How do you go with goal setting?
If you could learn to consistently set goals and achieve them you immediately stand out from the other 90% of people who either do not know their dreams or are not doing anything but hoping their dreams might come true.
Goal setting is a powerful tool that can enable you to turn your dreams into reality.
However I have discovered that most people do not understand how to make goals work in their life.
Whenever I do goal setting sessions with clients it seems they are much more likely to write down a list of desires and wishes than a list of goals.
E.g. ‘Lose weight’, ‘become fitter’, ‘feel less tired’, ‘grow the business’ are all desires not goals. It is good to have desires; in fact you cannot set goals if you do not know what you want.
But goals and desires are two very different things. Goals are the specific targets that bring your desires into focus. Setting goals and then acting on those goals is what helps move you towards your desires.
To turn your desires into goals you need to ask of the desires the questions ‘how much’ and ‘when will I know I have achieved it’?
E.g. ‘Lose weight’ could become: Lose 5Kgs by June 30,
‘Become fitter’ could become: Attend 2×1 hour fitness classes per week for the next 6 months.
‘Feel less tired’ could become: Go to bed before 10:00pm at least 4 nights per week.
‘Grow the business’ could become: Increase sales by 5% over the next 3 months.
If you know what you want, set S.M.A.R.T. goals as targets that once achieved will move you closer towards your dreams. These are goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable (stretch you but not break you), Realistic (dependent on your action not the actions of others) and Time-framed.
Setting a goal doesn’t make it happen. But setting a SMART goal will greatly assist you to focus your mind and energy to work to achieve that goal knowing that if you do you will be closer to what you really want.
To achieve what you want in life (in big and small things) you need to map out a strategy and then set clear goals of how much you want to achieve and by when.
Studies have shown it is best to write your goals down so you can keep referring to them in order to stay focused and accountable.
It is amazing how quickly we get distracted and lose our way in the midst of heading towards our dreams. Just ask most people with a family, a mortgage, a challenging career and a social life.
Most people overestimate what they can achieve in one year and so set unrealistic goals and then when they do not achieveThen they get discouraged and disparage the whole process of goal setting. Those same people then under-estimate what they can achieve in 3 years if they were to work consistently and persistently towards their goals.
Focus and Accountability along with Persistence and Consistency are the keys to successfully achieving SMART goals and making your dreams become reality.
So how do you go with Goal Setting? What has worked for you?
