Amongst other things, goals should be time sensitive, relevant, specific, achievable and lead by the persons genuine emotional needs and wants in order to make them truly attainable.
The problem is that when many people goal set, they have a habit of doing it whimsically and without much (if any) sense of direction or purpose in regards to how they’re going to get to their end result.
Today, we want to help change that.
OUR 4 STEPS TO GUARANTEED GOAL ATTAINMENT
If you’re tired of setting goals in your personal and professional life that you’re not achieving, then it’s perhaps time to look at exactly how and why you’re setting them.
Remember, almost everything in life has a successful process behind it. If you follow the right process, you can usually achieve the positive result you’re looking for. Goals are no different.
#1-How Big Is Your Why?
Why? That’s the ultimate question. Why do you actually want to achieve your goal in the first place?
If you’re thinking about aiming for something big, you should always ask yourself what the reasons behind your desire for achieving it are.
Is this something that you’ve been thinking about day in, day out for years? When you think about achieving it, do you immediately get a sense of warmth and fulfilment? What impact would it have on your life? What would it truly mean to you?
On balance, have you only just started thinking about it? Perhaps you saw someone else do it and thought it’d be a great thing for you to do as well?
Goals that have an emotional “buy in” are always far more likely to be achieved than goals that we set based on spur of the moment thought processes. A strong goal will always tie into your emotional needs as opposed to your momentary urges.
When goal setting, always try to ensure that what you’re aiming for in the present is going to have long term meaning and provide emotional sustenance in the future. This will give you the desire and passion you need in order to work hard to get it.
#2-There Should Always Be A Time Limit
Whilst placing undue pressure and stress on ourselves isn’t healthy, the truth is that goals are best served with a time limit. By making them time sensitive, you’re essentially creating an effective finishing line for yourself.
Generally speaking humans don’t often function well when it comes to the unknown. Our emotional needs often dictate that we require structure and parameters to work with in order to succeed.
Goals should absolutely tie into this thought process and be set in such a way that you’re aiming to complete them within a set period of time. This is going to provide you with the urgency you need to take action today and do what’s necessary in order to reach them in the future.
If you don’t quite make it within the set time, that’s ok. What you’ve done so far doesn’t get discounted. But if we’re conscious that by not achieving something by a set date or within a set time that we might not achieve what we’d like to, this usually makes our desire to work towards it much stronger.
#3-Is Your Goal Specific And Measurable?
Do you know exactly what you’re aiming for? Are you looking to become a company director? A member of the senior management team? Maybe even a more conscientious partner at home?
Precisely what does that look like? What day to day activities are involved in being in that position or fulfilling that action? How can you further develop them in order to get to that end result?
These are the kind of questions that it’s always a good idea to ask when setting goals because they help you to form a mental “map” towards your desired end result. It’s ok knowing what you want, but you should also put the time into understanding what’s required to live and breathe your goal position or circumstances.
When you’ve done this, you can set the parameters required to get there. If you need to work on your budgeting skills for instance, then define exactly how much knowledge in this area you need and decide how long you’d like to give yourself to get it.
If you need to spend more time with your family, consider how much time would be necessary to create a healthier work/life balance and determine how you can progressively establish this.
As long as you have specific and measurable factors to work with, you can successfully create smaller targets that serve as the path leading you towards achieving your overriding long term goal.
#4-Is Your Goal Truly Achievable?
When some people goal set, they have a tendency to day dream. Day dreaming is fantasy but goal setting is reality. As long as the goal is genuinely within the realms of possibility for you.
For instance, becoming a company CEO would be many employees idea of a life goal and for some would seem too far reaching. But being a CEO is essentially a combination of actions and skills. These actions and skills can be developed, learned and trained.
On the other hand, learning how to fly isn’t achievable. There’s currently no process available for being able to allow you to do that without the aid of technology.
To avoid disappointment, always use self awareness when goal setting and talk to friends, professional coaches and family to get a realistic perspective on whether or not you might be setting yourself up for disappointment.
No one person can do anything and everything. But they can still do a great deal. It’s what you can do that you need to place your focus on.
SET FOR SUCCESS
Have our goal setting strategies helped you to fine tune your goal setting skills, or perhaps you know others that could benefit from reading them at the moment?
We’d love it if you could share this post and help others to set themselves up for success.