Weekly Goals: How to Set and Achieve Them (6 steps)

If you know what you want in life but fail to set and achieve weekly goals, you are missing one of the surest ways to success.

I have worked and been successful in many different fields and have a lot to share on this subject, and I do so in my books and CDs. But if I were limited to sharing only one piece of advice on what is most important to success, it would be “Master the discipline of setting and achieving weekly goals.”

Gradually, as you master the system I have described below, you will notice that you are accomplishing an amazing amount.

Let’s dive in.

Step 1: Know your bigger goal

In order to set weekly goals, you first need to know what you want to accomplish in the long run.

Start by asking yourself: “What do I want to achieve for myself in this life? What do I want to achieve for myself this year?”. Don’t be afraid to think big and choose a large goal.

Another way to come up with personal and uplifting goals is to imagine being at the end of your life, then ask yourself: “What do I regret not having, being, or doing in my life?”

Your bigger goal can be about:

• your finances, eg. “make a million dollars per year”
• your health, eg. “loose 10 lbs before the end of the year”
• your relationships, eg. “find the love of my life”
• your personal development, eg. “be able to hold a conversation in Japanese”

Step 2: Create weekly goals

Your long-term goal is likely too large to be achieved in one chunk. So break it down into smaller, achievable milestones. Ask yourself, “What do I need to do to move closer to my goal this week?”

Be specific and intentional about the goals you set for the week. Consider what tasks or actions will help you make progress towards your long-term goal. What skills, resources, and knowledge might you be missing? Set deadlines for each task and prioritize them according to their importance.

I’ve included examples of weekly goals to inspire your own below.

Step 3: Make your weekly goals actionable and measurable

Not all goals are created equal. The way you formulate them will affect the likelihood that you achieve them.

“Eating better”, for example, isn’t a great goal. It’s too vague. One has no way of knowing whether they’ve achieved it or not. What does eating better mean?

Make sure the goals you choose are:

1. Specific and measurable: For your weekly goals to be effective and pull you forward, you need to make them measurable, like “eat 5 whole fruits or vegetables per day” or “pitch at least 3 investors”.
2. Not too hard, not too easy: Do not push yourself too hard or you will rebel against the regime. Do not make it too easy or you will lack the motivation to pursue it. Choose a middle ground between the two extremes. Challenging enough to feel a sense of accomplishment when you complete it, but not too hard that you won’t be able to complete it.

Step 4: List the steps you will take to complete your goals

When it comes to weekly goals, your best intentions do not count. The only thing that counts is your ability to set goals and achieve them. Everything else is illusory. To achieve these goals, you need discipline. You need action in both the inner world of your thoughts and the outer world of your activities.

Setting goals without taking action is futile. Goals alone won’t get you there; consistent action is what brings them to life. Change can only happen if you put in the work.

Ask yourself every day what you can do to make progress, both in the short term and the long term. Make a list of all the concrete steps you will take to achieve your weekly goals at the beginning of each week.

Step 5: Review your progress weekly

After each week, review what was done and what was not done.

When noticing what didn’t get done, be conscious of the reasons it didn’t get done. This is valuable information that you need for the next week.

On the other hand, when you accomplish your weekly goal, acknowledge yourself. This builds a success vibration. Nothing succeeds like success. You build a success vibration week by week by simply accomplishing your weekly goals.

Step 6: Plan the following week

At the end of each, after reviewing your progress, work on your plan for the following week.

If you didn’t achieve a weekly goal, design a new strategy for the following week and be determined to succeed the following week. There is no need for remorse or recrimination. As the great boxer Muhammad Ali said, “A heavyweight fight is fifteen rounds and you don’t have to win every round to win the fight.” Each week is a new week and a new opportunity to be successful.

Following this weekly process you will soon discover your weak areas—where you avoid doing certain tasks or exercises. Knowing this is extremely valuable. We all have strengths and weaknesses. We all have our own particular idiosyncrasies that trip us up. Until you monitor yourself weekly you might not be aware of them.

You must become aware of your weaknesses so you can design strategies that surmount these problem areas. Discipline yourself to see and know yourself at an intimate level, and to have the courage to make the changes that will cause you to be more effective at setting and achieving weekly goals.

