Setting goals gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation. By
setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the
achievement of those goals, and this, in turn, increases your self confidence.
The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in
life. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to
concentrate your efforts. You'll also quickly spot the distractions that can,
so easily, lead you astray.
You set your goals on a number of levels:
1) First you create your "vision" of what you want to do with
your life (or perhaps for the next 5 years), and identify the large-scale goals
that you need to achieve to produce this „big picture“.
2) Then, you break these down into the smaller and smaller targets that
you must hit to reach your vision.
3) Finally, once you have your plan, you start working on it to achieve
these goals.
Step 1:
The first step in setting personal goals is to consider what you want to
achieve in your lifetime (or at least, by a significant and distant period in
the future). Setting long-range goals gives you the overall perspective that
shapes all other aspects of your decision-making.
Set goals in some of the following categories (or in other categories of
your own, where these are important to you):
Career – What level do you want to reach in your career, or what do you
want to achieve?
Financial – How much do you want to earn, by what time in your life? How
is this related to your career goals?
Education – Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular?
What information and skills will you need to have in order to achieve other
goals?
Family – Do you want to be a parent? If so, what does it take to be a
good parent? How do you want to be seen by a partner or by members of your
extended family?
Artistic – Do you want to achieve any artistic goals?
Attitude – Is any part of your mindset holding you back? Is there any
part of the way that you behave that upsets you? (If so, set a goal to improve
your behavior or find a solution to the problem.)
Physical – Are there any athletic goals that you want to achieve, or do
you want good health deep into old age? What steps are you going to take to
achieve this?
Pleasure – How do you want to enjoy yourself? (You should ensure that
some of your life is for you!)
Public Service – Do you want to make the world a better place? If so,
how?
Spend some time brainstorming
these things, and then select one or more goals in each category that best
reflect what you want to do. Then consider trimming again so that you have a
small number of really significant goals that you can focus on.
As you do this, make sure that the goals that you have set are ones that
you genuinely want to achieve, not ones that your parents, family, or employers
might want. (If you have a partner, you probably want to consider what he or
she wants – however, make sure that you also remain true to yourself!)
Step 2:
Once you have set your lifetime goals, set a five-year plan of smaller
goals that you need to complete if you are to reach your lifetime plan.
Step 3:
Then create a one-year plan, six-month plan, and a one-month plan of
progressively smaller goals that you should reach to achieve your lifetime
goals. Each of these should be based on the previous plan.
Step 4:
Then create a daily To-Do List
of things that you should do today to work towards your lifetime goals.
At an early stage, your smaller goals might be to read books and gather
information on the achievement of your higher level goals. This will help you
to improve the quality and realism of your goal setting.
Finally review your plans, and make sure that they fit the way in which
you want to live your life.
Staying on Course
Once you've decided on your first set of goals, keep the process going
by reviewing and updating your To-Do List on a daily basis.
Periodically review the longer term plans, and modify them to reflect
your changing priorities and experience. (A good way of doing this is to
schedule regular, repeating reviews using a computer-based diary.)
SMART Goals
A useful way of making goals more powerful is to use the SMART mnemonic.
While there are plenty of variants (some of which are included in parenthesis),
SMART usually stands for:
S – Specific (or Significant).
M – Measurable (or Meaningful).
A – Attainable (or Action-Oriented).
R – Realistic (or Rewarding).
T – Time-bound (or Trackable).
Every letter in SMART stands for an adjective
that describes an effective way to set goals.
- Specific. When
setting goals, they should answer the highly specific questions of who,
what, where, when, and why. Instead of the general goal, "I want to
get into shape," try for a specific goal, "I enjoy some form of
exercise each and every day."
- Measurable. In order
for us to track our progress, goals should be quantifiable. "I'm
going to walk more" is far more difficult to track and measure than
"Every day I'm going to walk around the block 10 times."
- Attainable. It is
important to evaluate your situation honestly and recognize which goals
are realistic, and which are a little far-fetched. Instead of, "I am
going to be this nation's Mother Teresa," (while admirable) it might
be more realistic to say, "I am going to volunteer three nights a
week at my local soup kitchen."
- Relevant. Is this
goal relevant to your life and to the "big picture" questions
you have already asked yourself? Some good questions to ask yourself when
figuring this out are: does it seem worthwhile? Is now the right time for
this? Does this match my needs?
- Time-related.
Setting a "due date" to meet goals not only keeps you on track,
but it prevents pesky daily roadblocks from getting in the way. Instead of
saying, "I'm going to get my college degree", you might consider
saying, "I'll have my B.A. in 4 years."
Attention! Highly aspirational goals often require us to develop new
competencies, some of which may be beyond current capabilities. As we develop
these competencies, we are likely to experience failures, which then might become
de-motivational. Be aware that stretching yourself out of the comfort zone can
be unpleasant. We don’t (yet) have what it takes. Push yourself past the
unpleasantness. Work on expanding your resources and capabilities. Never give
up. This makes you grow.
Day 1: What categories of goals do you want to work on? Personal Finance?
Relationships? Career? Education or Skills? Social Competence or Behavior?
Write down the goals you want to reach. State each goal as a positive
statement – Express your goals positively. Set precise goals, putting in dates,
times and amounts so that you can measure achievement. If you do this, you'll
know exactly when you have achieved the goal, and can take complete
satisfaction from having achieved it.
When you have several goals, give each a priority. This helps you to
avoid feeling overwhelmed by having too many goals, and helps to direct your
attention to the most important ones.
Day 2: Today, break down your goals (or only one goal for now if your time is
limited) into short-term goals or stepping-stones. Write everything down. This
crystallizes them and gives them more force.
Keep the short-term goals that you're working on small and achievable.
If a goal is too large, then it can seem that you are not making progress
towards it. Keeping goals small and incremental gives more opportunities for
reward. If you base your goals on personal performance, then you can keep
control over the achievement of your goals, and draw satisfaction from them.
Day 3: Keep track of your progress. Journaling is a great way to keep track of both
personal and professional progress. Checking in with yourself and acknowledging
the progress made towards a certain goal is key to staying motivated. Keep your
goals posted where you can see them.
Try http://www.joesgoals.com/ or http://www.lululemon.com/education/goalsetting
to keep track of your goals.
Day 4: Every day, check how far you’ve come and what Stepping-Stone you can
take on today. You may not have lots of time so you may choose to achieve
“only” a small Stepping-Stone or Short-Term-Goal today. As long as you are
moving toward your Vision or Long-Term-Goal, you are doing fine.
Day 5: When you've achieved a goal, take the time to enjoy the satisfaction of
having done so. Absorb the implications of the goal achievement, and observe
the progress that you've made towards other goals.
If you are working on a Behavior Goal (“I do some form of exercise
daily”), it includes turning new behavior into a habit. Sometimes you can build
up to the end goal (“Today, I’ll use the stairs instead of the elevator and
tomorrow I’ll walk around the block.”). Often, you just have to remember to do
the behavior every time until it establishes itself as a routine or ritual.
Achievement Goals can be broken down into Stepping-Stones. Some of these
goals can be achieved quickly, some others take time. Often, you must break
down a Stepping-Stone into more steps:
Big Goal: Become a real estate manager
Stepping Stone: Get a degree in real estate management
Smaller Steps: 1) find out which schools offer the degree, 2) find out
what the requirements for entrance are, 3) apply for entrance, 4) finish course
work…
Today, you’ll review the goal work you’ve done this week. Celebrate each
small victory. Remember, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single
step.
One step at a time.
And now, your goal is to have a pleasant weekend!
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