Setting Goals
In order to make changes in
your life it is vital to set goals and to work toward achieving them. Goal
setting is an important part of achieving what you want in life. If you know
what you want, then you can make the right choices to achieve your goal and
then you will know it when you have reached it. Effort and time are required in
this process. Unless you take action and put your goal into place and the
strategies that will help you get to your goal, nothing will happen.
It is important to set
realistic goals. Unless it is practical and achievable, your goal is just a
dream. Your goals also need to be SMART:
Specific – What will your
goal be? The more specific the better.
Measurable – How will you
measure your achievement along the way?
Attractive – you need to
want to achieve your goal
Realistic – Your goal needs
to be possible and practical
Time-framed – When will you
achieve it by?
The more SMART you can make
your goals the better you will be able to work towards achieving them. It is a
matter of working out if your goal is a long term goal, medium term goal or
short term goal. Then once you have that you can sort out the steps or
strategies that you will take to reach your goal. It might be that if you have
a long term goal then you might work out interim goals that you might achieve
at 3 monthly intervals. So these shorter term goals support the long term goal.
Then you can work out the weekly strategies that you should action so that your
goal can be attained in the time allotted.
It is helpful to write your
goals down and have a journal where you are doing the measurements of whatever
your goal consists of and even writing up on a weekly basis how you are going
on your path to your goal. If you have a self change goal then it is good to
write down at the end of each day what you noticed about your behaviour and
that of others around your goal behaviour. See my blog on self monitoring for
more information about this.
It is possible to work on
about 3 goals at a time. Have one short term goal and two longer term ones.
Then you might be a bit more motivated if you see that it only takes a little
while to achieve one goal.
Goals need to be attractive
to you, they also need to be a bit of a challenge, but at the same time you
should be reasonably confident that you can achieve the goal.
Goals need to be reviewed
regularly. If you are making progress towards the goal and are on track with
timing, then you don’t need to change anything. However, if you are not on
track then perhaps the goal needs to be more specific, or some of the
strategies might need to be altered. You might need to do some research on the
topic. And that would be a short term goal in itself.
For more information you
might like to buy my book “Setting
Yourself Free”, which you can do on my website at http://www.directionscoaching.net.au
