How to Set Goals Without Burning Out, According to Experts

One of the most effective ways to set goals is to adopt the SMART Goals strategy. For a goal to meet this criteria it must be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.

Specificity is a good starting point because it helps you pin down exactly what you want to accomplish, who might be involved to help you, how you'll assess progress along the way and which obstacles—like schedule issues or lack of motivation—you already know you'll have to address. Importantly, SMART goals begin with specificity so you identify why you're choosing this particular goal versus any other.

The other aspects of a SMART goal involve being able to measure how well you're advancing towards your aim, choosing a goal that's realistic and is meaningful to you, as well as setting a time frame. SMART goals can also stack on top of each other, although it's helpful to have just a few so it doesn't feel overwhelming to work on too many goals at once.

Some examples of these goals might be: being able to deadlift half your bodyweight in six weeks as a way to counteract sitting all day at work; running a 5K in three months for your favourite charity; traversing a set of monkey bars in preparation for an obstacle-course race you're doing in two months. All of these are relevant to a person's life, achievable within a certain time frame and have measurable progress along the way.

One more action item to add to that SMART list? Positivity.

A 2020 study in the journal PLOS ONE polled more than 1,000 people who set January resolutions and followed up with them a year later. Researchers found that participants who were successful in maintaining their resolutions used upbeat phrasing—even when compared with those who had similar goals but used more negative language.

For example, saying "I'm going to stop eating at restaurants during the week" is similar to "I'm going to cook at home every night except on special occasions". However, the latter is a much more positive spin on that goal. In the PLOS ONE study, when people adopted those types of positive statements, about 59 percent were successful in meeting their initial resolutions. Researchers concluded that this type of language is more "approach-orientated" rather than focused on avoidance.

(Related: How the Nike Run Club App Can Help You Reach Your Goals)

That positivity can easily be applied to SMART goals. Not to mention, it can also make goals feel more fun in general, said Ryan Glatt, ACE CPT and brain health coach for the Pacific Neuroscience Institute at Providence Saint John's Health Center in California.

"There's a misconception that if you're enjoying yourself, you're not working hard enough towards your goal, as if challenging yourself automatically has to be a grind", he said. "But think of how much easier it is to push yourself a bit if you're enjoying what you're doing. Build that kind of excitement and positivity into your goals and into what it requires to reach them".

Your brain operates on a reward basis, Glatt said, which is called the mesolimbic system. Willpower or motivation can help you power through to a degree but if the reward is too delayed, you may sputter. With goals that have a negative component, that loss of motivation can happen even faster than if you maintained a more neutral perspective. Staying upbeat, reinforcing what you'll gain as a result of your goals and building fun into the process can go a long way towards keeping you headed in the right direction.

When you're working to achieve a goal, you may be hitting every marker along the way but also feeling a surge of anxiety. For example, you're working out according to schedule, seeing progress and tracking to reach success but you're also feeling uneasy or resistant to some degree, even if you're happy about how you're doing.

Feeling unmoored by large-scale change, even when it's positive, is common, according to clinical psychologist Sharon Chirban, PhD, of Amplify Wellness & Performance.

"People don't tend to account for emotional shifts that can occur even with positive change", she said. "Setting a goal and working towards it requires different behaviour and that can have a ripple effect on your identity. Simply put, you may be changing who you are on some level. Even when that's beneficial, it can feel unsettling."

Another example: imagine you used to be a smoker and now you're not. Or you were a type-A worker bee but now that your goal is to replenish with rest more frequently, that description may no longer fit.

"While all of these are positive steps towards goal-setting (and achieving said goals), they can still cause temporary misalignment because you're not just adopting new habits or aiming for a fresh milestone—you're sparking a psychological change", Chirban said. She suggested keeping a journal and being honest about how all of this change feels—including the tough stuff.

"Just being aware of the process and how it's affecting you can be a good step towards pursuing your goals in a more sustainable way", she said.