A Fresh Start: Setting Goals
Personal goals - Who needs them? What’s all the bother about? Or you might say
to yourself- ‘I have them in my head, I don’t need to write
them down’. If you work with a company, you probably set company
goals every year. Would it be acceptable if you told your boss
that you had the company goals in your head?- Probably not!
This is one of the fundamentals of goal
setting, they must be written down and reviewed frequently
- At least once a month or more.
Some people confuse goals with New Year
resolutions. Goals are a bit different from new year resolutions
in that when you set them, you should have a more long term
view. Where do you want to be in December 2007? What do you
want to have achieved? What would you like to be able to say?
It has been proven that when we set goals,
write them down and actively focus on them, we reach the goal.
Aristotle, the famous Greek philosopher
put it very well when he said:
“Man is a goal seeking animal. His life
only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his
goals.”
A lot of people worry about the ‘means
whereby’ to achieve some goals. They wonder how will they be
able to afford the cost etc.
As long as the goal is realistic, somehow
the ‘means whereby’ becomes available. An example of this happened
to me last year -I badly wanted to do the AICI exam in Image
Consulting as it is a universally recognised qualification
and would add a lot of
credibility to my qualifications. The
exam is run once a year in the US (Las Vegas last year). When
I set the goal at the start of last year I could not envisage
where the money (‘means whereby’) would come from to pay for
the trip.
In about March last year, I received an
email which announced that the exam would be held in Australia
for the first time ever in October at a much lower cost. I
ended up taking and passing the exam and achieving my goal
after all. While the process of goal setting is relatively
easy, a few things need to be kept in mind:
1. Goals need to be specific
2. Goals need to be measurable
3. Goals need to be realistic but challenging.
4. Goals need to have a target completion
date
5. Goals need to be set in all area’s
of your life - Career/Financial, Family/ Relationships,Health/
Fitness, Personal Development & Social.
Make this year be the year that you set
personal goals and be where you want to be this time next year.
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