Many people feel as if they're adrift
in the world. They work hard, but they don't seem to get anywhere worthwhile.A
key reason that they feel this way is that they haven't spent enough time
thinking about what they want from life, and haven't set themselves formal
goals. After all, would you set out on a major journey with no real idea of
your destination? Probably not!
How to Set a Goal
First consider what you
want to achieve, and then commit to it. Set SMART (specific, measureable,
attainable, relevant and time-bound) goals that motivate you and write them
down to make them feel tangible. Then plan the steps you must take to realize
your goal, and cross off each one as you work through them. Goal setting is a
powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating
yourself to turn your vision of this future into reality. The process of
setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life. By knowing
precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your
efforts. You'll also quickly spot the distractions that can, so easily, lead
you astray.
Why Set Goals?
Top-level athletes,
successful businesspeople and achievers in all fields all set goals. Setting
goals gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation.
It focuses your acquisition of knowledge, and helps you to organize your time
and your resources so that you can make the most of your life. By setting
sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement
of those goals, and you'll see forward progress in what might previously have
seemed a long pointless grind. You will also raise your self-confidence,
as you recognize your own ability and competence in achieving the goals that
you've set.
Starting to Set Personal Goals
You set your goals on a
number of levels: First you create your "big picture" of what you
want to do with your life (or over, say, the next 10 years), and identify the
large-scale goals that you want to achieve. Then, you break these down into the
smaller and smaller targets that you must hit to reach your lifetime goals.
Finally, once you have your plan, you
start working on it to achieve these goals. This is why we start the process of
setting goals by looking at your lifetime goals. Then, we work down to the things
that you can do in, say, the next five years, then next year, next month, next
week, and today, to start moving towards them.
Setting Lifetime Goals
The first step in setting
personal goals is to consider what you want to achieve in your lifetime
(or at least, by a significant and distant age in the future). Setting lifetime
goals gives you the overall perspective that shapes all other aspects of your
decision making.
To give a broad, balanced coverage of
all important areas in your life, try to set goals in some of the following
categories (or in other categories of your own, where these are important to
you):
Career – What level do you want to
reach in your career, or what do you want to achieve?
Financial – How much do you want to earn,
by what stage? How is this related to your career goals?
Education – Is there any knowledge you
want to acquire in particular? What information and skills will you need to
have in order to achieve other goals?
Family – Do you want to be a parent?
If so, how are you going to be a good parent? How do you want to be seen by a
partner or by members of your extended family?
Artistic – Do you want to achieve any
artistic goals?
Attitude – Is any part of your mindset
holding you back? Is there any part of the way that you behave that upsets you?
(If so, set a goal to improve your behavior or find a solution to the problem.)
Physical – Are there any athletic goals
that you want to achieve, or do you want good health deep into old age? What
steps are you going to take to achieve this?
Pleasure – How do you want to enjoy
yourself? (You should ensure that some of your life is for you!)
Public Service – Do you want to make the world
a better place? If so, how?
Spend some time brainstorming these
things, and then select one or more goals in each category that best reflect
what you want to do. Then consider trimming again so that you have a small
number of really significant goals that you can focus on. As you do this, make
sure that the goals that you have set are ones that you genuinely want to
achieve, not ones that your parents, family, or employers might want. (If you
have a partner, you probably want to consider what he or she wants – however,
make sure that you also remain true to yourself!)
Tip:You may also want to
read our article on Personal Mission Statements.
Crafting a personal mission statement can help bring your most important goals
into sharp focus.
