Organizing and processing goals Your ability to think, plan, decide, organize, and take action determines the entire course of your life. The better you become in each area, the better will be in each part of your life and the faster you will achieve your goals. By setting sharp, clear, defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of these goals. And you will see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long, pointless grind. You will also raise your self-confidence and you will recognize your ability and competence in achieving the goals that you have set. But once you have figured out what you really want to do, you still need a strategy for accomplishing it. Your goals are not going to get you anywhere if you don’t actually do something about them. And not just anything, but the right things. I have 6 strategies for organizing your goals.
1. Fixed the goals
make sure that your goal is something you want rather than something you want to avoid. For instance, instead of saying I don’t want to be stuck in this job for another 4 years, say I want to improve my skills over the next 4 years so that I qualify for a better job.
2. After setting your priorities, focus on 5-7 items
Many studies show that you really cannot focus on more than 5-7 items at any one time. If you concentrate on more than 5-7 goals at any time, you will lose focus and you will accomplish very little.
3. Tetting smaller goals
Create progressively smaller goals that you should reach to achieve your big goals. Each of these should be based on the previous plan. Then create a daily to-do list of the things that you should do today to work towards your goals. At an early stage, your smaller goals might be to read books and gather information on the achievement of your higher-level goals. This will help you to improve the quality and realism of your goal setting.
4. Make them smart
Your goals must be specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and reachable within your time frame. First, what is a specific goal?
Your goals must identify exactly what you want to accomplish in as much specificity as you can master. One might say I want to be successful, well who doesn’t? But can you define what success means to you? Just one person may mean becoming the CEO of a company, while to another person it can mean getting home from work by 6 o’clock every evening. A bad goal, write an article. A good goal, write an article for your favorite tourism site or blog. Measurable. You can’t manage what you cannot measure. If possible, try to quantify the result. You want to know absolutely, positively whether or not you hit the goal. A bad goal, earn more this month than the last one. A good goal, earn $500 more this month than the previous one.
Next, actionable. Every goal should start with an action verb, quit, run, finish, eliminate, rather than a to-be verb, such as am, be, have. A bad goal is to be more active in blogging.
A good goal, write 5 blog posts per week.
Next, realistic. A good goal should stretch you, but you have to add a dose of common sense. Make sure your abilities and skills are compatible with your long-term goals. A bad goal, qualify for the PGA Tour. A good goal, lower my goal handicap by 4 strokes.
Next, reachable within your time frame. Each goal needs a deadline associated with it. A goal without a date is just a dream. Always define when you plan to deliver on that goal. It could be by year-end or it could be more near-term. Make sure that every goal ends with a by-when date. Don’t set yourself up to failure. If you have one big goal, then you have to break it down into smaller parts or short-term goals. Remember, you will do better if you take baby steps than one big giant leap. A bad goal, lose 1 kilo. A good goal, lose 1 kilo by December 31st.
5. Organizing your goals. Stick to your plan
It’s also a good idea to make an appointment with yourself each week to review your progress. This could be on the train or bus to work, or school on Monday, when you get home on a Friday afternoon, or when the house is quiet on a Sunday morning. It’s up to you, but make it regular and stick to the schedule. If you have not made as much progress as you planned to, don’t beat yourself up. Just reschedule the things you missed for the next week. Working step by step is the key. As an exercise, write down your goals and actions in a notebook, on your phone or computer, and set reminders on your calendar to follow up on each of the actions.
6. Adjust your goals periodically
You may find yourself set in your ways concerning broad life goals, but take the time to re-evaluate your smaller goals. Are you accomplishing them in your time frame? Are they still necessary to keep you on track toward your larger life goals? You need to create a plan that you can stick to but then adjust along the way toward achieving your goals. Don’t change the goal, but you can and should change the plan as often as needed to get closer to your goals. In the end, goal setting is a powerful technique for developing a solid foundation for future planning and organization. By knowing what you want to achieve in life, you know where you want to concentrate and what to improve.
If you can set well-defined goals and organize them, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. Thank you very much for being with us.