Goal Setting: Do not want something; be something
Are you great at goal setting? Do you regularly achieve your goals?
We are often told to create short term (which can be today or for this week), medium term (which can be for this month or this year), and long term goals (which can be this year or over the next 15 years).
Over the years I have regularly created lists of goals; put them away and then forgotten about them. Then, something will remind me and I will create some more. Down the track I might stumble upon those goals I have written down and contrary to all expectations we have been given which is, if you write your goals down they will happen.
And yet, when I chance upon my writings and it could be years later, I review what I have written and, I have to say, nothing has changed. There are things on my lists that I still want to achieve or have.
So what am I doing wrong?
After much thought and investigation I discovered that writing down goals isn’t really the answer for me. I’ve discovered that a goal is something I have identified that I want to achieve and it generally has an external focus or is an external thing. Which means that there is something external to me that I want. That could be something like more money, a promotion, a new car, a new house, a thriving business or anything else that I might identify.
So what’s the answer? Well, I need to create outcomes, not goals.
When someone talks about an outcome they want to achieve, they have to determine what the neurological outcome is that they have to participate in to achieve it. It has to have an internal focus. Now that’s a bit of a mouthful but simply means we have to be the person internally who can achieve that outcome.
For instance, someone may say that they want to be promoted. Being promoted is actually the goal - this has an external focus. Their outcome is to be promotable, someone who can be promoted. Which means that neurologically they have to be the type of person who is promotable therefore internally ready and prepared to step up to that next role.
Someone else might have a goal to own a Ferrari. However, until they are neurologically prepared internally to feel as if they are a Ferrari owner, they probably won’t reach that outcome.
Working to reach outcomes means preparing yourself internally so you have a full body experience about what that outcome means to you and a full understanding of who you need to be to reach that outcome.
Outcomes can be used for small as well as large changes that someone wants to put in place and achieve.
A well formed outcome should be tangible and sensory specific and comprise the following:
1. What do you want to achieve, is it stated in the positive (what you do want, not what you don’t want)?
2. The outcome must be able to be self initiated and self maintained (i.e. are you reliant on other people to help you achieve this - if so you may need to change you outcome so you can rely on yourself and your own resources to achieve it)
3. Use sensory based language to describe experiencing achieving this goal. Imagine that you have achieved your outcome:
What do you see? Close their eyes and imagine that your outcome has been reached. What are you seeing around you, what are you doing, and what are other people doing?
What can you hear, what are other people saying and what are you saying to youselves?
What are you feeling?
What can you taste or smell with this achievement?
4. How will you know that you’ve achieved this outcome, what evidence do you need to have to support the belief?
5. For what purpose do you want to achieve this outcome? (ensure you answer with ’so that…’. Keep repeating this question until you really reach the highest and best purpose for achieving this)
6. What are the consequences of achieving this (e.g. will there be any issues with friends expectations and the way you were, compared to how you will be when you achieve it)
7. And is there a first step in achieving this? Is the first step achievable? Identify the first thing you can do to move them in the right direction towards your outcome.
8. Is the outcome ecological? This means that it will do no harm if you achieve it to self, others or the environment.
Once these steps have been completed, finally ask yourself to step into the future and describe your experience as if you had achieved this and you’re talking to yourself now here in the present telling all about what it’s been like since achieving this.
Outcome oriented conversations take a person’s thinking from the now (present) and into the future. Focussing someone on where they are now and where they want to be in the future is much more effective than focussing on past events or making a list of things that they want.
The whole purpose of for creating well formed outcomes is to move someone from where they are presently to where they want to be. When I am working with someone and asking questions to create a well formed outcome I will watch and listen to ensure that they aren’t dwelling on the past and coming up with reasons why they can’t, or won’t, achieve or do something.
To make any change, you first have to be whatever that change is internally. To be a red Ferrari owner, you must first be a red Ferrari owner in your mind.
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” - Albert Einstein
Top 5 Reasons to Set Goals
Why Should I Set Goals?
