or make positive changes if you’re not clear on what you actually want.

Goal setting is a powerful way of getting intentional about your life and choices. You have the power to shape your life in any way you want, but you have to know what you’re aiming for before you can master your thinking and behaviours for maximum results.

In this blog post, I’ll talk a bit about what goal setting means, why it’s important, and how to make sure you’re setting the right goals to achieve the outcome you want.

What does goal setting mean?

Goal setting means deciding on the outcomes you want to achieve, so you can identify the steps you need to get there. You can use goal setting in almost any area of your life – health, wellness, career, relationships, home life, and anything else.

It’s easy to set a big goal; you can simply say, “I want to get fit” or “I’m going to change jobs”. These are the types of goals people might set as their New Year’s resolutions, and, as we know, most of these intentions fall by the wayside by the middle of February!

Why?

Because you weren't clear and specific enough on what your goal is, why it’s important, and how you can reach it. Without these three elements, you are drastically reducing your chances of success.

(Don’t make the mistake of thinking achieving your goals is a matter of willpower. It’s not. It’s about understanding the way our brains work and managing your mindset to give yourself the best possible chance of succeeding.)

Why is goal setting important?

Setting and achieving goals helps you take control of your own life. It’s so easy to drift along, feeling stuck or unfulfilled, but not doing anything about it. Changing things can feel overwhelming and scary, and sometimes even impossible.

But every part of your life is a result of the choices you’ve made up to this point. If you’re ready for change, you can just make the choice to do something about it.

Goal setting is the perfect way to dip your toe in the water. Once you set a goal and take the steps to actually achieve it, you’ll gain confidence and momentum to move on to the next goal, and the next, and the next. And bit by bit, this is how you create the change you want in your life.

How to set goals and achieve them

Unfortunately, there isn’t a secret hack to reaching your goals (sorry). So many factors come into play, internally (your beliefs, habits, thought processes and feelings) and externally (your home environment, relationships and finances, for example). But you can give yourself the best possible chance. Here’s how.

Think about the three elements of goal setting mentioned above: what the goal is, why it’s important (<<< this one’s the gamechanger) and how to achieve it.

Let’s take a look at an example. According to a YouGov analysis, the UK’s second most common New Year's Resolution set in 2025 was: Get fit / exercise more.

This goal frequently tops the most common New Year’s resolution lists.

From the 1st of January, gyms suddenly get busier, and everyone’s doing dry January and buying new running gear (‘this will be the year I train for a marathon!’)… then a few weeks later, it’s all forgotten, and normal business is resumed.

We’ve all been there!

One of the reasons this goal is so hard to achieve is that it’s too vague and it’s not measurable.

• How do you define ‘improve my fitness‘? How will you measure your level of fitness? How will you know when you’ve reached your goal?

• What exactly does ‘do more exercise‘ entail? How much more exercise do you need to do? What sort of exercise do you intend to do more of?

‘Do more exercise and improve my fitness’ can be an achievable goal, but it needs a bit more work to help you really drill down into what that looks like and how it might work for you.

SMART goal setting

One of the most commonly used methods of goal setting is SMART (you might have heard of this through your work or studying).

SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound. If your goal fits into the SMART method, you’re much more likely to achieve it. Let’s see how SMART could work for the ‘get fit’ goal.

Specific

Be as specific as possible with your goal. Instead of ‘I want to get fit’, try ‘I want to take up running’.

Measurable

How can you measure the outcomes of your goal to know if you’re succeeding? Are you going to measure how many times you go out for a run? How far did you run? How fast? Get clear on how you’ll measure your progress.

Achievable

Is your goal actually achievable? If you’ve never run before, the London Marathon might be a bit out of reach (for now, not forever!). What feels achievable to you? Start with a goal that will stretch you but not scare you off completely.

Realistic

Thinking about your lifestyle, family commitments, work, health, and any other considerations, is this goal realistic? Don’t set yourself up to fail before you even begin.

Time-bound

When will you know if you’ve reached your goal? Is it going to stretch on forever into the future? Putting a timeframe on your goal makes it feel more achievable and can help you keep up your momentum.

And there is one more key question that I would tag onto the end of SMART… WHY.

(I’m renaming it SMARTY goals 😀)

Why is this goal important to you? If you can keep coming back to your answer to this question, you’ll be able to tune into the very thing that’s motivating you to set the goal in the first place.

So, using the SMARTY method, let’s rewrite that common goal: to do more exercise and improve my fitness.

I’m going to go out for a run three times a week (Specific) and train to run 5k (Measurable) by doing the Couch to 5K programme (Achievable).

I’ll go out for runs when I take the dog for a walk straight after the school run in the morning (Realistic), and I’ll be running 5k after 9 weeks of following the programme (Time-bound).

And I’m doing this so that I can go running with my son, who has been asking me to go with him to our local Park Run on a Saturday morning.

SMARTY is a brilliant tool to help with goal setting, but doing some additional mindset work, like visualisations, intentional journaling and coaching, will supercharge your goal setting and success even more.

There are so many ways to harness the power of your mind!