Setting Goals and the Steps to Get There

Achieving goals is important part of one's career and keeps us moving forward in new directions. Those who set goals have a higher chance of being more successful than others who might muddle through life aimlessly. Setting appropriate goals and ensure that these goals are achievable requires a little planning and reflection to get where you want to go.

Clearly Defined: 

Goals should be specific and obtainable. People sometimes make goals that are broad, murky, or ill defined. It is hard for them to know whether or not they achieved a particular goal if there is no easy start or stop position. A clearly defined goal might be "complete a training class on basic accounting in the next 6 months" while an ill defined goal would look more like "understand more about accounting".

In the first example you know exactly when you achieved that goal while in the second case you will need to guess. Having a clearly defined goal will let you know when it is time to adjust that goal and move onto a new one. Each accomplished goal provides new experiences and opportunities for growth.

Plan of Action:

No goal will be achieved unless you put energy into it. The effort you put forward should not be haphazard and wasted. It is much better to focus on some specific plan of action. That plan can be broken into steps that help you get where you want to go.

Think of how graduating from a basic accounting class will need effort in enrollment, completing assignments, writing, etc... Knowing what will need to be accomplished on a daily basis will help in ensuring that you meet those goals. It may be as simple as spending an hour a day working on your project until it is completed or finding some other combination of effort.

Assess Your Progress:

It is beneficial every once in a while to assess your progress. Take a few moments to look at where you are and what additional effort or adjustments are needed to achieve that objective. Sometimes you will need to put additional effort in while at other times your current progress will be fine. Try and understand what is needed and when it is needed

Exchange Your New Year's Resolutions for Goals

New Years is the that special day where people boastfully pronounce their resolutions to any passerby who will listen. Like most New Year's resolutions they are short lived and die off in a few short weeks after pronouncement. This year, instead of making resolutions, look to bring in the new year with some well thought out goals. This will help you give your life a kick in the pants as you march down a brighter path.

Goals are different than resolutions. Resolutions usually seek to solve a problem and are not always well thought out. This is one reason why resolutions don't often have staying power. Goals are a commitment to achieve some objective and require greater thought and action to successfully achieve.

A popular New Year's resolution is to work out and get into shape. With no real plan in place you walk into your closest gym and sign up for that expensive gym membership that will continue to charge you even though you don't go anymore. You also buy yourself a new pair of running shoes, a great outfit and the latest book catering to some new diet fad. Your ready to go!

Within a few short weeks you abandon the gym and return back to your old habits because you didn't realize there was a lot of work involved in your broad resolution. At the end of it all you spent a lot of money, your enthusiasm quickly died and you eventually gave up. New Year's Resolution "get in shape" died quickly.

Setting a goal may help you more as you will be forced to think through not only the goal but how you manage to achieve it. It is beneficial to take time considering what is important to you and then break down the steps you will need to fulfill your goal. Make sure that your goals have some end point where new goals can be met. Your New Year's Resolution should move from "get in shape" to "lose five pounds" this year.

Steps to Setting Goals

Step 1: Set your goals based upon those things that are really important to you.

Step 2: Goals should have a clearly defined end point like five pounds, volunteer 30 hours, etc...

Step 3: Break your goals down into action steps that require smaller completable steps (i.e. read one health book a month or frequent the gym 30 minutes 3X a week).

Step 4: Assess your goal achievement a few times throughout the year to ensure that you are on track or need to adjust your effort to put yourself on track.

Step 5: Set new goals at the end of the year and celebrate whatever you did happen to accomplish last year.

Don’t Make Resolutions! Set Goals!

By Dr Andree Swanson

Another new year and guess what I received in the mail?  Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, 24-hour Fitness and a whole slew of advertisements that weigh in on (no pun intended) those people who believe in the power of the New Year’s Resolution.  While surfing Facebook, a family member posted that she had to park a mile away from the gym.  In a month, parking will return to normal.

To affect change, you must change your behavior.  Norcross, Ratzin, and Payne (1989) conducted a study on 213 adults who made New Year’s resolutions.  “Successful resolvers were also found to report employing significantly more behavioral strategies and less self-blame and wishful thinking than unsuccessful resolvers” (Norcross, Ratzin, & Payne, 1989, Abstract).

Consider creating a vision board, instead of making New Year’s resolutions.  This is not only fun to make, but can be a constant reminder of your focus for the year.  (I used to do this on a large post-it note on my wall).

Picture provided by Dr. Andree Swanson

Here are some tips on how to proceed with your Vision Board.

Picture provided by Dr. Andree Swanson.

To learn more about creating a vision board, visit:

http://marthabeck.com/2008/07/the-subtle-tricks-to-building-an-effective-vision-board/

       

Reference

Norcross, J. C., Ratzin, A. C., & Payne, D. (1989). Ringing in the New Year: The change processes and reported outcomes of resolutions. Addictive behaviors, 14(2), 205-212.