The fact is that goal setting works! Research studies have shown a direct link between goals and enhanced performance in both sports and business.
- Goals can give you a target to aim for. We work and feel better when our success mechanism is fully engaged going after clear targets. Goals provide your success mechanism with clear targets of your own choosing based on what is most important to you.
- Goals can help you concentrate your time and effort. One major time management challenge we are facing today is that there are more things available for us to do than anyone could possibly attempt, let alone accomplish, in an entire lifetime. If we are not careful, it is very easy to diffuse our time and energy with many different trivial pursuits, aimless distractions, and general busyness.
- Goals can provide motivation, persistence and desire. Any major accomplishment requires motivation and persistence. Where does this motivation come from? It comes from your desire and purpose, from the reasons why you want to accomplish it. Goals can help you remember your “big why” when you need to pick yourself up and keep going in the face of adversity.
- Goals can help you establish priorities. You will find many forks in the road between where you are now and where you want to be. Instead of just going with the flow and letting the “current” or other people’s interests determine where you end up, you have to consciously decide which way to go.
- Goals can provide a roadmap to take you from where you are to where you want to be. A well crafted strategy with an accompanying set of intermediate goals provides a framework to reach far away targets. One of the best ways to deal with large or seemingly “impossible” tasks is to break them up into a series of intermediate achievable steps and get to work on each piece.
There are many other great reasons to set goals, but I believe the above five are good enough for anyone to get serious about goals.
To set goals effectively, you will need good tools. GoalsOnTrack is such a web-based goal achievement tool you can use to set and accomplish any goals. We’re always improving and adding new features to the software to help people achieve goals faster.
Please try out our SMART goal setting software today and you will achieve more goals than ever before.
Creating the Perfect Goals for Success
By George Yang
Why do we need goals? We need them so that we know where we want to go towards, right? Without goals, we are basically wandering around in the darkness hoping that we reach the right place. But, we also use goals as a motivational tool to give us that boost of energy to work towards them.
If you ask any motivational speaker, one of the key points they will tell you to achieve success is to write down your goals. Well, that’s not the whole story though. Just writing them down doesn’t give you that energy boost that you need to achieve success but I’ll tell you my secret to goal setting.
First, you have to start dreaming again and not the dreams that you have when you sleep at night, but the dreams that you had when you were kids like, “I wanna live in a mansion when I grow up.” Don’t be afraid to dream big because odds are, if you dream big but only reach half way, that’s still half way farther than if you didn’t dream at all.
Ok, so let’s talk about your mansion. Just writing down a mansion in your Goals list isn’t enough. Write down details. What kind of architecture would it be? Would it be a fairy tale type of castle? Would it be an Italian Villa? How many bedrooms? What about an indoor pool?
Another secret to goal setting is to find images of some of the things you want so that you can picture them clearly in your mind. It gives your goals a sense of realism than if you were to just think about the word “mansion.” Find some pictures of Italian Villas or indoor pools or whatever it is that you want and just imagine yourself in there.
For me, I’m a car guy so I’ve got a few cars on my list. Right now, I drive a BMW M3 but that’s not enough. Like I said, you have to dream big if you want to hit it big so I’ve got Porches, more BMWs, and even Ferraris on my list. I’ve saved images of these cars onto my computer and even set a couple of them as my desktop images on both my monitors. I know the colors I want and all the options that each car provides. It makes it much more real when you get down to the details.
So, you can start with making a list of your goals but you need to go farther. Get into the details. Find images. Picture yourself owning those items already. Doing this will only help you in whatever venture you choose to go with.
What is the Mature and Conscious Approach to Goal Setting?
Goal setting is often seen as the most important as well as most difficult aspect of life success, time management, and personal development.
Whether we consciously set them or not, we always have goals which rise from our deepest convictions, hang-ups, beliefs, and perspectives.
An automatic guidance system navigates us through our life.
But conscious goal setting is better.
