3 steps to set goals

Setting goals can have a major impact on those that do and follow through.  I’ve personally been setting goals for years now and I know first hand how transformational they can be.

So in todays blog I want to outline why you should consider joining me in goal setting and also how to do it in three easy steps!

A bit of the goal setting background for you.

Goals let us define what we want to happen, set about achieving it and actively create it.

If you are wishing for or wanting something; or you have no real purpose or overall direction in mind, then setting compelling goals in a SMART way is one of the best ways of taking action to impact your future in a positive way.

• It gives you a focus on what is really important to you
• Provides a clear direction for your life
• Makes it easier for you to be decisive; providing a good tool for either saying yes or no to things and setting boundaries
• Motivation – by having something to aspire to both short and long term goals can really help to motivate you and provide a sense that all is well and you are moving forward, which is especially helpful in hard times.
• Aids positive self esteem
• Helps destroy procrastination
• Reduces stress

If you were to look at it from a purely results perspective:

• It can help you to achieve higher and faster results
• Helps maintain focus
• Facilitates better time management as you cut out the energy consuming activities which don't drive results
• Achieve what you would not otherwise have achieved, without setting the goals.

I've studied the subject for years and have found a few interesting facts to be true in my experience.

• If you don't set goals, you achieve far less than what you are capable of
• The act of writing your goals down has a far greater impact than one would expect.
• Once you get into the habit of setting and managing your goals it has a positive ripple impact on the rest of your life.

 

So how do you go about setting goals?

1. Identify your goals.
   1. What do you want? Materially, physically, health, happiness, relationships, work.
2. Identify your purpose
   1. Why do you want it? What will it give you?

The concept of SMART is something I learned when I was in Medical sales many years ago – which means it has to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Real and Timed. The traditional 'R' in SMART does not typically stand for 'Real' but I have adjusted it for your benefit.

• Specific – the more detailed you are, the better. You should get to the point where you really understand your goals and the desired outcome e.g. I want to do x so that I can do y (I want to run a marathon so that I can get better health an prove to myself that I can do it. You also want to add in your driving motivation at the same time where possible e.g I want to get healthy, lose weight and fit into my old jeans and be able to compete in the county run etc.).

• Measurable – being able to measure your performance and plot your progression is a very good way of staying on track and building motivation. To simply say 'I want to get better at saving' is not measurable as you can't really define 'better'. But if you were to say 'I want to effectively manage my current spending habits, pay off my overdraft and credit cards and then start a new savings account to save 15% of my income each month within the next 6 months' is a clearer outline of going from A to B.

• Achievable -If it's not attainable it's only going to cause you a lot of stress and potentially negatively impact your self-worth. Consider nothing happens without time and action so consider both of those elements. Specially allowing enough time to achieve your goals.

• Real (adapted from the typical SMART goals)– Can you feel it. In an ideal world you will want to make it so real that you can even smell it. If you want to buy a BMW, test it out, know what it feels like to ride in your future car. What does it feel like to hold the steering wheel. This will help you to keep your goal 'real' and present in your mind and expectations.

• Timed – Putting a time frame into your goals helps you to keep motivated and driving towards your goal.

Goal setting exercise:

Goal types: Personal, Family, Health, Money, Happiness, Possession, Job etc.

Goal setting part 1.

Take 5 mins to write down all of the things you would like to achieve in the next 20 years. This could be things you want to do, go, create, own, have experience etc.