Few dispute the importance of setting personal and professional goals. It only makes sense that having a written objective increases the likelihood of success! Effective goals have several characteristics that help to assure a positive outcome.
By incorporating a few strategic practices into your next goal setting session, you can greatly increase the probability of success.
Try these strategies to help make your goal a reality:
- Choose the best goal for you. Consider all possibilities before you select the topic of your goal.
- A simple, but effective exercise is to list 5-10 possible goals that you would like to achieve. Then ask yourself, “Which of these goals would deliver the greatest benefit right now?” This is important because a more meaningful goal has a much better chance of becoming reality.
- Set a realistic deadline to achieve your goal by. Without a deadline, your goal will lack any sense of time urgency and procrastination is far more likely to kick in. Making sure the deadline is realistic will increase the chances of achieving your goal too.
- It is generally more effective to limit the timeframe to 12 weeks or less.
- If you have a goal that will take longer to achieve, break the goal down into smaller, manageable steps. By doing this, you are more likely to keep going when the initial enthusiasm begins to fade. Taking smaller, more manageable steps will mean that you will be able to measure your progress and celebrate your successes as you move towards your big goal.
- Leave the results open ended when appropriate to allow your results to surpass your goal.
- If it’s appropriate, allow for results to exceed expectations. Avoid limiting your results if it’s unnecessary to do so. You may well be surprised by how much more you can achieve.
- Include specific actions you need to take to achieve your goal.
- Claim responsibility and commit to do the things that need to be done to accomplish your goal.
- Prioritise your goal. Your brain is inundated with countless decisions every day. It needs to know that your goal is important and should be prioritised over other tasks.
- One way to accomplish this is by utilising repetition. After first setting your goal, write it down 10 times. Now notice how you feel about the goal. If you feel anything less than motivated and excited, there is some question in your mind about it; try to figure out what’s holding back your enthusiasm so you can move forward with confidence.
- Strong, positive emotions can be used as a prioritisation tool. Imagine what it will feel like when you achieve your goal. Imagine the ideal scene. What do you see, think and feel? The better the vision, the better the probability of success.
Some people find visualisation really helps keep them on track. If this is you, perform the visualisation process each day to reinforce the priority of your goal.
Consider these ideas the next time you set a goal. By using these 5 tips, the probability of success will increase greatly. While there are multiple ways to set goals, the process above is a great way to start your journey to success.
Try it with your next goal; you’re sure to be pleasantly surprised.
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