Goal setting
Charlie Hueber
September 12, 2001
SFA 101
Goal setting is a very powerful technique that can yield strong returns in all areas of your life.
At its simplest level the process of setting goals and targets allows you to choose where you want to go in life. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know what you have to concentrate on and improve, and what is merely a distraction. Goal setting gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation. It focuses your acquisition of knowledge and helps you to organize your resources.
By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. You can see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind.
By setting goals you can:
* Achieve more
* Improve performance
* Increase your motivation to achieve
* Increase your pride and satisfaction in your achievements
* Improve your self-confidence
* Plan to eliminate attitudes that hold you back and cause unhappiness
Research has shown that people who use goal-setting effectively:
* suffer less from stress and anxiety
* concentrate better
* show more self-confidence
* perform better
* are happier and more satisfied.
Goal Setting Helps Self-Confidence
By setting goals, and measuring their achievement, you are able to see what you have done and what you are capable of. The process of achieving goals and seeing their achievement gives you the confidence and self-belief that you need that you will be able to achieve higher and more difficult goals.
Providing that you have the self-discipline to carry it through, goal setting is also relatively easy.
Setting Goals Effectively
The way in which you set goal strongly affects their effectiveness.
The following broad guidelines apply to setting effective goals:
Important Points
You should note a number of general principles about goal setting:
Set Performance, not Outcome Goals
This is very important. You should take care to set goals over which you have as much control as possible - there is nothing as dispiriting as failing to achieve a personal goal for reasons beyond your control such as bad business environments, poor judging, bad weather, injury, or just plain bad luck. Goals based on outcomes are extremely vulnerable to failure because of things beyond your control.
If you base your goals on personal performance or skills or knowledge to be acquired, then you can keep control over the achievement of your goals and draw satisfaction from them. For example, you might achieve a personal best time in a race, but still be disqualified as a result of a poor-judging decision. If you had set an outcome goal of being in the top three, then this will be a defeat. If you set a performance goal of achieving a particular time, then you will have achieved the goal and can draw satisfaction and self-confidence from its achievement.
Another flaw is where outcome goals are based on the rewards of achieving something, whether these are financial or are based on the recognition of colleagues. In early stages these will be highly motivating factors, however as they are achieved, the benefits of further achievement at the same level reduce. You will become progressively less motivated.
Set Specific Goals
Set specific measurable goals. If you achieve all conditions of a measurable goal, then you can be confident and comfortable in its achievement. If you consistently fail to meet a measurable goal, then you can adjust it or analyze the reason for failure and take appropriate action to improve skills.
Set Realistic Goals
Goals may be set unrealistically high for the following reasons:
Setting Goals Too Low
Alternatively goals can be set too low because of:
Setting Goals at the Right Level
Setting goals at the correct level is a skill that is acquired by practice.
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 unrealistic. However, remember that the belief that a goal is unrealistic may be incorrect. Such a belief can be changed by effective use of imagery.
Personal factors such as tiredness, other commitments and the need for rest, etc. should be taken into account when goals are set.
Now review the goals you have set, and then measure them against the points above. Adjust them to meet the recommendations and then review them. You should now be able to see the importance of setting goals effectively.
Thinking a goal through
When you are thinking about how to achieve goals, asking the following questions can help you to focus on the sub-goals that lead to their achievement:
* What skills do I need to achieve this?
* What information and knowledge do I need?
* What help, assistance, or collaboration do I need?
* What resources do I need?
* What can block progress?
* Am I making any assumptions?
* Is there a better way of doing things?
Where Goal Setting Can Go Wrong
Goal setting can go wrong for a number of reasons:
Where goal setting does go wrong, not only are the benefits of goal setting lost, but also the whole process of goal setting can fall into disrepute.
By avoiding these problems, and setting goals effectively as described in the previous article, you can achieve and maintain strong forward momentum.
7 Reasons Why You Must Set Life Goals ...
1. SUCCESS comes from having goals.
2. The main cause of LONG LIFE is having a life purpose.
Research has shown that diet and exercise are not the major factors in long life - having a life purpose is.
3. HAPPINESS requires goals.
Every time you achieve something positive you experience happiness - eg getting well after being sick, getting a job after losing one etc.
4. Goals give you ENERGY (motivation).
Simply because there is either a benefit or penalty from achieving the goal.
5. Goals make you UNIQUE.
We are all different and hence all have different aspirations.
6. Goal setting is FUN.
Why not design your own life, why wait for someone else to do it for you.
7. Goals give your LIFE MEANING.
Why are you here on earth? What’s your mission in life?