Goal Setting with Strengths

My top tips for setting goals and changing behavior

Another new year is on the horizon, and everyone seems to be writing about goal-setting and habits. If you’re interested in learning how to do this in a way that’s unique to you – then you’re in the right place!

Using your strengths to set goals is a fantastic way to ensure success. Why? When you understand yourself and your talents, you can work with them, not against them.

Here are three quick tips from a process my partner and I used to look back at the year and look ahead at what we want to achieve, create, and experience this year.

Celebrate the wins.

We started the conversation by asking what went well this year. What did we achieve? What did we overcome? (Hint: look back at the photos you took this year to remind yourself of what happened!) Some of our answers included:

• Building the life we wanted by saving more

• Making career moves

• Learning new skills

• Working our way through the grief of losing a family member

• Overcoming significant health challenges, which included surgery

• Prioritizing our health

• Taking our first trip together without our kiddo

Start. Stop. Continue.

As a facilitator, I’ve used this quick process with groups and individuals. This simple phrase can help you evaluate the things you want to start doing, stop doing, or continue doing. As we sat down to plan, my partner and I asked what we wanted to start, stop, and continue: in our family, in our relationship, and with ourselves. Here are some examples that might help you:

• Start taking more family vacations.

• Continue our workout routines to support physical and mental well-being.

• Continue to be brave in the choices we want to make for our family and our lives.

• Stop feeling guilty when we make a choice different from what others want.

Apply your strengths.

You have a direction; you’ve listed clear ways you’re going to achieve your goals. Now, think about how you’ve been successful in the past with something similar. What strengths, skills or tools helped you achieve or have success in the past? Can you identify one of your strengths that could help you get to where you want to go?

Here’s my example: I use my discipline strength often to set a plan and break things into an easy-to-follow structure. If I don’t plan it out, it often doesn’t get done. I then use my communication strength to communicate my goals to those closest to me. Their check-ins and accountability help me see where I need to adjust my plan.

If any of the actions you wrote down for start or continue feel too big, break it down into smaller parts until it doesn’t repel you and you want to act.

If you want to apply strengths-based goal setting to your own life, I would love to connect and talk about how I can help you.

Happy goal setting! Wishing you a successful 2024.