The Blueprint to success in Goal Setting
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Everyone "knows" how to set goals, but few people actually take the time to set goals and set them correctly, and of those, even fewer "reach" their goals. What's more, most people, on realizing they are not where they wanted to be, or thought they wanted to be, at a certain age, get depressed about their age. They don't look at their goal-setting or goal-reaching process, only at the fact that they're turning 30, or 40, or 50, and "this is not where I thought I'd be."
The problem, quite often, is that they did not think enough about where they wanted to be, and what thought they did give it, was not followed up with real action to achieve those goals.
First, before you set goals, you need to give serious thought to what you want. This is difficult sometimes, because we think we "know" what we want. We want the MBA so we can make more money. We wan the higher-paying job. We want the dream home.
There's nothing wrong with wanting those things, if that is what you really want.
But first think about what you want personally. Do you want more time with your family? If spending weekends and evenings at home is a high priority for you, but you've also said you want to go to law school and become an attorney, then there might be a conflict.
The way to resolve this is to look at your value.
What five things are the most important to you?
If you said, for instance, family, God, security, integrity, and wealth, that tells you a lot about what you need to do, which will help you figure out what you want.
Think about your goals in terms of what you value and what you want.
You might find that you don't want an MBA, but rather a teaching degree, that you don't want a higher paying job but rather a side business that will let you work from home on your own schedule, etc.
Once you know what you want, you are able to set some reasonable goals in order to get what you want, rather than just where you think you ought to be at a specific time.
Now you begin the "classic" goal setting phase, but I encourage you to think very carefully about your goals. Many people who set goals don't really think through them carefully enough in terms of how those goals contribute to their overall wealth. They may set a goal of becoming wealthy. They may even set a dollar amount.
But they do not follow through and really plan how they are going to make that goal work and how they are going to reach their goal of $100,000 in the first year.
Setting a goal is the first step, and let's look at the traditional rules for setting goals, because these are good guidelines.
The classic goals-setting rules are to set S.M.A.R.T. goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Tangible.
The first criteria for a SMART goal is that it be specific. Rather than, "I want to be wealthy in five years," your goal would be "Make $100,000 in 2007." That is specific, but you can get more specific by saying how you're going to make that money: "Make $100,000 in 2007 by flipping real estate."
Next, goals should be measurable. If your goal is to make $100,000 in 2007 by flipping real estate, that is measurable. But if your goal was to get wealthy, you can see how that would not be measurable. What is wealthy? How wealthy?
Third, goals should be attainable. Can you make $100,000 in 2007 by flipping real estate? Some people certainly could, and if your circumstances, knowledge, finances and motivation are right, you probably can. However, if your goal was to make $100,000 in 2007 by day-trading on the Internet, there would be a great deal of doubt as to whether you could accomplish that.
Is your goal realistic? In many ways this is similar to attainable, and you may have trouble separating the two. To determine whether your goal is realistic, don't just think about whether you can do what you're suggesting. Think also about whether you can do more. Say your goal is to make $10,000 in 2007 flipping real estate, and you already have flipped several properties. While that goal is attainable, it doesn't do much to stretch you. Choose goals that are a little outside what you've done, seem attainable to a reasonable person, and are realistic based on your experience, both in terms of being something you can do and in terms of stretching you beyond your present circumstances.
Finally, is it tangible? The best way to illustrate this part of goal-setting is to switch goals for a moment. Assume "family" is at the top of your values list. You want to spend more time with your family. That's one of your goals.
But "more time" is not measurable or tangible. It's not something you can see, feel, or touch.
Instead, look at a goal like this:
"Spend at least two hours per evening, three evenings per week, interacting with my children."
That's specific, it's measurable, it's tangible, and it's realistic and attainable.
That's a good goal.
And that's where most people stop with their goal planning. They set the goals, usually for two or five years, and then they go about "working toward" their goals, but without any real direction because they do not know how to achieve their goals.
Once you've set your goal, you need to break it down into shorter time periods. Imagine you've set a two-year goal of increasing your income by $125,000 per year.
If you break that down, you' are not going to want to make it $62,500 the first year and $62,500 the second. You are going to want to do something like increasing your income by $50,000 the first year and $75,000 the second. Keep in mind that it is going to take you time to build this increase.
Now, break the first year down by months. The first month you might just want to identify five side businesses and five career opportunities that could bring you the increase you desire.
The next month you could set a goal of writing a business plan or sending out ten resumes.
You really need to focus on doing something, at least one thing, every single day, that gets you toward your primary goal.
And the way you get to that point is to set a primary goal that reflects where you really want to be and that will be something you can work on with confidence that you can reach it.
Setting goals is only part of the story, after all. The rest of the story is knowing where you're going and doing the work to get there.
More articles from this pro: http://www.ArticlePros.com/author.php?Pål Juritzen
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