Set goals that are personal to you and will inspire you to reach new heights. Don’t follow the crowd and mimic the ambitions of friends – pursue something you’re passionate about, something that genuinely interests you. This helps create a sense of purpose that will motivate you to stop thinking and start doing.

Life goals are the ones you dream about happening ‘one day’ but never today. This approach has to change if you want to make things happen. You need to stop scrolling through social media, wishing you had that job, that lifestyle, that social life and instead get out there and be proactive.

American writer Earl Nightingale once said “our attitude towards life determines life’s attitude towards us” and it’s true. Project negativity to the world and it will come right back at you. Tell yourself ‘you can’t do this and you can’t do that’ and you won’t be able to do it. As cliche as it sounds, having a ‘can-do attitude,’ even if you’re faking it, can really help you realise your goals. Whenever doubt starts to creep into your mind, swat it away and be a glass half full kind of person.

It’s easy to get obsessed with goal setting. You’re hooked and will do anything to get where you want to be. However, this carries the risk of burnout. Be realistic with your aims from the very beginning. Having drive is good, but remember that you’re also human and need rest and recuperation like everybody else.

Create a timetable and set aside enough time each day or week to work on your goal. For instance, if you want to enter a 10k race, your first step should be drawing up a training plan – one which ticks off the right amount of training without the risk of exhaustion. Need a hand? Check out our challenge selection to get started.

Setting goals and achieving them is hard. There are no shortcuts or easy routes, but that’s what makes the experience so rewarding.

If you felt overwhelmed, break everything down. Not just in terms of time, but action points too. Specifically outlining what you want to achieve, when and by what means will make your goals feel much more attainable.

Goal setting rarely runs smoothly. You will hit stumbling blocks that make you question why you attempted in the first place, but that’s part of it, and the sooner you accept that the better. Rather than letting failure bring you down, acknowledge that it’s happened and learn from it. Take note of what worked well, what didn’t and move on. It’ll make you a stronger goal, setter.

The first rule of goal setting is to talk about goal setting. Tell everyone who’ll listen to what your plans are and how you intend to bring them to fruition. The added pressure will motivate you to act upon your words. What’s more, it also provides networking opportunities. Nurturing long term business goals? The more people you speak to, the better chance you’ll have of meeting individuals you can collaborate with and surpass your targets.

Don’t struggle alone. Sometimes there’s only so far you can take a project before you need a new perspective. This can be anything – maybe you’re training for a half marathon and no matter how hard you try, you can’t get your PB under that enviable 2-hour mark.

A huge incentive to make the finish line can be seeing how far you’ve come already. If your weight loss success has suddenly hit a standstill and you’re tempted to fall back into old (bad) habits, remind yourself of how well you’ve done up to this point.

Throughout your goal-setting journey, take pictures, keep a diary, even vlog your experience. Keeping track of good weeks and bad weeks also helps you to address your weaknesses and how to overcome them.

Losing sight of the end result will encourage you to veer off course. One of the best ways to stay motivated is by visualising the change you want to see. Make this image clear in your mind – the ‘you’ in X amount of weeks’ time – so when the odd setback does happen, you won’t be fazed and will come back stronger than ever.

And when you do hit your target, treat yourself; you deserve it. Managed to make it around the marathon course blister-free? There’s a post-race beer with your name on it.