Setting goals

The trick is to have a mix of goals. Immeditae, mid and long term.

Setting goals is now standard practice for chasing what we want, either as individuals or as corporate entities. You will hear it everywhere: in TED talks and self-help books, on TV and in every success story.

But with so much noise about target setting, you might be excused for wondering whether it’s just a momentary fad, or if goal setting really matters. Do I actually need to set myself a target in order to get there?

What Is Goal Setting?

To grasp goal setting, it’s essential to first differentiate between goals and objectives.

Imagine a goal as your long-term destination – the broader picture you’re aiming for.

Goals are like the destination at the end of the path. They’re the big, encompassing outcomes that inspire your success. Objectives are like the path and its steps. They’re the smaller, specific tasks that will help you complete your goal. Goal setting is about identifying these goals and planning on how to get to them. It’s about figuring out what you need to do and planning on how to do it. This is what goal setting ultimately comes down to: a roadmap for your life or your organisation.

The norm tends to involve breaking a big goal into manageable objectives, detailing the sequential steps for each objective with deadlines and measures to monitor your success. In addition to making the end-goal more achievable, this method allows you to see the individual milestones you can overcome in shorter periods of time.

Knowing what you want helps you figure out why you’re here, and that can provide some pretty good mojo for staying on course.

What’s more, goal setting isn’t something that’s useful in only one area of your life. If you’re looking to increase your performance at school, transform your business or career, and become the best version of yourself in every aspect of your life; goal setting is the compass for the space between where you are and where you want to be. It provides a structure where you know exactly how to focus your resources and efforts to do what you say you want to do.

So, to get us there, we need some short-term goals so that we can make changes over time, if we set short-term goal then we will never make it to the bigger ones, and without long term goal, you will never get anywhere. Our longer term goals should be more general.
If we do set goals, we have to think about these obstacles and that may get in our way. We should come out with a plan, how should we get over these obstacles.
lets also remember to have fun, this is very important, if we like what we are doing we will continue to do it and if we do not like it, we will not continue it.

Setting a goal plan

Goal-setting: What are you trying to accomplish? How are you going to get there?

Plan:What are you going to do to make this happen? Break it down into a few steps.

Progress Check-in: Are you making good progress toward your goal? What do you do along the way to stay on track?

Staying motivated: How easy would it be for you to stay motivated until you reach your end point? What will you have to overcome?

They must come to realise that setting and reaching goals takes time and effort, and to be realistic, your goals should build incrementally on each other. What is your goal? What do you want? What is your specific goal? What is the best way? What is the most effective way to get there?

Creating achievable goals

How then can you set a slightly smaller goal? Get clear about and set intermediate goals – those in some line with the ultimate goal – that you can reliably attain over the next month or two, three months, six months, or a year. In this way you will be able to tell whether you are on track and whether you are getting closer to your ultimate goal. How To Set Goals That Are Smaller ? The best way to arrive at smaller goals is by creating a series of intermediate goals – those reliably attainable over a period of time – in some line with the ultimate goal.

Maximizing Your Success Potential

Goal-setting enables you to be efficient by concentrating your efforts on activities likely to advance you to your goal, while translating those efforts into behaviours that hide any targets from prey. You can also put off behaviours that are unrelated to your goal, such as being under the spell of music or finding yourself in ill-advised romantic situations. These behaviours waste everyone’s resources on side issues.

In other words, someone who wants to lose weight is quite likely to keep changing her own diet and physical activity so as to consume fewer calories, avoid unhealthy foods, and minimise sedentary behaviours whereas a smoker who does not wish to quit will still smoke.

Elevating Motivation and Performance

Whilst setting goals is certainly a useful motivator – because it commits us to achieving certain results by a certain time – the studies I am referring to suggest that, while we might be able to achieve more in the short term, we might end up doing less in the long term. If you make yourself commit to an ambitious goal, you might well end up doing better in the pursuit of it than someone who has no such focus. The studies indicate that goals can be powerful motivators; they help to sustain your efforts over the short term.

Strengthening Resilience in Adversity

Goals give you direction, a sense of possibility, help you anticipate problems, and plan for overcoming them.

The more you know what you want, the more likely you’ll go after the resources and support you need to make it happen. You’ll be more prepared when things go sideways, and less likely to quit.

Developing Personal Growth and Development

Goal-setting offers a bit of a personal roadmap, in that you are continually incorporating yourself in moving towards the goal, but along the way you’ll also see things in a different way and so grow in some way.

This is evident from the scenario outlined above; someone who aspires to run a 10k, for instance, might start with quick runs and gradually increase their training time, discovering their potential along the way. Personally, I have also found that setting goals promotion self-reflection and challenges. More, setting goals fosters continuous personal development and improvement.