However, by focusing only on ‘goal setting’ without taking a whole life approach to organizing our life and understanding our deepest values, we may follow the same old automatic and less than desirable goal setting systems as we have in the past.
Do you relate?
I realized that what is required for long lasting genuine goal setting is a deeper control of desired reality.
Good goal setting necessarily involves all areas of a persons life, including intellectual, emotional, spiritual (their values), and physical.
Good goal setting also involves what a person would like to do, what they would like to have, and who they would like to become.
And good goal setting also does these things throughout time. I.e. Things wanted in the present, things wanted short term, medium term, and long term into the future.
Good Goal Setting then requires that these identifications are controlled and organized.
This is the bit that most people find too difficult.
The simplest technique is to stick your goal setting notes onto a wall some place in your home so you can review it and stay mindful of it.
From that point you will make short term commitments in line with the bigger picture, and then schedule those milestone goals.
Is this all obvious? If so, are you 100% satisfied with your application of the obvious?
If not, would you closely consider the possibility that you have not fully identified or become emotionally involved strongly enough, with all of the elements that your goal setting includes?
It is the emotional motivation that will keep us on track to goal setting properly as explained above, and to maintaining the discipline to act on our short term commitments.
Goal Setting should be a thorough and efficient part of our life. Just a little bit of effort to get the above technique of goal setting done properly can make your experience of goal setting stimulating and enjoyable, instead of disheartening as it is for many people.
Take control of a mature approach to goal setting.
My breakthrough revelation for Goal Setting is represented in only 2 simple steps that anyone can apply.
The 2 Steps of Goal Setting
First, write it all out - ‘Don’t just think it, ink it!’
(write down your current projects or desired activities and desired future)
Second, think about it often.
(maintain satisfactory awareness on what you write down)
This is the very core of Goal Setting that we must discipline our minds to do as habit before any of the more fancy techniques can make much difference.
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Author: Nathan F. Shaw
Currently touring Thailand whilst writing and coaching, Nathan Shaw has a 15 page Life’s Missing Principles Handbook available FREE at www.success-matrix.com/missingprinciples/
Become the Person You Need to Be to Achieve Your Goals
Have you ever listened to Jim Rohn’s speeches? If you haven’t, I would highly recommend you check him out. Jim is a great inspirational speaker on self-improvement and personal development. In this video, he shares how one should become the person in order to achieve his or her goals.
12 Goal Setting Mistakes in Five Minutes or Less
Selfgrowth.com founder David Riklan explains in this short video 12 common mistakes commonly made by people when trying to set goals. It’s interesting that most of what he talks about is exactly the guiding principles that we used in designing the GoalsOnTrack features. Please check it out and hope it can help with your goals.
How To Keep Focused And Motivated About Your Goals
Here I’d like to share with you a nice little video on how to focus and get motivated on your goals. It talks about three techniques that everyone can use to improve the chance of achieving any goals. Enjoy.
Keeping Yourself Motivated
Author: Ryan Cash (Marketing and PR Coordinator for Marketcircle)
Staying motivated isn’t easy – we often convince ourselves not to be. We often give ourselves excuses, allow other people to put us down, or look at the success of others and think, “That’ll never be me.”
There are two basic types of motivation: intrinsic motivation, and extrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic motivation comes from the feeling of self-achievement inherent in the task or project achieved, i.e. solving a puzzle, completing a school assignment, or finally publishing that website you were working on for a client.
Extrinsic motivation is the reward you get from others – or outside “forces”. This includes money and other financial or tangible rewards, such as a free vacation for achieving your sales targets, a trophy for winning first place at the Olympics, or even the crowd cheering as you overtake car #2 in the last stretch of the race. This explains the “home team advantage” methodology.
Extrinsic motivation (namely money) is often the primary basis for our motivation. Everyone needs money, and wants as much of it as possible. That’s no secret. However, I believe the feeling of self achievement is equally important when it comes to staying motivated.
