Goal Setting
If you don't have goals, you'll be spending most of your time helping others achieve their goals! (Larry Maughan)
What is a goal?
A goal is something that you want, something you aim for. Goals can be personal, financial, business, job, mental, or learning goals. They can be career goals, goals for the family, or physical goals. A goal is an end toward which you direct some specific effort:
- save time
- gain self confidence
- improve decision making
- eliminate worry
- increase enthusiasm
Why do we need goals?
We need goals in many areas of life to stay balanced. Goals keep us moving forward. People who set goals and successfully achieve them get high self-esteem and get the feeling of ownership of future.
Commitment to reach goals increase when you set your own goals or are part of the goal setting process.
Purpose for developing a plan
If you have a plan it's easier to reach the set goals. You get there faster. Goals, however, need to be tangible to be motivating. Goals that are set so that a person has to stretch a bit to reach them, but low enough so that they can be attained, are motivating goals. Goals motivate in four ways:
- goals provide power of purpose as attention is directed to a specific target
- goals encourage a person to make efforts to achieve something difficult
- reaching for a goal encourages persistence as it requires sustained efforts
- having goals forces a person to bridge the gap between dream and reality and fosters the creation of an action plan with strategies on how to get to where you want to go.
Monitoring the process
Goals and their objectives answer the following questions:
- What are you going to accomplish?
- How are you going to accomplish it? (criterion)
- How will you know if you achieved your goal? (condition)
Objectives describe the process of achieving the goal. Goals should not describe performance that cannot be observed. Avoid the words "learn", "understand", "know", or "value". These do not provide a clear idea of expectation.
Example areas to set goals in
- improvement of routine task
- procedure you want to learn
- familiarity with equipment
- additional expertise you wish to develop or improve
- educational outcome that with will allow a career change
- interpersonal skills you feel need improvement
- pay off credit card debt
- a trip to a desired destination
Sample goal with objective and learning outcome
Goal: I will develop a two-page website using Adobe Dreamweaver including two pictures and three paragraphs of text before May 2009.
Objective: I will take a class in Adobe Dreamweaver to learn about the software. I will take the class prior to December 2008. The class will teach me the necessary skills to develop the website.
Outcome: I know that I have accomplished my goal when I can present the two-page website to my supervisor.
"If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it."
(Jesse Jackson)