“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible”

–Tony Robbins

Introduction

Setting goals can be daunting at times but exhilarating at others, it’s important to set your goals in such a way that you realize them efficiently and pragmatically. Goals help us realize dreams and refine our self-discipline; goals are the very thing that makes successful people successful.

By setting goals not only will your time management skills, mindfulness skills and a host of other skills improve but you will inch closer and closer to an ultimate realization.  

Set goals that motivate.

When setting personal goals, it is important that they motivate you, this means ensuring that they are highly important to you and that the struggle of achieving them will be worthwhile. If you have little interest in the outcome, or they are irrelevant given the larger picture, then the chances of you putting in the work to make them happen will be minimal. Motivation is key to successfully achieving goals, never forget that.

Set goals that relate to the high priorities in your life. Without this type of focus, you can end up with far too many irrelevant goals, leaving you too little time to dedicate yourself to each one. Goal achievement requires commitment and focus, as to maximize the likelihood of success, you need to feel a sense of urgency and have an “I must do this” attitude. When you don’t have this, you risk putting off what you need to do to make the goal a reality. This, in turn, leaves you feeling disappointed and frustrated with yourself, both of which are de-motivating. And you can end up in a very destructive “I can’t do anything or be successful at anything” frame of mind.

To ensure that your goal is motivating, write down why it’s important to you. Ask yourself, “If I were to share my goal with others, what would I tell them to convince them it was a worthwhile goal?”

Set smart goals

Goals should be SMART. There are many variations of what SMART stands for, but the essence is this; goals should be:

• Specific.

• Measurable.

• Achievable.

• Relevant.

• Time-Bound.

Set Specific Goals

Your goal must very clear and well defined. A vague goal is unhelpful because it won’t provide sufficient direction. Remember, you need goals to show you the way. Make it as easy as you can to get where you want to go by defining precisely where you want to end up.

Set Measurable Goals

Include precise amounts, dates, and so on in your goals so you can measure your degree of success. If your goal is simply defined as “Meet new people” how will you know when you have been successful? In one month if you’ve met 1 person or in two years when you’ve met a 1000 people? Without a way to measure your success, you miss out on the celebration that comes with knowing you have achieved something.

Set Achievable Goals

Make sure that it’s possible to achieve the goals you set. If you set an impossible goal that you have no hope of achieving, you will only demoralize yourself and degrade your confidence.

However, resist the urge to set overly simple goals. Accomplishing a goal that you didn’t have to work hard for can be anticlimactic at best, and can also make you fear setting future goals that are high risk of non-achievement. By setting realistic yet challenging goals, you will hit the equilibrium of realistic and doable. These are the types of goals that require you to “raise the bar” and they bring the greatest satisfaction.

Set relevant Goals

Goals should be relevant to the direction you want your life and career to take. By keeping goals aligned with this, you’ll develop the focus you need to get ahead and do what you want. Setting widely scattered and inconsistent goals will result in wasted time.

Set Time-Bound Goals

Your goals must have a deadline. Again, this means that you know when you can celebrate success. When you are working on a deadline, your sense of urgency increases and achievement will come that much quicker.

Think on paper

The physical act of writing down a goal makes it real and tangible, by thinking on paper you allow yourself to be present with your thoughts and you’re able to create a concise presentation of how you want your goals laid out.

When setting goals, it’s best to use words like “will” instead of “might” or “would like to”. The first goal statement has power and you can “see” yourself performing the desired goal, the second lacks passion and gives you an excuse if you get side-tracked.

Make a plan of action

This step is often forgotten. You get so focused on the outcome that you forget to plan all of the steps that are needed along the way. By writing out the individual steps, and then crossing out the completed steps, you’ll realize that you are making progress towards your ultimate goal. This is especially important if your goal is big and demanding, or long-term. Download the action plan template here: http://www.promoteprevent.org/sites/www.promoteprevent.org/files/resources/ActionPlanTemplate-writable.pdf

Don’t falter!

Goal setting is an ongoing activity, not just a means to an end. Create reminders to keep yourself on track, and make regular time-slots available to assess your goals. Your end destination may remain quite similar over the long term, but the action plan you set for yourself along the way can deviate significantly along the way. Make sure the relevance, value, and necessity remain high.

Key Points Goal setting is much more than simply saying you want something to happen. Unless you clearly define exactly what you want and understand why you want it the first place, your odds of success are considerably reduced. By following the Five Golden Rules of Goal Setting you can set goals with confidence and enjoy the satisfaction that comes along with knowing you achieved what you set out to do.

Some Questions to evaluate your progress

After setting and doing your goals, you will need to check your progress see how many goals you completed within a certain time frame and see how well you were able to do them. Analyze and assess where you think you could improve and see where you did stupendously. Keep a book/file or even a piece of paper that has an assessment criterion of how you should perform, fix any problems and rethink how you should meet goals. Your criteria should include the following aspects but not limited to: 

1. Did I complete all the goals set for the day/week/month

2. To what degree did I produce satisfactory work (how good was the level of work for all completed goals)

3. How can I improve my work ethic

4. A list of the problems l faced and the possible ways to solve them

5. Did I purposely avoid completing my goals

6. Do I intend on completing the uncompleted goals

7. Where some of my goals even necessary/relevant (are they in line with what I ultimately want to achieve)

8. To what degree did I enjoy completing my goals

9. How can I make things more engaging/enjoyable (you must enjoy your goals)

Environmental cues

Environmental cues are inanimate objects you would find on your table, in your house or at your place of work which when viewed by you instantly make you feel like working on an associated goal. By linking your mug with a certain goal you want completed, every time you see that mug you’ll instantly think of that one project that keeps slipping your mind.

A nice way to create an environmental cue would be to mentally register an object as a certain goal you want completed. For instance, get your favorite pen then in your mind call it “go outside and talk to people”, naturally every time you see the pen you will think [hey, it’s “go outside and talk to people”]

This works because it a phycological trick used when examining the behavior of monkeys (I’m not trying to say you’re a monkey 😊)

Make sure to dedicate enough time to properly write down your goals. You wouldn’t want to half-ass anything now, would you?

End

Thanks for reading and I know for a fact you got something interesting from this. Having said that, I trust that you will revisit next when we take a look at: Learning is the key to success.

If you enjoyed this be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments, like and share. It will mean the world to me.