Weekly Goals Examples

Goal: Lose 10lbs by the end of the year

Weekly goals:

• Go for a 30-minute walk every day
• Avoid sugary drinks and fried foods
• Attend a fitness class twice this week
• Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day

Goal: Get promoted to a higher position in the company

Weekly goals:

• Attend a networking event and meet at least 3 new people
• Update my resume and LinkedIn profile
• Research and learn a new skill relevant to my job
• Complete a project ahead of schedule

Goal: Save enough money to buy a house

Weekly Goals:

• Set a weekly budget and stick to it
• Reduce spending on non-essential items (list them)
• Research and compare mortgage rates
• Increase contributions to a savings account

Goal: Build a strong and loving relationship with my partner

Weekly goals:

• Plan a surprise date night
• Have a conversation with my partner about our future together
• Take care of a chore for them, like picking up their dry cleaning
• Express appreciation and gratitude daily for the things they do for me and our relationship

Goal: Run a half marathon in 6 months

Weekly goals:

• Run for 30 minutes, three times this week
• Do strength training twice this week
• Join a local running meetup
• Buy a proper pair of lightweight running shoes

Goal: Be able to hold a conversation in Japanese

Weekly goals:

• Spend 30 minutes each day studying Japanese vocabulary and grammar
• Listen to a Japanese podcast or watch a Japanese TV show for 30 minutes every other day to improve listening skills
• Find a language exchange partner online to practice speaking with
• Create flashcards for the 100 most commonly used Japanese words and phrases

Now it’s your turn. Whether you’re looking to set weekly goals for work or you’re student setting objectives for school, use the steps outlined above to come up with your own weekly goals and move in the way of your dreams.

Why Set Weekly Goals?

The purpose of setting and achieving weekly goals is not to learn how to push yourself harder and do more work—actually, if you practice this system, you should be able to work less—but rather to get into the habit of being able to plan and execute your intentions.

“Execute the basics; master the basics,” says my good friend Jim Murphy, a sports coach and mentor to many professional athletes. “When you master and execute the basics, the rest comes naturally.”

So too in our lives, the same principle applies. Master and execute the basics. One of the basics of having a happy and successful life is simply mastering the ability to set and achieve weekly goals.

Having a successful life is simply having the ability to know what you want and then having the methods to accomplish it.

When you can master setting and achieving weekly goals, you can master anything your mind can conceive of. This simple practice will revolutionize your life.

“The reason most people don’t achieve their goals in life is because they didn’t have any in the first place.” Dennis Waitley

Why weekly and not daily or monthly?

A week is a long enough time to accomplish a number of tasks, and a short enough time to notice where you are executing well and–most importantly–where you are not. A weekly review lets you catch your procrastination, inertia, bad habits and all the distractions and details that sabotage your best intentions.

Does it mean you should not set long-term goals? Certainly not.

Big goals create momentum and drive you towards success. But just dreaming big isn’t enough; you need a plan to turn those dreams into reality. Without a solid roadmap to guide you, the initial excitement and enthusiasm can quickly fizzle out.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”  – Lao Tzu

The achievement of an audacious goal is often the result of accomplishing numerous smaller goals along the way. So to achieve your big vision, you need to break it down into bite-sized goals that have clear deadlines. By tackling smaller, weekly goals consistently, you’ll eventually reach the ultimate goal. Each step you take along the way builds upon the one before it, leading you closer to the finish line.

A Final Note on Discipline

Discipline is a topic I refer back to again and again, both in my writing and in my talks, for a very simple reason:

Without disciplining both your thoughts and actions, you are unlikely to achieve success, happiness or personal fulfilment.

Many people think that Mind Power is a magic wand, an easy way to manifest your goals; that you just “think” something a few times and soon it happens. I wish it were so, but it takes more than that.

Mind Power is an effective and powerful tool in creating your reality, but it will only happen if you can do your exercises regularly and consistently, week in and week out, and follow up these exercises with action.

This will only occur if you have discipline. Discipline to persist with your mental exercises beyond the initial euphoria and novelty of working with your mind in this new way, and discipline to set and achieve weekly goals.

Discipline is not a dirty word, and it is not something you should avoid or approach with trepidation. If you dislike the sound of discipline, change your attitude about it immediately and let discipline be your friend, your mentor, your teacher and your coach.

The professional sports team that neglects discipline in either their preparation or on the sports field will always, in the end, be soundly beaten by the team that possesses discipline. An undisciplined team will not have the conditioning, the strategy or the execution necessary to win it all. They may have moments of brilliance, even dominance, but those moments will eventually give way to disorganization and ineptitude.

So too in our life. A disciplined life will always be more successful and enjoyable than an undisciplined life.

Now a couple of questions: Are you disciplined? Do you play to win in your life? What is your strategy for achieving your goals? How well are you executing that strategy?

It’s amazing to me how many people want to be happy, successful and personally fulfilled in their lives, and yet they have no discipline or strategy to achieve it. They think it is going to happen if they just want it badly enough.

Wanting something to happen in your life without having discipline or a strategy is like a sports team entering a game with no game plan, just hoping it will all work out. Don’t hope it will work out. Design a strategy and then execute it.