Get, set, goal...

Get, set, goal Goal setting is a powerful process for personal planning. 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 would otherwise lure you from your course. More than this, properly-set goals can be incredibly motivating, and as you get into the habit of setting and achieving goals, you'll find that your self-confidence builds fast. First , create your 'big picture' of what you want to do with your life, and what large-scale goals you want to achieve. Second, you break these down into the smaller and smaller targets that you must hit so that you reach your lifetime goals. Finally, once you have your plan, you start working to achieve it. Your lifetime goals: 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 age in the future) as setting lifetime goals gives you the overall perspective that shapes all other aspects of your decision-making. To give a broad, balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, try to set goals in some of these categories (or in categories of your own, where these are important to you): Artistic: Do you want to achieve any artistic goals? If so, what? Attitude: Is any part of your mindset holding you back? Is there any part of the way that you behave that upsets you? What information and skills will you need to achieve other goals? Career: What level do you want to reach in your career? Education: Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular? What information and skills will you need to achieve other goals? Family: Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent? How do you want to be seen by a partner or by members of your extended family? Financial: How much do you want to earn by what stage? Physical: Are there any athletic goals 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, and then select one goal in each category that best reflects what you want to do. Then consider trimming again so that you have a small number of really significant goals on which you can focus. 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 you also remain true to yourself!) Goal-setting tips: The following broad guidelines will help you set effective goals: State each goal as a positive statement: Express your goals positively. 'Execute this technique well' is a much better goal than 'Don't make this stupid mistake'. Be precise : Set a precise goal, putting in dates, times and amounts so that you can measure achievement. If you do this, you will know exactly when you have achieved the goal, and can take complete satisfaction from having achieved it. Set priorities: When you have several goals, give each a priority. This helps you avoid feeling overwhelmed by too many goals, and helps to direct your attention to the most important ones. Write goals down: This crystallizes them and gives them more force. Keep operational goals small: Keep the low-level goals you are working towards 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. Derive today's goals from larger ones. 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 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 performance, then you can keep control over the achievement of your goals and draw satisfaction from them. Set realistic goals: It is important to set goals that you can achieve. All sorts of people (employers, parents, media, society) can set unrealistic goals for you. They will often do this in ignorance of your own desires and ambitions. Alternatively you may set goals that are too high, because you may not appreciate either the obstacles in the way, or understand quite how much skill you need to develop to achieve a particular level of performance. Failure to meet goals does not matter much, as long as you learn from it. Feed lessons learned back into your goal setting program. Remember, too, that your goals will change as you get older. Adjust them regularly to reflect growth in your knowledge and experience, and if goals do not hold any attraction any longer, then let them go.