- Improves your self-image.
- Your future is bright and positive because you know precisely WHAT YOU WANT AND WHY.
- You have CLEAR TARGETS to focus on and to guide each day’s actions and commitments.
- Gives you a sense of past victories and provides a stimulus for present successes.
- Helps you visualize, plan actions to achieve the goals and then carry them out. Your days and weeks build upon each other in a straight line, aiming towards new destinations - even GREATER than the last.
- Gives you a track to run on so you can see where you have to go.
- Forces you to set priorities and thus established the proper direction of your pursuits.
- Defines reality and separates it from wishful thinking.
- Makes you responsible for your own life.
- Serves as a criterion to sharpen decision-making.
Reasons People Don’t Set Goals
Predictability - Many People feel threatened by change and resist goal setting because it may be uncomfortable while moving out of the “rut”.
Conditioning - Most of us are conditioned so that after we have done something a certain way, it becomes habit, automatic and reflexive.
Belief in Miracles - Many People sit back and wait for miracles instead of setting goals and taking action to accomplish them.
Fear of Losing - Many people do not set goals because they are afraid they will be criticized for not reaching them.
Fear of Winning - Odd as it may seem, some people do not set goals because they cannot imagine themselves being capable of handling the new behavior of success.
Over Expectations - Setting your goals too high enables you to say, “I know I can’t reach that goal, so I won’t even try.”
Defining Goals
To begin, you need to be able to define your goal in a clear, precise statement that includes the following components:
- It is realistic, attainable, and feasible but challenging
- It has a target date for completion
- It has measurable results
- It is clear, specific and understandable
- It is meaningful and desirable
- It is beneficial
- It is flexible and has more than one method of attainment.
5 Elements of a Useful Goal
SPECIFIC: Describes what you want to accomplish with as much detail as possible.
MEASURABLE: Describes your goal in terms that can clearly be evaluated.
CHALLENGING: Takes energy and discipline to accomplish.
REALISTIC: A goal you know you are actually capable of obtaining.
STATED COMPLETION DATE: Goals that break longer term goals into shorter pieces and clearly specify target completion dates.
Step by Step
The following questions may be helpful in determining goals:
- What do I most want to accomplish?
- What do I want to be doing 1 year, 5 years, and 10 years from now?
- What expectations do others have of me that I wish to strive to reach?
Summary of Goal Setting
- Brainstorm what it is that you want to do, to possess, to share, to contribute, to personally become.
- Set both short-term objectives (for this week, today, this minute) and long-term objectives (for this month, quarter, year, five years).
- List both your short and long-term goals in each area of your life: social, financial, cultural, educational, professional, physical, spiritual, intellectual, family, hobby…
- Write all of these goals down, listing each in order of priority.
- Choose activities that achieve your objectives. This means that you must consciously choose to do those things that relate to your most important goals.
- Now list the advantages and disadvantages of each goal and each activity. Write down what you must give up in order to achieve each goal.
You can tell when…
- Your future is hazy and ill-defined, and you only WISH for things to be different.
- Having no CLEAR destination, you’re often all dressed up with nowhere to go.
- You may have daily successes, but LACK REAL PROGRESS in any one direction.
- You never live up to your full potential because there’s never anything IMPORTANT enough for you to give 100%.
- You believe that life could be better, but you’re just not sure how.
However, when your Set Goals color is strong and vibrant…
You never want for ANYTHING because you put EVERYTHING into what you want.
You believe that life is INCREDIBLE because you are setting and achieving INCREDIBLE GOALS.
Why is Goal-Setting Important?
One of the key elements in study problems such as procrastination, poor concentration, and lack of motivation is lack of clear goals. Goal setting is a skill that needs development; it is a muscle that requires exercise. Without goals that are clearly defined, articulated, and written down, you will drift through life and certainly drift through your learning and study sessions.
If you do not have a clear vision of what is important to you in your life, you will follow the natural human tendency to be distracted by whatever crosses your path. It’s not a bad thing to be curious and interested in those things that stray into your attention range. But without the focus you get by having defined goals and priorities to keep you on track, you can easily dissipate your whole life on distractions.
1. Goal-Setting Basics
Goal setting is a very important life skill and it will have a profound effect on your ability to concentrate and avoid procrastination. Follow these basic guidelines and the process of goal setting will be inspiring, useful and fun.
a. Start Now
Why waste any more time? If your life has been drifting, or you have difficulty getting down to your studies, you need to begin the habit of goal setting right now!
b. Write Down Your Goals
Always write your goals. Keep a journal for long-term, intermediate, and short-term goals. Use to-do lists to keep track of the immediate goals that are part of your everyday life.
The principle behind writing down your goals is the same as the one behind making notes rather than relying on your memory. Not only does it make the goal more concrete, but the physical act of writing and expressing the idea in words engages at least two of your many intelligences. Things have a strong tendency to be more of a true commitment when they are written down.
c. Keep Several Lists According to Time Scale
Divide your goals into categories according to how distant they are in the future. Typical divisions are:
- long-term (5-10 years)
- intermediate-term (3-5 years)
- short-term (1-2 years)
- immediate (this month, this week, or today).
d. Set Priorities
You cannot do everything you want to do. You must set priorities or you will end up dissipating your energy and not accomplishing anything to your fullest potential.
e. Challenge Yourself
Keep your goals high enough to inspire you and reasonable enough to seem always within your reach. Excellence is never achieved by luck or accident. It requires that you push yourself beyond your comfort zone and challenge yourself. You still have to be reasonable, but there are always ways to achieve some version of your dreams.
f. Be Specific
Goals are useless if they are not specific. Don’t set your long term career goal as something vague, such as “helping people” or “making a lot of money”. You should express your goal in specific terms, such as “I will be a surgeon” or “I will be an aid worker in Africa” or “I will run my own company”.
