Four Tips to Help You Set and Achieve Your Goals
Ah, a new calendar year and a clean slate. 2016 is full of possibilities! You have made your resolutions and by golly you will stick to them, right? Well, 8% of you will. Why do new year’s resolutions have such an abysmal failure rate? Let’s take a look at the most popular resolutions for 2014 from Statistic Brain:
- Lose weight
- Get organized
- Save more money and spend less
- Live life to the fullest
- Stay healthy and fit
- Help others with their dreams
- Spend more time with family
- Stop smoking
- Fall in love with someone
- Learn something exciting
Some of these are great goals. But are they achievable? Sure you could throw away those cigarettes and never pick one up again. That one’s pretty cut-and-dried. Others, like falling in love and helping others with their dreams, are not entirely in your control, so they may be doomed from the start.
Setting and Achieving Your Personal and Professional Goals
Here are some tips for setting goals that you can actually stick with:
Choose a right goal—A right goal benefits you and/or others. When choosing a goal, examine your motives. Are they genuine? Constructive? Ethical? Avoid any goals that exploit or hurt others.
Have a clear vision—A right goal is visionary. Without vision, you will lack a clear picture of the end result, which will make it hard to hang in there in the long term to achieve that goal.
Make a list of objectives—How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Once you have an elephant … er… goal, come up with small bites that you can take that will get you closer to taking that elephant down. For example, if your goal is to get a promotion within five years, determine all of the steps you will take, including continuing education, learning a new skill, or taking on more of a leadership role or mindset to help you get to that goal.
Jot it down— The difference between goals and dreams is a concrete plan of action. Now that you have a right, visionary goal and some smaller objectives that can help you reach that goal, write it all down on paper. By writing down your goals and objectives, you are committing to them. Refer to them frequently by posting them somewhere where they can easily be seen. Check off objectives as you go to motivate and encourage yourself throughout the process.
Don’t just dream big—DO big! By following these goal setting tips, you can set yourself up for success as a leader within your organization, in your community, and at home. Need help developing and achieving your goals? We offer personal business and life coaching and organizational leadership training for individuals and organizations. Contact us today for more information on our leadership programs or to get a free quote.
*Image courtesy of Meawpong3405 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
