Goals are a great tool for motivation if set and used properly. But if you don’t use them correctly, they can also be a source of great frustration. So how do you turn your goal into something that is a benefit and motivator for you? Here are five goal-setting techniques to help you with the ones you set so that your 2013 is your best yet.
1. Balance Your Goals: In your life you should have personal development goals, personal finance goals and material things goals. There are gratitude goals and who or what you want to become goals. To neglect any of them is a tremendous mistake. It’s ok to want things as long as there is balance and not at the peril of someone else. All of these goals are important so be clear about all of them and make them real for you.
2. Plan Actions From Your Goals: Remember, goals are not items for your to do list. Your goals should be where your to do list comes from on a daily basis. Plan specific actions that lead you towards the goals you set. Use your goals to provide your compass for those actions.
3. Share Your Goals: A champion race team makes no bones about their desire to winning the whole. Too many of us keep our goals a secret. You should share your goals with people who will support, encourage and help hold you accountable to your them.
4. Write Down Your Goals: There is an old saying that goes something like, “The palest ink is better than the best memory.” Make your goals real by recording them on paper a white board or bulletin board. Put copies of your goals on index cards and keep copies in the car and in the bathroom where you can review them regularly. Make them the center of your focus. Just setting them and then ignoring them is an ineffective strategy and can keep you from achieving them. Think of it like planning the family trip of trips, you lay out a plan and then take action to get there.
5. Don’t Give Up: Achieving your goals or even success for that matter isn’t a straight line… there are twists and turns and yes, sometimes you even go backwards. Don’t be afraid to take different actions to achieve your goals. Don’t worry if you try something and it doesn’t work, just try something else. Use what most would call failure as feedback of what didn’t work and use that for the next try. Take deliberate and effective action to meet your goals and understand that any true goals will take many steps to achieve. Be assured you will make a misstep, but that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with the goal.
We all make mistakes, the sure way not to achieve your goals is to abandon them. Winston Churchill said it best over 70 years ago, “Never, never, never give up!”.
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