The more exact you are, the easier it is to measure your progress. It’s also easier to tell when you’re done and ready to move on to the next goal.
g. Include Actions
Setting the goal isn’t enough by itself. You need to commit to the actions required to achieve your goal. The specific actions required to achieve long-term goals become the small goals you set for yourself this month or this week or on today’s to-do list.
h. Expect Failure
If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere. That which is truly challenging and inspirational is rarely easy. Don’t give up just because you are not immediately successful or the path seems too difficult. If your dreams still feel right for you and still inspire you, your failure should be nothing more than a message that you need to reevaluate your action plan. Learn from your failures, but don’t let them determine your life’s direction.
i. Rewrite, Revise, Revisit, Review and Change
Setting goals, especially in the long and intermediate terms, does not set your life in stone. Take time to review your goals and revise them a little or change them completely if necessary. Develop the flexibility of mind to reevaluate your current goals if your path leads you into contact with better, more inspiring goals.
j. Link Your Goals
There should be a thread by which you can trace the direct relationship between today’s activity and your longest-term dreams and goals. When the action you are taking right now is directly supporting your long-term goal and is lifting you incrementally toward it, you are experiencing the power of goal setting as a motivator, focusing agent, and cure for procrastination.
k. Enjoy the Journey
Goal setting is a tool. It’s a vital and incredibly valuable tool, but it is no more than that. Don’t become so obsessively goal-oriented that you ignore the joy of the journey and rewards of reveling in the characteristics of the person you become on your way to that goal. Often it is those people who focus on the path of mastery rather than the journey’s end who achieve the most in life.
2. Goal-Setting for Students
The principles above can be applied to setting goals for all aspects of your life. Here are some examples of how you can help motivate you in your studying and keep you on track for achieving the results you want.
a. Long-term Goals
Long-term goals are your dreams. The reason you are studying today has to be linked to some dream about how you want to spend your life. For some people, the mere exercise of their minds and the expansion of their personal genius potential is enough motivation to study. Others have something more concrete in mind. It is usually a career goal - something that will last much of their adult lives. What vision of your life really grabs your imagination? Imagine your life tem years from now. What do you want to be doing?
b. Intermediate Goals
Intermediate goals are usually for three to five years in the future and are one of the keys to achieving your long-term goals. For example, if you want to be a doctor, a necessary intermediate goal is getting into medical school in the first place.
c. Short-term Goals
The steps toward your intermediate goal are a series of short-term goals, usually for six months to 2 years in the future. Getting into a medical school requires a high-grade average.
d. Immediate Goals
You cannot get high grades if you do not get today’s homework assignment completed to the very best of your ability. Immediate goals are those that lead to the accomplishment of short-term goals. This is where the principle of “divide and conquer” comes into play most strongly.
e. To-do Lists
When you write down your immediate goals (remember, you ALWAYS write your goals), and put them in priority order, you have created a to-do list for today’s studying. Every immediate study goal that becomes part of your to-do list must be properly constructed and must -
- Be Specific (not “do some studying”, but “complete 15 statistics problems”)
- Be Reasonable (can be done in 30 to 60 minutes)
- Be Verifiable (or measurable - you can tell when you’re finished)
- Be Rewarded (it’s okay to bribe yourself - but finishing is the best reward)
By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. You can see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. By setting goals, you will also raise your self-confidence, as you recognize your ability and competence in achieving the goals that you have set. The process of achieving goals and seeing this achievement gives you confidence that you will be able to achieve higher and more difficult goals.
Goal Setting Tips
The following broad guidelines will help you to set effective goals:
- State each goal as a positive statement: Express your goals positively - ‘Execute this technique well’ is a much better goal than ‘Don’t make this stupid mistake’
- Be precise: Set a precise goal, putting in dates, times and amounts so that you can measure achievement. If you do this, you will know exactly when you have achieved the goal, and can take complete satisfaction from having achieved it.
- Set priorities: When you have several goals, give each a priority. This helps you to avoid feeling overwhelmed by too many goals, and helps to direct your attention to the most important ones.
- Write goals down: This crystallizes them and gives them more force.
- Keep operational goals small: Keep the low-level goals you are working towards small and achievable. If a goal is too large, then it can seem that you are not making progress towards it. Keeping goals small and incremental gives more opportunities for reward. Derive today’s goals from larger ones.
- Set performance goals, not outcome goals: You should take care to set goals over which you have as much control as possible. There is nothing more dispiriting than failing to achieve a personal goal for reasons beyond your control. These could be bad business environments, poor judging, bad weather, injury, or just plain bad luck. If you base your goals on personal performance, then you can keep control over the achievement of your goals and draw satisfaction from them.
- Set realistic goals: It is important to set goals that you can achieve. All sorts of people (employers, parents, media, society) can set unrealistic goals for you. They will often do this in ignorance of your own desires and ambitions. Alternatively you may set goals that are too high, because you may not appreciate either the obstacles in the way, or understand quite how much skill you need to develop to achieve a particular level of performance.
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