Goal Setting
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”- Benjamin Franklin
Goal setting is the most important thing you can do, and it gives direction and purpose to your life. With out goals, life becomes like driving a parked car, you will not get anywhere.
The first thing get some paper and write down your goals if you leave them in your head they will become lost and forgotten. Trust me, they seem real when you write them down. Where do you see yourself in five years? What is the plan? Write it down, get a huge white board calendar, get some post it notes, get different colour erasable markers; some people use a paper calendar, a journal, whatever works best for you. Just do it. Some like to put pictures up of their dreams and goals. Get your goals in your face!
There is a great book that with a five star rating on Amazon on goal setting, It is called “Goal Setting, Productivity for Life, Choose the Right Goals for your Success by Alexander Shandorf.” Read it to get the creative juices flowing.
Where do you see Yourself in your Goals?
Those five year goals, put each on a separate post-it, put date of five years from now, just the month and year. Put it in a five year column. Do the same for two years, one year, six months and one month. These can be entwined, for example: if a five year goal was to have your own business, write down what you would need to accomplish in two years, one year to achieve that five year goal. For example if, in order to have your own business in five years, you may have to acquire some training, so your one month goal may be enrolled in that training. What training would you need to accomplish in one year, two years? Write and date them on the post-it notes. Stick them in the appropriate column or page. Write them in the present tense, instead of “I will” write “I am”.
SMART Goals
Goals should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-related. Let me explain.
S is for Specific-this is exact, not I want to lose weight but, by October 2017 (time) I will weigh (150 lbs). you cannot put out wishy washy goals because it is difficult to know when they are achieved.
M is for Measurable, we will not say, I will make more money next year, but I will make $130,000 next year.
A is for Achievable, don’t say, I will weigh 135 pounds by next week if you weight 170 now.
R is for Realistic, don’t say, I will fly to the moon, but I will fly to Ireland in 2020. As far as I know flying to the moon is not a realistic goal for most.
T is for Time-bound, put a date on it so you will know when you have reached the time limit.
Check out my “Recommended Books” page for more reading, because reading is the best way to gain valuable knowledge.