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Setting your Goals Effectively
There is a difference in setting your goals and setting them
effectively. Anyone can set a goal, but doing it effectively means that
it will actually get done.
There are so many things that you can do to better your life, but if
you don’t know how to go about it you are stuck.
The following guidelines will help you to set effective goals and help
you manage your time in an efficient manner that will cause those goals
to become reality.
State each goal as a positive statement
Express your goals in a positive way. That is a key component to
setting goals that you can attain.
How often have you been excited to accomplish a goal that
didn’t even sound good when you brought it up? If you are not
comfortable or happy with the goals that you have set, the likelihood
of you succeeding is pretty low.
If you want to express your goals in a positive way, you simply have to
first think of a goal that puts a smile on your face when you imagine
it completed. Why would you want to set a goal that made you frown,
cringe or cry?
When you are beginning to set your goals it helps when you are talking
about them to others in a manner that states your actions as positives
because it will have others seeing it as a positive as well.
That will garner you a great deal more support. In the end,
don’t we all need a little support when we are trying to do
something positive in our lives?
Be precise
Set a precise goal that includes starting dates, times and amounts so
that you can properly measure your achievement. If you do
this, you will know exactly when you have achieved the goal, and can
take complete satisfaction from having achieved it.
Being precise in setting your goals is no more than setting them with
exact details. It is easier this way because then you can follow a
step-by-step format. That’s all there is to it.
Set priorities
When you have several goals, give each a specific priority. This helps
you to avoid feeling overwhelmed by too many goals, and helps to direct
your attention to the most important ones and follow each in
succession. Setting priorities will force you into the step-by-step
format above. By doing the most important first and moving to the least
important in succession, you are enabling each task to be easier than
the last. It causes the accomplishment of each task to get easier and
easier which will encourage you to complete your goal.
Write goals down
This crystallizes your goals and gives them more force. In writing your
goals down, you are better able to keep up with your scheduled tasks
for each accomplishment. It also helps you to remember each task that
needs to be done and allows you to check them off as they are
accomplished. Basically, you can better keep track of what
you are doing so as not to repeat yourself unnecessarily.
Keep operational goals small
Keep the low-level goals you are working towards small and easy to
achieve. If a goal is too large, then it can seem that you are not
making progress towards it. Keeping goals small and incremental allows
you more opportunities for reward. Derive today's goals from larger
ones. It is a great way to accomplish your goals.
Set performance goals, not outcome goals
You should take care to set goals over which you have as much control
as possible. There is nothing more dispiriting than failing to achieve
a personal goal for reasons that are beyond your control. These could
be bad business environments, poor judging, bad weather, injury, or
just plain bad luck. If you base your goals on personal your
performance, then you can keep control over the achievement of your
goals and get satisfaction from achieving them.
Set realistic goals
It is important to set goals that you can achieve. All sorts of people
(parents, media, and society) can set unrealistic goals for you which
is almost a guarantee of failure. They will often do this in ignorance
of your own desires and ambitions or flat out disinterest.
Alternatively you may be naïve in setting very high goals. You
might not appreciate either the obstacles in the way, or understand
quite how many skills you must master to achieve a particular level of
performance. By being realistic you are increasing your chances of
success.
Do not set goals too low
Just as it is important not to set goals unrealistically high; do not
set them too low. People tend to do this where they are afraid of
failure or where they simply don’t want to do
anything. You should set goals so that they are slightly out
of your immediate grasp, but not so far that there is no hope of
achieving them. No one will put serious effort into achieving a goal
that they believe is unattainable. However, remember that
your belief that a goal is unrealistic may be incorrect. If this could
be the case, you can to change this belief by using imagery effectively.
Achieving your Goals
When you have achieved a goal, you have to take the time to enjoy the
satisfaction of having done so. Absorb the implications of the goal
achievement, and observe the progress you have made towards other
goals. If the goal was a significant one, you should reward
yourself appropriately. Think of it like this, why would you choose to
ignore any accomplishments that you have made? In doing that,
you are downplaying your accomplishment which will convince you that it
wasn’t that important in the first place.
With the experience of having achieved each goal, you should next
review the rest of your goal plans and see them in the following manner:
• If you achieved the goal too easily, make your next goals
harder
• If the goal took a disheartening length of time to achieve,
make the next goals a little easier
• If you learned something that would lead you to change other
goals, do so
• If while achieving the goal you noticed a certain lacking in
your skills, decide which goals to set in order to fix this.
You should keep in mind that failure to meet goals does not matter as
long as you learn from it. Feed lessons learned back into your
goal-setting program.
You must also remember that your goals will change as you mature.
Adjust them regularly to reflect this growth in your personality. If
goals no longer hold any attraction for you let them go. Goal setting
is your servant, not your master. It should bring you real pleasure,
satisfaction and a sense of achievement.
If it stops, there is no longer a point. Let’s look at an
example.
The best example of goal setting that you can have is to try setting
your own goals. Set aside two hours to think through your lifetime
goals in each of the categories. Then work back through the 25-year
plan, 5-year plan, 1-year plan, 6-month plan, and a 1-month plan.
Finally draw up a To Do List of jobs to do tomorrow to move towards
your goals. When you do, you will soon realize that you will be on your
way to using your goals setting on a routine basis.
Setting career goals
One of the toughest issues in making a good career choice and career
goal setting is identifying what it is that you want. Even when it
seems that you know what you want, you may still have doubts on if your
career choice is the right one for you.
Reaching clarity in those issues may be the most important thing you
can do in your career planning and goal setting. Here are a few career
goal setting guidelines that can help.
Most people, even very successful ones, have some periods in their
career path when they seem unsure about their career choice and goals.
It is totally human to feel that way.
Often, such periods just come and go. For example, they come when you
face some overwhelming obstacles on your way. It is all over as soon as
you get through these obstacles.
That situation by itself is not a problem of choosing a career, only a
test of your perseverance in seeing it through but what if those doubts
persist, or if they always live somewhere in the background of your
thoughts? If it just does not feel right?
If this is the case, then it is time to look more carefully at your
career choice and overall career objectives. Often we choose or are
placed in a career because it just seems like the right step to make or
that is what your studies have focused on.
The only problem is that sometimes that passion that we once had as a
young adult are now gone, or the realism of the job has taken the
interest and joy out of it.
That is when it is time to set a new career goal or objective. Choosing
the right career goal to sink into requires a great deal of soul
searching. You need to ask yourself these questions beforehand:
- Am I making the kind of money that I
want to make?
- Do I want to make more money?
- Does money even matter to me?
- Do I like what I’m doing
right now?
- What am I passionate about?
- What could I be doing that would make
me happier than I am right now?
- Would I be happier simply switching
positions or getting a promotion; or would I be happier changing
careers all together?
- Why am I still working here?
- What is stopping me from leaving this
job or getting that promotion?
- What is stopping me from leaving this
job?
These are all vital questions that you have to ask
yourself before deciding what your career goals are going to be. If you
are honest with yourself, you will know exactly what direction you
should be going in.
Without being honest with yourself you can’t expect to better
your life, you can only expect to have to ask yourself these questions
all over again until you find happiness.
To your Success, may you reach your goals.
Gary Killops
Using the Plug-In Profit Site System has
help Gary Killops achieve his financial income goals by creating
multiple streams of residual income.
Copyright © Gary Killops.
All rights reserved.
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