Peter Laws

Goal setting is very important because without aims and aspirations we are like a rudderless boat becalmed on a wide open ocean. To get great results you need to make strong goals and plan a clear path to success…

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. Read them daily to keep your goals fresh in your mind.

• 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 (parents, friends, media, society) can set unrealistic expectations and goals for you, so the goals you set should be tailored to your aims and your desires, not external standards of performance or success. Try and ignore what other people want – finding out what is important to YOU can be a very empowering process.

• Do not set goals too low: Just as it is important not to set goals unrealistically high, do not set them too low. People tend to do this where they are afraid of failure or where they are lazy! You should set goals so that they are slightly out of your immediate grasp, but not so far that there is no hope of achieving them. No one will put serious effort into achieving a goal that they believe is unrealistic.

http://www.completefitness.com.au/articles/motivation/goalsetting2.php

Share on Facebook