Do you ever feel like you’re walking adrift in your natural hair journey never knowing if you’re doing the right thing and you’re just taking tips/practices from here and there? Or that you try and do all you can for healthier hair but it’s taking too long, or you keep hitting roadblocks? Well, this being the first day of the year and all and the time when making new resolutions is a given I’ll just ask you…Have you ever set goals for your hair journey? Have you devised a plan on how to reach them? Yes…No…In either case, I’ll give you some tips on how to set your hair goals for 2016 and reach them.

I believe a problem many of us transitioning to natural hair or just big chopping, make is to begin our new venture without much plan (I know I did!), we just figure things out as we move along the journey and kinda hope for the best. This can many times result in frustration and other times we’re just lucky and hit minor bumps.

The thing is, as you begin your journey you need to set some long-term and short-term goals. Yes, you can do reasonably well without any planning. However, how many setbacks have you encountered in your journey and had to hit the reset button? Or maybe you didn’t even know where that button was?

Let me ask you this, have you noticed that all great athletes set and plan out their goals? Have you noticed that they start early, train harder and are willing to do what others can’t or won’t to reach their goals? Think back to Michael Phelps, Serena Wiliams or Cristiano Ronaldo. Do you see now how setting goals and making a plan to reach them is important? You can achieve your goals much faster and with fewer surprises if you journal your hair journey.

Statistics reveal that 25% of people who make resolutions drop them after the first week, and only 46% of people keep their resolutions by month 6. Well, it just so happens you can grab a FREE GOAL SETTING PLAN for you at the end of this post and avoid being part of this statistic. Alternatively, you can check our 252-page undated hair journal here. Continue reading to find out how you can go around developing your hair plan for this year!

SETTING GOALS

Long-Term Goals

Healthy Hair is the long-term goal we should all aim to achieve. If your primary goal is long hair, then know that to reach this goal you need to have healthy hair first. However, many of us are not immune to long hair so let’s work on both.

Try to be specific about it don’t just write “I want healthy hair” or “I want long hair”. Try something like “I want shiny, bouncy, strong hair that reaches my ___” or “I want __ inches/centimetres of hair growth by __”. Being this specific will allow you visualise your goal and you’ll almost be able to feel and see it as you get closer to it. According to statistics, people who are specific about their resolutions/goals are ten times more likely to achieve their goals than those who don’t.

Since achieving healthy hair takes some time and patience it’s a good idea to make an inspiration board to motivate you and keep you on track. Use Pinterest for this, go to Curly Hair Lounge account and start pinning. Include images of natural hair:

– Hairstyles

– Hair types

– Hair Crushes

– and whatever else interests you about natural hair

Note. Please set your goals having realistic expectations of what your hair will be like. Look for people who have a similar hair texture to yours. Don’t go wishing for something you’ll never have and then be disappointed. Let yourself be introduced to your new hair texture as it grows, and fall in love with it. It doesn’t have to be love at first sight, that’s overrated.

Short-Term Goals

Once your long-term goal is set, you need to break it down into short achievable goals that will get you from (A) where you are to (B) where you and to be (Your Goal). Depending on how you want to start your journey to healthy hair you can either Transition or Big Chop. Regardless of this, you need to come up with a plan and then you need to set smaller goals. What are these? Let’s work on them.

1st| Come Up With A Plan

The plan will be your hair regimen, in it, you will plan what you will clean your hair with, how often to clarify or trim your hair, what type of hairstyles to do to promote hair health and length and so on. Read Finally! A Natural Hair Regimen That Works, to help you build your regimen.

2nd| Set Short-Term Goals

Healthy hair is the ultimate goal to have because it will give you length, lustre, manageability, strength and this can only be achieved with a good balance of healthy hair practices, products that work well with your hair and a good hair regimen.

However, healthy hair can be a difficult goal to track your success from. I mean, you’re doing all the right things, or you think you are, but how can you track it down? It’s very simple, if while doing all the right stuff, your hair is strong and you’re experiencing little to no breakage then your hair must be growing. Also, do an elasticity test, check here to know how.

Set length goals to track down your success. If your hair is shoulder length and you wish to have it waist length set smaller length points that will get you to your main goal such as collar bone, armpit, bra strap, mid-back and waist length. Set a time frame for each of these, but make them reasonable. Our hair grows 0.5 inches or 1.25 centimetres a month. The distance from your shoulders to your collar bone is smaller than the distance from the collar bone to your armpit. Therefore, you need to set a reasonable time frame.

Don’t forget to account for shrinkage! Are your goals set on curly hair or straight natural hair? If you want to achieve short-term goals with curly hair the results can vary depending on how much shrinkage you have. If you have more than 50% shrinkage you’ll take longer to reach your goals than someone with 30% shrinkage. So, please take these into consideration.

As you reach a short-term goal the motivation to continue working on your remaining goals will increase which will ultimately get you to your long-term goal. Now, to help you set your 2016 hair goals, I have created a worksheet that you can fill to register your goals and track down your success. Download your Free Goal Setting Plan and get ready to start working on your hair goals and be successful. You can also get your hair journal with all the guidance you need to track 12 months of your curly hair journey. Know more about your hair journal it here.