If you’re going to set goals for yourself, why not set good ones? Goals can be targets that inspire effort and achievement or elicit shame and guilt. You need to set the right goals. Here are five characteristics of good goals to set for yourself:

C – Challenging. Goals need to push you to achieve what you haven’t yet achieved. If your goal is to do something you can already easily do, then it’s not challenging. If you can drop five pounds at the drop of a hat, then it’s not challenging. Set a goal for ten or fifteen pounds.

A – Achievable. Goals need to be set far enough out in the horizon to give you direction but not so far off that you can’t see it anymore. If you’re $20,000 in debt with $2,000 a month in income, getting out of debt in three months isn’t achievable. It needs to be challenging yet realistic.

M – Measurable. This is where many good goals go to die. For a goal to be worthwhile it has to be measurable or you’ll never know when you’ve achieved success. “I want to be more loving” or “I want to be happier” aren’t good goals because there is no way to accurately measure if you’re in fact more loving. This part of goal setting will take the most thought, making the goal measurable, but it is absolutely vital.

P – Purposeful. Setting a goal to binge watch every episode of your favorite Netflix show might be achievable but that doesn’t make it purposeful. If you go to the trouble of setting goals, be sure to set goals that line up with the purpose and direction God has set for your life.

S – Specific. This plays off of measurable and ensures that your goals are as specific as possible, because non-specific goals aren’t really goals at all. If you want to pay off debt, put specific target dates and dollar amounts down. If you want to read more books, write down the number and type of books and the date you want them read by. Specifics are key to setting good goals.

If you want more information on goal setting check out my other posts 7 Types of Goals You Should Set For Yourself This Year and 3 Keys to Making Your New Year’s Resolutions Stick