How to Use a Goal Planner to Empower Your Life

“Ahh I haven’t seen you in ages!” your best friend screams as she gives you a hug. Then the dust settles, and as the two of you take a seat, those long-awaited questions start to really pour.

You couldn’t be more ecstatic, as you start rambling about everything going on in your life, especially your plans for the future. You’re all over the place for at least the next 20 min.

Then you realize, “Wow, that was complete chaos,” as you simultaneously think to yourself, “It’s probably about time that I start a goal planner.”

And you’re not wrong.

Not only could your poor friend barely keep up with all your extremely unorganized excitement, but you also face a very real possibility of losing sight of a lot of these goals, without a proper plan in place.

You know where you want to be, you have an adequate end goal and a solid perception of what you need to do to get there.

But you don’t yet have a plan.

This isn’t the end of the world, actually. Developing and having a goal planner is pretty simple, and even quite fun.

Breaking Down the End Goal

Step number one, dissect your end goal.

It’s good to know where you want to be, great in fact, but more important even than this, we need to be able to conceptualize a path of getting there.

Think about the direction your life is going to take you in the pursuit of your more long-term goals. Both your personal goals and the collective societal influence which you intend to insight.

What is naturally going to fall along this path? What kind of obstacles can you perceive yourself having to face? Who are the types of people that will be most supportive, and who will only slow you down?

Be honest with yourself as you do this, and really make sure that your end goal is actually something whose path of becoming you are willing to endure.

Dissect it, and understand its components completely. Ask yourself, does this path put me somewhere that each moment of my life will encompass a deeper meaning?

If it doesn’t, perhaps you should pursue some serious self-reflection first, in which you earnestly ask yourself, “What do I want in life?”.

If it does, great!

Goals Within Your Goals

Now, back to that goal planner.

As you have conceived your end goal and now know what a path towards its becoming may actually look like, it then becomes rather imperative that we create some secondary and more short-term goals.

As you do this, you want to maintain a focus on these four words — Progressive Path of Growth.

Allow your vision to be grand, and your dreams yet grander, but start small and be realistic. Set some goals within your goal, and within those smaller goals still, set some more goals.

Think about building yourself a pyramid, with the end goal as the tippy top. The base of this pyramid then becomes each of your daily and weekly goals. Accomplish these and rise above them, climbing through your monthly goals, and yearly goals, as you slowly get closer and closer to that ever sought-after end goal.

Establishing checkmarks or objectives

Within all of this, each goal should have a series of checkmarks or objectives, as well.

Objectives differ from goals, yes, and it’s important to know the distinction.

Where a goal is more of a focus on some broader primary outcome, an objective is a measurable step you can take in the direction of this outcome.

For example, if your end goal is to embody a healthier lifestyle over the next year, one of your secondary goals might be to lose 60 lbs, and your objective and/or checkmark might be to lose 1-2 lbs a week.

Be s.m.a.r.t. with the types of goals you’re creating here and with their underlying structure of objectives. Try not to let yourself get too overwhelmed, and remember that having a goal planner is going to help tremendously.

You have all the information you need, you’ve thought it all the way through, now just write it down.

Write It All Down

Writing goals in a physical goal planner are one of the most sure-fire ways to ensure that you do not lose sight of any of them.

Keep a notebook, one that’s handy and you can refer to on a daily basis.

Keep this well-structured list of yours, this pyramid-like framework of goals, on one of the first pages of this notebook. And yes, again, read it daily. Seriously, make this a common practice in your morning routine, and just watch how much more productive of an individual you become.

Each night before you go to bed, why not write down 2-3 objectives for the next day? Or maybe even a short-term goal you could accomplish?

Solidify in writing your intentions for the upcoming portions of your life.

Hold yourself accountable.

What Does a Planner Do?

This is exactly what a goal planner will do for you. It forces you into a world of accountability, and quite beautifully so at that.

And sure, having a goal planner is certainly an astounding first step in establishing such an accountability system, but please, don’t stop here.

Share your goals and passions with your friends and family, making absolute assertions about what you are going to accomplish.

Even read out loud to them the pages of your goal planner.

In speaking out loud the reality which you intend to create, you are actively telling the Universe, “Yes! This will all become manifested!”

Think about it like this. In telling yourself (and others) that you are going to do something, and then actually doing that thing, you are literally teaching yourself that you are a capable and empowered individual.

Use your own momentum to truly become everything you’ve always dreamed of, all you need to do is start taking the right steps. First things first, create a goal planner.