Goal Setting That Works

Written on July 19, 2007 by Tezza

Achievement of goals is a lifelong pursuit. The day you no longer have a goal or dream to aspire to is the day you begin your process of death so to speak. After all they say if you aren’t growing you are dying.

A story that is often bantered around in personal development seminars is the one of the study conducted at Yale university on the class of 1953. While there is speculation that this story is mythical the lesson is none the less applicable. The story goals that researchers surveyed Yale’s graduating seniors to determine how many of them had specific, written goals for their future. The answer: 3%. Twenty years later, researchers polled the surviving members of the Class of 1953 – and found that the 3% with goals had accumulated more personal financial wealth than the other 97% of the class combined! The moral is that having written goals for the future will give you a greater chance of success due to that fact that you have a target to aim for.

A case in point the other night I was meeting up with some friends for a game of squash. Now it was at a gym that I’ve never been to before and not our usual court so I went ahead and googled a map of the location of the gym. I had a rough idea of where the courts were so I proceeded to drive there giving myself a little extra time in case I got lost. Low and behold I get to the vicinity of the courts and have no idea how to find the cross streets where the courts were located, I had a map of where it was with only a few streets showing on the map and no street directory in the car.

So I spent the next fifteen minutes driving around what turned out to be a few minutes from my intended destination trying to find one of the few streets showing on my map so that I could get to the gym. How much easier would it have been had I had a street directory that showed how to get from my home to the gym with the streets clearly marked on the map and that is what goals can do for our lives.

1. Be Realistic.
The worst thing you can do is set yourself up for failure. It is important to aspire to goals which align with your deepest values and are actually things you want to achieve in life and not what you think others expect of you. For example there is no point having a goal to purchase a $1 million dollar waterside home in a year if your annual salary is $50,000. I’m not saying to make your goals small, as the saying goes “Shoot for the moon, if you miss you’ll still be in the stars.”

However, instead of having one big goal, chunk it down. Having a sub goal to aim for so that you can get some victories under your belt. The reinforcement of victories and achievement can do wonders for your self confidence and be a motivating force to continue to move you towards the bigger goals. If you have ever been driving down a long country road at night you will know that you don’t need to have your whole journey lit up with light. You just need to have your car headlights working and lighting the next several meters of your path. So it is with your goals. You don’t need to know exactly how you are going to achieve your big goal, so work on achieving the smaller goals that will ultimately lead you to your big goal anyway. Once you have momentum on your side then there is no stopping you.

2. Be positive with your goals.
As Anthony Robbins says, everything you do is either towards pleasure or away from pain. So why not make your goals towards pleasure. By finding out what you want in life rather than what you don’t want you make achieving goals all the more fun. After all isn’t life meant to be enjoyed not endured. Positive energy feeds on itself and you’ll find that this will attract positive changes into your life.

To know what you want in life it is important to explore the areas that are important to your overall fulfillment and joy. These areas are not limited to your relationships and career. They also include personal finance, personal growth, health, recreation, community and spiritual. To be successful is more than about making a lot of money, after all what is the point of having all the money in the world if your wife has left you and your estranged from your kids. Picture each of these areas as pillars holding up your house. If any one of these areas is weak then the house structure is compromised.

3. Take action today.
“The road to Someday, leads to the town of Nowhere”. Someday is today! When you have a goal that you are excited about the best time to take action is right now. If you leave it till tomorrow or next week then you’ve lost the chance to take advantage of the momentum that has been created. If you want to lose weight and you know a key part of it is to change what you’re eating and to start exercising then start today. The only time you have control over is right now, yesterday is already over and tomorrow hasn’t yet come.

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