When you’ve finished the design work for a client, what feels better? Getting paid or seeing your client smile, succeed, and receive brand recognition partly due to your efforts? If you picked getting paid, try thinking about it this way:
A small, startup company seeks your help in setting up their identity (logo, business card, website, etc.). The company is completely unknown but happens to take off. All of a sudden the company is everywhere – the NY Times, TechCrunch, CNN, a trending topic on Twitter, you name it.
Do you still feel the same? Okay, that might have been a bit of an exaggeration, but hopefully my point was made.
But what about the money?
There are many ways that you can use money and your personal financial status to keep yourself motivated. Here are a few ideas:
- Reward yourself: decide on an amount (that doesn’t cut into your bill paying or savings) and reward yourself after a job well done. Of course you don’t want to spend every hard penny you’ve earned on your favourite hobby, but if it’s all work and no play you’ll get burnt out. Reward yourself as a reminder of what you’re working towards.
- Financial status: do you want to put a down payment on your own place in 2 years? Pay off the house in 7? Have children and send them to private school? Remind yourself how much money you need to earn each month in order to support your desired lifestyle. If you’re not quite there yet figure out the steps needed to get there and write them down.
- It takes money to make money: do you have any business plans that require startup capital you don’t currently have? Do you plan to buy and rent properties? Invest? These are other good ways to remind yourself to keep at it.
What else?
Networking. It’s easy to meet other people in your industry on the internet these days (especially if you’re a designer). If you don’t already have a blog, consider starting one. Sign up for Twitter and get out there! Meeting other people in your line of work helps you to learn the language and communication styles that are effective in your industry.
If you know a lot of designers, for instance, they can refer clients to you when they’re overbooked, or when a client requires something beyond their expertise.
It’s also a good idea to try to network in person. It’s refreshing to get out of your home or office and meet people face to face. People will often share more in person than they will on their blog or via Twitter. Escaping your workstation every once in a while will give you that added fuel you need to move forward when you return from your mid-day vacation.
When all else fails, I tend to go on a “success story” binge. Take an hour to watch a few TED Talks, read a few articles about people on the Forbes 400 list, or poke around the Small Business Success Stories page on BusinessWeek.
Stay motivated – and if you can’t, try something new.
Top 10 Small Business Goals for 2010
Have you wondered what the top 10 goals are for small businesses for 2010? SmallBizTrends recently published survey results that show the top ten most voted goals. See if any of those may surprise you.
Goal Setting Strategies Learned from Olympic Champions
When it comes to setting goals for the New Year, have you wondered how Olympic athletes do it? What can we learn from those Olympic champions? World records and Olympic champions are never accidental. The ways and strategies they use to set and accomplish their goals can be very effective and must have really worked for them. In similar ways, they can work for us too.
When we set goals, an important decision is about the size. Is it better to set large goals, or small ones? The idealistic answer to that is “large ones”. Because they bring us maximum result and realize our full potential. That’s also how you get to win gold medals if you are an Olympian.
But those large and lofty goals are usually very difficult to accomplish, so for average people they are rarely realized. On the other hand, smaller goals are often easy to achieve, but may not be significant enough to make any real change in our life.
The best strategy therefore is to aim high and celebrate incremental progress toward our larger goals. It is also a better approach to finding happiness and fulfillment from the goal setting process.
When we watch the Olympics, we usually see teams that ranked 3rd and 4th compete for the bronze medal, while 1st and 2nd fight for the gold. In both finals, the teams who won bronze and gold medals were often jubilant and would dance around in excitement, while the losing teams in both matches were understandably disappointed.
This is all normal, and there is nothing unusual about any of these reactions. But what seems illogical is that the silver medal winners tend to react far less positively than those who won bronze medal, even though one would think placing second is still preferable than being third.
Therefore, psychologically it’s much better to feel like you’ve won, even if it’s an easier goal. There is a great advantage to setting a high goal. It will inspire and motivate you to reach for the stars. But what really works for most people is to break that big goal down to relevant and smaller goals, which you will more easily get to by staying positive and motivated. And once these smaller goals are achieved, the large ones are often very close to reach.
