Setting Goals That Keep You Motivated And Prevent Burn Out

By Kawa

There is a fine balance to maintain in order to prevent burnout. Oftentimes burnout happens before you even get the chance to realize it. Tasks and expectations pile up, and by the time you notice you are overwhelmed, it's too late. Preventing burnout by adopting healthy goal setting habits is key. This article contains a step-by-step plan and tips on preventing burnout, be it from studying, work, or language learning, and a one-page worksheet that you can use.

The most important strategies for adequate goal setting are: 

• keeping a clear vision of what you want to achieve

• planning a detailed path to achieving your goals

• breaking big goals into smaller, more manageable ones 

• making sure you rest properly

• knowing your limits 

• and knowing when to take a break.

Keep in mind you can adapt this to your liking and depending on what works best for you.

Brainstorm your goals without thinking too much

We’ll start with brainstorming all that you want to achieve, no matter if you think it’s feasible or not at the moment. Anything goes at this stage, so take a piece of paper or whatever you prefer to take notes on and write what comes to mind. 

Here’s some questions that can help you reflect on what you want to achieve:

• What do I want to learn, either for my career or as a hobby?

• Where do I see myself in 1 / 3 / 5 / 10 years?

• What am I curious about that I haven’t tried?

• Which skills could I improve or learn?

• What do I enjoy doing, either for my career or in my free time?

• What else is there to explore from this particular area?

Once you’re done, group them together into areas or subjects. 

If you have a lot of goals for language learning, put them together and then define the goals for each language. 

If you have personal and work goals, try differentiating them into categories. My personal goals are split into professional, personal, and creative categories. 

Write down your Overarching Goals

Now that you have the gist of your goals, it’s time to identify the biggest one in each group or subcategory. This will be your overarching goal that will set the foundations of what you work on daily and what you achieve on the way.

• What is it you want to ultimately achieve in this particular area/subject?

• Which goal will take the biggest effort and time?

• How do I see myself once I achieve this? (visualization helps a lot)

• Is this something I want or was it enforced on me by external parties (e.g. family, friends, workplace, school, etc.)?

This is also the stage where you can remove goals that are duplicate, group similar ones into one, or remove goals that don’t resonate with you anymore.

With the big goals in mind, find smaller goals that build up to them

So you decided on your destination. Now it’s time to plan the journey and the “pit stops”. If you focus on just your overarching goal, you will soon become overwhelmed or lose motivation. It’s like looking at a huge mountain from the base of it. That’s pretty intimidating, isn’t it?

How do I make this less scary? Take it step by step.

This is where you look at that big, big goal and think of how you can build up to it. Depending on your goal duration, break it into chunks and figure out what you need to achieve daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. 

Keep in mind that it is completely normal and even encouraged to revise these goals from time to time and adjust them. As you actually work on it, you might notice that some things work well and some things don’t. To keep yourself motivated and achieve the goals, you might have to modify them. This is not cheating in any way, and it is better than ending up burnt out.

Schedule the goals realistically

Now comes the hard part, but I promise once you get this down, you will feel amazing. 

This part is where you think of your personal limits and your capacities. This step is recurrent, or rather a constant one throughout your journey since you might have to redo your goals or adjust them. 

I advise to start slow and increase the amount of work you do daily little by little rather than starting out strong. It is also helpful to imagine yourself as a different person when thinking about these goals. We tend to be harsher on ourselves, and by viewing yourself as someone else you can notice if it’s too much you put on yourself.

Reflect constantly and talk to yourself

Since it’s important to identify problems before you become overwhelmed, try reflecting on your progress and routine regularly. I recommend doing a self reflection every 2 weeks to a month. Take this as a check-in with yourself, a conversation if you will. 

Some things you can ask yourself:

• What are my bottlenecks/hurdles? 

• What kind of issues did I encounter?

• How can I approach these issues? 

• Am I doing too much or too little?

• Are my goals still realistic and manageable?

• Am I still enjoying what I am doing?

Look back to what you achieved and appreciate yourself

A crucial part of avoiding burnout that is perhaps not discussed enough is self-appreciation.

Please – and here I’m begging you – please take time to appreciate what you achieved, no matter how small your achievement might seem. If you work well with rewards, set some milestones and rewards for them. Or write down a list of your achievements and add more as you progress. Read them out loud and remind yourself of what you can do. 

Tips, Tricks, and General Advice

• Talk to people about your goals and theirs. Not only does this keep you accountable, but it also gives you ideas on what others are doing and how they’re planning their goals.

• Discuss your struggles and seek advice from others. There is absolutely no shame in asking for advice when you feel like you’re stuck or struggling. Talk to others, either people you know or with people from online communities, and see what they’re doing. Maybe you can use something from their own journey. In the same vein, listen to others when they struggle and offer advice if you have any. More often than not, you will feel more motivated too.

• Find a study or coworking buddy. If you’re a little like me, you might benefit from seeing others work and discussing how it's going during the breaks. The company might keep you focused and more accountable since you actually have to show up to these sessions. This can be either offline or online – there’s a bunch of websites and tools for studying along online when you don’t know anyone. And as a bonus, you can reward yourselves after the session’s done!

• When in doubt – reflect! Some people underestimate the power of self-reflection. Oftentimes, a quick reassessment of yourself goes a long way.

• Listen to your body and nourish it. Don’t force yourself to sit down and study or work for 12 hours in a row. Breaks are necessary for a reason. It’s better to take it slow and take care of yourself, both physically and mentally. Make sure you eat, drink enough water, go for a walk or stretch around, and take time for yourself. Allow your mind to rest too!

Example of Goal Setting

Brainstorming

I want to focus on my German since I want to communicate fluently. I also want to continue studying Korean and eventually reach fluency. I’d also want to work out regularly and take care of myself, both mentally and physically.

Overarching Goals

Language Learning | German

Communicate fluently, meaning not having to look up words on the spot and express my ideas clearly and accurately

Language Learning | Korean

Attempt a Korean exam and pass it

Self-Care | Work out & Mental Health

Run a marathon

Make a habit of taking time to myself and relaxing completely (no thinking about anything and just being)

Smaller Goals

Language Learning | German

• Consume content to be able to learn more directly in the language: read books, read the news, watch movies and TV series, listen to podcasts etc.

• Write in German: creative writing prompts, opinions on what I consume, descriptions etc.

• Speaking: talk with natives, share opinions, play games and talk in German.

• Practice exam questions

Scheduling

Language Learning | German

• Consume content every day for at least 5-10 minutes.

• Write a page in German every week.

• Speak weekly for at least 30 minutes

• Practice exam questions monthly for 1-2 hours at a time.

Reflection

Language Learning | German

• Writing helps me a lot on my level and I should work on it more.

• Consuming content is nice, but it doesn’t feel as helpful

Maybe I should dedicate more time to writing about what I read or watch.

Appreciation

Language Learning | German

I read 5 whole books in German which is awesome. I can understand most of the spoken casual conversations.

I listened to history and cinema podcasts and understood 95% of the conversation.

One-Page Goal Worksheet

We prepared a sheet for you to guide you through the process. You can either download the image or the pdf below.

Hope you enjoy and don't forget to tag us if you share this on social media!

Goal Setting Sheet by Language Cafe

.pdf

Download PDF • 39KB

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About Kawa

A Digital Media graduate passionate about languages, games, books, and art. Kawa is a native Romanian speaker fluent in English and German and learning Korean and Hungarian. When she’s not at work doing marketing, she still does marketing for Language Cafe and other personal projects all while drinking her 3rd cup of coffee. This explains the huge stash of tea and coffee.