No matter what you are striving for, there are two simple tricks to learning how to write goals that you can actually achieve. These tricks will work whether you want to lose the baby weight, walk a 5K, or tone up your flabby arms. These tricks to success are to make your goals attainable and as specific as possible.

The biggest blow to your confidence comes when you realize you have failed to reach a goal you put out great efforts to achieve. This is what happens when you set goals that are not realistically attainable.

Let’s take weight loss as an example. If you say you want to lose thirty pounds by the end of the year and it is already mid-November you have next to no chance of actually achieving that goal. When the end of the year comes you will be disappointed no matter how much weight you did manage to lose.

A more realistic goal may be to lose eight pounds in a month. That is about two pounds a week, and you have room to lose even more and surprise yourself. Instead of setting yourself up for disappointment you have now set yourself up for a confidence boost.

Your chances of success are much higher with the lower, more realistic goal. Yet, it still doesn’t hurt to keep the hope of losing a few extra pounds in your mental view. This will push you to work harder, increasing your chances of success even more.

Whether you actually reach the goal you have held in your mind and actually lose three inches, or you only lose the two inches you wrote down, your confidence will soar.

So, how do you track your progress and measure success in the end? The second trick is to make sure your goals are as specific as possible.

Going back to our example, a general goal would be to say you want to lose weight and look better. You have not defined exactly how much you want to lose, a pant size you want to fit into, or any other concrete measure by which you can judge success.

A more specific goal would be that you want to lose twenty pounds and feel comfortable in your bikini come summertime. That gives you two ways to measure your progress and determine success: trying on the bikini and the number on the scale.

Resist the temptation to sit down and toss out your goals quickly. Learning how to write goals successfully requires some thought to what you really want in life. Get real with yourself! Then you can set multiple specific, realistic goals which will eventually boost your confidence and take you where you really want to be.