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Tips For Successful Goal Setting
Here are 10 tips worth following if you want your goal setting activities to end in success. 1. Learn why goal setting is so important The short answer could be, no plan, no success. If a goal is important to you (if it isn't, why pursue it?), spend time learning why goal setting and planning is so very important. Stating a goal and just diving in, is like starting to build a house without a blueprint. You may end up with a house, but it certainly won't be anyone's dream house. 2. Understand that goal setting takes time and effort If you plan to become a millionaire you need to know what to do and when. You need a plan, and especially when it comes to financing, a very specific and detailed one. And you need to work the plan from day one until you reach your goal. Goal setting is not a passive activity. 3. Write it down Write down your goal as specifically as you plan. Write down how you plan to achieve it. Write down the expected benefits, and the potential risks and obstacles you'll face. Write down everything. 4. Understand what makes a goal an appropriate one Just identifying a goal isn't enough. You have to ask whether the goal is specific enough, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. If you don't have an answer to any one of these attributes, your goal may be unreachable or irrelevant. 5. Planning is essential You don't need a wall chart or a work breakdown structure, though for some goals those tools may be useful. You do need to identify the steps to be taken to reach a goal, and understand what's involved in each step. If you have a well thought out plan, you're more apt to remain in control, or take appropriate action to deal with circumstances beyond your control. Planning is every bit as important for short term goals as it is for long term goals. 6. Know your comfort zone This essentially means knowing yourself, and how you believe you'll react to change. Achieving some goals can require life altering changes, changes which may take you out of your comfort zone. Success can at times be every bit as scary as the prospect of failure. An excellent little book about comfort zones is "Who Moved My Cheese" by Spencer Johnson, M.D.. 7. Make your plan flexible A clearly focused, nose-to-the grindstone, single-minded approach to achieving one's goal makes for nice reading, but it takes two to tango, and the rest of the world, which you have no control over, is your partner. In setting a goal, your approach needs to be flexible, especially for the long term. Times and circumstances change. Being flexible is not a weakness, but a strength. 8. Involve others in your goal setting If your goal setting is focusing on life goals, and you're married, it's a very good idea to include your spouse, as well as his or her goals. The reason should be obvious, but going it alone has its perils. In fact whether it is a life goal, a career goal, or a physical fitness goal you're setting, you'll often need support. Achieving a goal together with someone else can be twice as rewarding. 9. Set Measurable Goals If you don't have measures, milestones, or measures of progress or performance in your plan, you may never reach your goal because you'll never know where you are at any point in time. Try improving your time in a sporting event without benefit of a stopwatch. To reach goals, you need to know where your at along the way". 10. Clean out your closet Do this literally, figuratively, or both. Good goal setting requires organization. If this is a problem, cleaning out your closet isn't a bad start. It feels good. Then you can tackle the clutter and irrelevancies that may be embedded in your goal setting plans and approach. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Nate Fovaw is a professional non-fiction writer who writes on the topic of time management and productivity. For more information about goal setting techniques, visit www.time-management-improvement.com |
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