How to set monthly goals. 

It’s important to figure out what you’d like to achieve in your life. However, learning what steps to take to set those goals can be a challenge. 

Monthly goals can serve as an awesome intermediate stage for breaking yearly and/or quarterly goals down into smaller increments. 

Plus, you can fit 4 sets of weekly goals into each month—which means that plotting out your monthly goals can give you some valuable insight into how to set up your weekly goals (and even your daily to-do lists). 

Whether you are breaking a long-term goal into smaller, more manageable pieces—or simply setting monthly goals to help you accomplish something important, this article will help you in your journey toward success.

6 Steps – How To Set Monthly Goals

1. Figure Out What You Want To Accomplish

Think about this:

In order to bake something delicious, it’s always better to start with a recipe. 

The ‘recipe’ serves as a guide for what you’re trying to accomplish—a ‘roadmap’ that you can follow to arrive at your destination successfully. 

Without this, you’ll just be haphazardly throwing ingredients into the bowl—and you’ll have no idea how it’s going to turn out. 

In other words…

In order to succeed in life, it’s in your best interest to come up with a plan of action and a specific desired destination as the end goal. 

This is why the first step on our list is to figure out what you want to accomplish. 

You want to define what ‘success’ looks like for you. 

At first, your plan doesn’t need to be perfect. 

You only really need a concept to begin this process (though being as specific about your definition of ‘success’ as possible gives you a powerful advantage).

Then, you can move on to the next steps where you take that concept and make it a full-fledged plan of action.

2. If You Have Long-Term Plans, Break Those Down Into Monthly Goals

Long-term goals can be extremely overwhelming when you look at them as a singular ‘to do’ list item. 

However, you can help to reduce this overwhelm by breaking those goals down into smaller, more achievable monthly milestones.

For example:

If you start out with a year-long plan to lose 20 pounds, you can break that goal down into 12 monthly milestones—and that’ll give you 12 smaller, more achievable goals. 

When you spread these out over the course of a year, they won’t seem nearly as overwhelming. 

Plus, this can empower you to make more specific plans for how to achieve each monthly goal—which, in turn, will add up to the accomplishment of the larger yearly goal. 

Little by little, month by month, you will take steps towards the accomplishment of your goal. 

And before you know it, you’ll be where you want to be. 

This is just another step in the strategy of learning how to set monthly goals that’ll get you amazing results in the long term. 

3. Make Your Goals Challenging, Yet Achievable

Challenging yourself is important, but it’s also important to know your limits and what you can and cannot realistically achieve. 

If you set a goal that’s unachievable, you might end up getting disappointed in yourself—which could set you back. 

Make sure to set goals that are realistic and that you believe you can accomplish. 

If a goal is too big, you can even split it up into smaller milestones and spread it out over several months. 

Be ambitious—but don’t set yourself up for failure with impossibly high expectations either. 

4. Write Your Goals Down On Paper

It’s always a better idea to write your goals down as SMART goals. 

Writing down goals in general will definitely increase your odds of achieving them, but writing them down as SMART goals is even better. 

SMART goals are goals that are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-Bound

To read more about smart goals , to learn to write them for yourself, read this quick-start guide: SMART Goals For Success – In 5 Simple Steps. 

As for where to write them—I’ve always said that where you write down your goals is nowhere near as important as just making sure that you DO write them down.

With that being said, you can write down your goals on blank paper, in a notebook, on printable goal setting sheets, or even in a dedicated goal planner.

5. Focus On The Highest Priority Goals First

The truth of life is that we only have a certain amount of time each month. 

This is why it’s important to prioritize and achieve your most important goals first every day. 

If you try to set a huge laundry list of big goals each month, you’re likely to end up exhausted and disappointed. 

Instead, try to figure out what your most important goals are, and prioritize those goals on a weekly and daily basis.

When we prioritize our most important goals, we give ourselves our greatest odds for success.

6. Get To Work

This last step might just be the most important part.

Get to work. 

Now that you’ve set your goals and made a plan to achieve them, you can move on to the process of actually accomplishing them and checking them off your list. 

If you’re looking for more advice on setting goals for the future, consider reading this guide: How To Make A Plan To Change Your Life – In 11 Powerful Steps. 

If you’re still not totally clear on the finer details and step-by-step subtleties of how to successfully set goals and achieve your dreams, download my Goal Setting Essentials Starter Kit. It comes with everything you need to get started with goal-setting today, including 2 ebooks and 4 different types of printable goal-setting sheets. 

FAQs

What are some good monthly goals?

Some examples of monthly goals could include:

• Getting a new job
• Getting a raise at work
• Solidifying a new workout routine
• Decluttering your house
• Planning a family vacation
• Spending more time with friends and family
• Being a better parent

How do you set your goals for 3 months?

Setting 3-month goals isn’t so different from setting monthly goals, except that you multiply the time deadline by 3.

In any case, it still pretty much works the same way.

You figure out what your 3-month objective is, you break those three months down into individual months, then weeks (and then, individual days).

You make a detailed plan for how you want to accomplish your objective based on this timeline, then you write down your plan and get to work.

How do you set up a monthly plan?

Setting up a monthly plan for your life may involve creating a monthly routine for yourself.

Setting up a monthly routine isn’t that much different from setting up a daily routine.

To learn more about how to do this, check out this guide: How To Build A Routine And Achieve Your Daily Goals. 

Basically, you need to review all of the important tasks that need to get done over the course of the month on a regular basis, write down a plan for how and when you’re going to accomplish these things, and then stick with the plan and check items off the list as you accomplish them.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this post has helped you to understand how to set monthly goals—and in turn, set yourself up for success each and every day as a result. 

Of course, at the end of the day, this is just another part of the larger, overarching process of turning your dreams into goals, and writing those goals down to create a roadmap for success in your life.

This is how you begin your journey to success and crush it.

You’ve got this. I believe in you.

Now it’s time to get to work.

Best wishes…

Jay O’Donnell