Goal Setting - 7 ways to achieve big dreams

by James Eacott

If you want to achieve success - whether that's in your work, life, relationships, sport or social life - then you need to set goals. Goal setting is one of the most powerful tools to help you achieve big dreams. Here's 7 ways to optimise your goal setting

What's your goal?

To run an ultra marathon?
To spend more time with the kids?
A pay rise?
To eat more nutritious food?
To get in better shape?
To contribute more in your workplace?
To be a better partner in your relationship?

Shop our award-winning sports nutrition

Whatever your goal, setting targets is what brings results

Here at 33Fuel, our mission is to inspire and motivate people looking for a healthier way to improved performance, in sport and in life, and our goal is delivering the best nutrition and content to do just that.

Here we’ll delve into what good goal setting looks like and how to create an environment in which you’re more likely to succeed. Let’s get stuck in.

1. Get aligned: your goals must align with your life

It’s no good nailing your sporting dreams if your family life goes to pot. Similarly, if you dread the Monday alarm, how can you give the best of yourself to your friends, let alone your sport?

Personal goals are interwoven, and targets thus need to align with each other. We believe in structuring your life to create a solid foundation onto which your goals can be pinned.

Goals and life really are about the journey after all. This whole process is dependent on habit, lifestyle and controllable changes.

We all know the S.M.A.R.T acronym that says goals must be:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time-dependant,

goal setting – you’re the boss. Get after those dreams

You’re the boss. Get after those dreams

But take these concepts further and you make success even more likely, as you'll see.

2. Take charge, own your goal

Every aspect of the goal must be controllable, by you.

You will need to flex and work within the confines of your life, and you need to be the person who can ensure you reach your goals - goals must not be dependent on other people doing things for you.

3. Think big

We love this one: Think big. Be a dreamer. Because truly big goals are the most powerful.

33 is a sports nutrition company born when there were plenty of other ‘sports nutrition’ companies out there. It could be said that our goal of changing the industry was outlandish and highly ambitious at best.

But we dreamt big, and we’re living the journey. We've gone from kitchen table origins to global sales and operations on both sides of the Atlantic, and this is just the start.

Now, we’re proud to be releasing products to help you on your journey, such as our Ultimate Daily Greens – created to give your body the nutrients it needs for optimal sport (and life) performance.

Make our Uimate Daily Greens part of your high performance life

How do you 'think big'? Start by looking beyond your current ambitions.

Want to run a 10k? Go further, aim for a half marathon.
Keen to complete a marathon? Visualise yourself running an ultra one day
Do you want to make new friends? Aspire to make dozens
Itching for that promotion? Don’t just work to those job specs - work towards those on the next rung of the ladder

Your goal is still a 10k, marathon or that next promotion, but when you aim to overshoot you’ll either a) not reach the bigger goals but land at your original target or b) achieve the loftier goal.

Shoot for the stars and if you miss, you’ll land in the clouds. It's a win-win.

And when it comes to sport, don’t overthink how you’re going to get there. With big goals this lets doubt creep in.

If you’ve always wanted to run 100 miles, just enter the damn event. Though, please, don’t enter one on a week’s notice!

goal setting – don’t worry about how you’re going to do it, just commit and then find a way

Don’t worry about how you’re going to do it. Commit and then find a way

4. Go public: tell everyone

I read a superb book lately – To Shake The Sleeping Self – which followed Jedidiah Jenkins on his bicycle journey from Oregon to Patagonia. From the outset, he forced himself to tell everyone his plans.

Because it’s easy to have a dream in your head and scare yourself a bit.

But without telling anyone, you’re only accountable to yourself. And when you’re only accountable to yourself, you find yourself on a slippery slope to backing out before you've begun.

Setting the goal is the easy part. Walking the path to achieve it is a whole other matter.

Telling friends and family will give the accountability that helps you on your way.

Goal setting – shout it loud and proud

Shout your goal loud and proud

5. Give your goal it purpose

For some, the end goal is obvious: you want to run a marathon, and that’s motivation enough.

But other goals are too flimsy and can’t provide the deeper drive required to see them through.

Such as the classic 'I want to lose weight'.

Losing weight is noble enough, but if the motivation is no more than looking like Hugh Jackman or strutting it on the beach, you’re not likely to stick with it when the going gets tough.

Goal setting - Dreaming of Hugh won’t stop you biting into that doughnut

Dreaming of Hugh won’t stop you biting into that doughnut

Instead go deeper. What are the longterm changes - and benefits - that lie ahead when you've achieved your goal?

What about losing weight because it’ll make you healthier? Or because you’ll have more energy to put into your family and work. What about because you’ll life a longer, fuller life?

Now that’s motivation.

6. Big goals, medium goals, little goals

Once you’ve set your big goal, it’s time to reign your neck in a touch.

So, you want to be on a £100k salary? Run 100 miles non-stop? Go on a date night once per week with your partner?

If you’ve set your goals lofty enough, you won’t be able to achieve them immediately.

You’ll need to set medium goals first.

A £60,000 salary in two years’ time. A 50-miler in the next 12 months. One date night a month this year.

With those medium goals set, now you now need short term goals. goal setting - have a clear focus you’re truly passionate about

Have a clear focus you’re truly passionate about

This is where things get serious because short term goals are the bedrock of achievement. They're the incremental and daily changes needed to walk the path to success. The actions that turn into habits, and the habits that ultimately breed success.

'I’m going to work my ass off and demonstrate my value to my company'
'I’m going to run three times every week'
'I’m going to tell my partner I love them at least twice every week'
'I’m going to eat at least one great nutritious meal four times a week'

This is the really important stuff and these short-term goals must be actionable, and within your control.

Get a pen and paper and once you’ve scribbled down your mind-blowing, fairy tale dream goal, the one you want in a world where nothing exists that can stop you.

Got it?

Awesome. Now work backwards.

Where do you need to be in 12 months’ time to be on track towards this goal?

A quick note: celebrate each small goal achieved. They're all victories. You’re on your way now.

goal setting – celebrate every victory along the way

Party time - celebrate every victory along the way

7. Setting yourself up for failure. What failure?

If you worry you’re overly ambitious, don't. Missing goals does not make you a failure.

It’s the journey that counts. Hitting those small goals week after week. That’s the journey.

If you’ve walked the journey to self-improvement, made those small changes and altered your lifestyle to make them habitual, then you my friend are an absolute success.

If you haven’t hit that £100k salary, I’ll still bet you’ve improved beyond measure purely because you’ve focused on the here and now and nailed those daily habits.

Here’s to you and a huge goal-filled year ahead.