Getting Down To Your Goals
Now that we have understood why and how we can set our goals, let us look at some very basic rules that will help you identify your goals clearly.
1. Step 1: When you are setting goals, think of what you want to achieve for yourself, what motivates you best. This will ensure that what you are aiming for is important to you and achieving it will have great value for you. If the goals you are setting for yourself are decided in part by your parents or your friends or their opinions of you then chances are that you are not going to be sufficiently motivated to make them happen. Remember, motivation is the absolute key to your achieving your goal. So, choose goals that motivate you.
If you would like to be clear about the reasons behind your wanting to achieve a goal, then the best thing would be to actually write down the ‘whys’ for each one of them. Write down why the goal is important to you and how you will feel once you have achieved it.
Make sure that you get your priorities right and that you have a small set of high priority goals in your life. Setting too many goals which are too easy to achieve do not bring with them the kind of motivation or the sense of success that setting and achieving one single tough goal will. When you set a goal, you have to feel a real yearning to achieve it and realize the tremendous gains that achieving that goal will bring you.
2. Step 2: You may have often heard of the words ‘Set SMART goals’ while someone is advising you on setting goals. SMART stands for the following – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely.
What does each one of them stand for? They provide you guidelines on setting reasonable goals that are tough enough for you to feel sufficiently motivated and yet realistic enough for you to be able to work hard and achieve them.
• Setting Specific Goals – As we have mentioned before, your goals have to be very clear and specific. This is the only way you can layout a clear road map starting from now till the time that you want to achieve the goal. Rather than saying ‘I will catch up on some reading’, say ‘I will read the first 3 chapters of this book by the end of this month’.
• Setting Measurable Goals - You have to set exact dates when you want to begin and the amounts that you want to achieve so that you can measure how well or how badly you are doing. If you write your goal as ‘Save money’, how do you know when you have achieved that goal? When you save $50 in one month or $1000 in one year? You have to write exactly what you are aiming at – the amount of money you would like to save as well as the time period in which you want to achieve that.
• Setting Attainable Goals – The most important feature of your goals has to be that they are attainable and you firmly believe that they are attainable. While aiming for physical fitness is a realistic and attainable one, trying to get a physique like some of the Hollywood stars may not be. If you set yourself goals that are too tough, then you may find yourself feeling demoralized very quickly. Setting yourself reasonable goals will get you started in the right direction and by reviewing your goals periodically, and achieving them one by one, you may actually reach the highest point. However, you have to learn to start by taking smaller steps. On the other hand, there is no point if there is no challenge involved in attaining your goal. If it is too simple and you manage to achieve it trivially, then even though you may feel some joy at having achieved it, you will certainly not feel the same sense of success or pride that you do when you set yourself a harder target to achieve and manage to do so after some difficulty.
• Setting Relevant Goals – The goals you set have to mean something to you and carry a certain priority in your life. You have to decide what brings value to your life and what defines success for you. This will help you to not only set your goals but also devote your time and attention to them whole-heartedly. Setting goals that are diverse from the philosophy of your life will only have you having doubts every now and then that will distract you from what you truly want to achieve. If in your heart of hearts you would much rather pursue a career in music than have a career in law then that is what you must do irrespective of what the consequences of those may be.
• Setting Timely Goals – You have to set a deadline for each and every goal, however small or big they may be. This way, every time, you finish something, you feel a sense of accomplishment, which is one of the keys to keeping you motivated as you work towards your goals.
3. Step 3: Write down all your goals – So far, you have followed all our guidelines and have actually thought of a set of goals that you think you most certainly want to achieve in your lifetime. However, they are still all in your head and after a few days, you will remember only a few of them and even for those, you may have difficulty remembering why you thought they were of value to you. The best way to make this entire process real is to write down systematically, the goals you want to achieve along with the specific deadlines and what you want to achieve through them. A small note alongside each goal reminding you of why this is important to you will be helpful when you are reviewing them later.
When you are writing down your goals, make them forceful and not wishful. Do not say ‘I would like to lose 10 pounds in the next six months.’ write it down, as ‘I will lose 10 pounds in the next six months’. Wishful thinking can only take you so far but the second statement gives you the power and makes you determined to achieve it.
Always be positive when you are writing down your goals. Do not write ‘I will not miss my workout in the mornings’. Write it down, as ‘I will wake up at 7:00 am every morning for my workout’.
Once you have written them down, make sure you keep reminding yourself of what you would like to achieve and why you are working on these goals. Post some of the most important goals in high visibility places like your computer monitor, refrigerator, and bathroom mirror and so on, so that you get to see them, think about them and work on them everyday.
4. Step 4: Devising an Action Plan – You now have a set of specific, realistic goals that you are all fired up to achieve. However, unless you have a very clear action plan before you, you would not even know where to start. Merely saying ‘I will lose 10 pounds in the next six months’ or ‘I will get my degree in the next three years’ is not sufficient. You need a plan of action with clearly outlined steps that will tell you how to get there in the time from now till your deadline.
To do this, consider each goal and break them up into smaller and still smaller sub-goals, such that each sub-goal can be done in a day. This can be as simple as making a phone call or reading through some pages of an information booklet. Compile a detailed to-do list that will list these various steps starting from the day you want to begin till the deadline. Do so for every goal. Then, as you keep progressing through various steps, strike them off for the day. This will give you a great sense of accomplishment, keep you motivated and at the same time, you know you are on track to achieving your main goal.
5. Step 5: Never say Die! – Achieving your lifetime goals is never easy, especially ones that are fairly long term. However, the one thing you have to learn is to never give up. This is why it is helpful if you write down how much achieving the goal means to you and what a difference it is going to make to you and your life once you achieve that.
We hope you now understand that goal setting is much more than just wishing that you could accomplish a few things in your life. It is a very methodical and disciplined process of understanding and defining what you want in life and then going about achieving it. Goal setting by itself provides you enough impetus to get started and as you proceed systematically through your plan, you will find various ways of energizing yourself till you reach your final destination. Of course, there is still a long way to go but by setting goals in the manner outlined above, you are onto a good beginning.
