One of the best helpers for achieving your goals is to have accountability and measurability. Goals that don’t have a measurable result are not terribly effective at moving you forward. Having a measurable result and someone or something to which you hold yourself accountable provides much reinforcement to your self-discipline.

For example, if your goal is to lose weight and become more healthy, that is a laudable goal. It is not, however, all that easily achievable. It has no measurable, quantifiable steps along the way. If, on the other hand, you set out to lose 20 pounds and 5% body fat, those are specific goals, and you can set a goal of 1 pound a week, or whatever is achievable for you, until you reach your goal. This way you have a sense of progress along the way. “Oh, I’m 1/4 of the way there”, “I’m halfway there!”, etc.

Even better is having someone to whom you’re accountable. This can be a weight loss partner, with whom you exercise or whatever, a spouse whom you keep updated on your progress, or sometimes even more effective is someone you’re paying, ie a physical trainer. Most people have a strong subconscious impulse to not waste money. “Waste” has a widely varied meaning when it comes to money, but paying someone to help you lose weight and not working at it would generally fall into that category.

Possibly the strongest motivator of all, which I briefly mentioned above, is a sense of progress. There is nothing that makes a goal feel more achievable, more inevitable, than being able to see progress toward that goal. It is much easier to move ahead toward your goal when you can look back at the ground you have already covered. It’s much easier to walk five miles to reach your goal when you can look back and see you have already covered ten. Then you’re on the downhill slope, the easy part.

The hardest part of reaching any goal is taking the first few steps. Once you’re in motion, then you have inertia on your side, instead of working against you. So set specific, measurable goals, set up someone to whom you are accountable, and keep track of goals reached along the way. These things, done together, will help keep you motivated and moving toward your ultimate destination.