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PERSONAL GOAL SETTING

Goal setting is a powerful process for personal planning. It is a means of setting a direction in life or in business.

By setting goals you have a track to run on and a specific direction in life or career to follow. Goal setting allows you to plan your course and at the same time identify in advance obstacles you might have to overcome and difficulties you may encounter.

Setting goals correctly can be exciting and motivating. As you get into the habit of setting goals and more importantly achieving these goals you will find that your self confidence builds and your self belief will be accentuated.
There are no successful people, from business people to top athletes who do not have very specific goals and objectives to achieve. Most will set goals of an individual nature or alternatively goals that involve others - team goals. The reason these individuals achieve so much is they have a long term vision and use goal setting as a means of achieving and sustaining short term motivation. They are organised in terms of what it is they want to achieve and when they want to achieve it by.
HOW TO GO ABOUT GOAL SETTING
See the big picture. Identify what it is specifically you want to achieve in life or business and then break this down in smaller more achievable tasks. Once you have done this you can then plan how you will go about achieving these tasks. What is most important of course is that once you have a plan you must work to that plan. “Plan your work and work your plan”. This is nothing new – we have all heard it before.
A good way of going about this is by mind mapping and visualisation. Consider a goal you wish to achieve and picture in your mind that you have achieved the goal. You have just conquered Mount Everest. You mind map might then take on the picture of a mountain and various obstacles you might encounter on the climb.
CLIMBING THE MOUNTAIN
Use base camp as your starting point:

• Decide on the goals you want to achieve and set them out on a plan in order of importance;
• Chose one or two of the most important goals and set these out on the mind map as indicated above;
• Consider the first set of obstacles or difficulties you might have to face and write these down;
• Write down what you will do in order to overcome these obstacles and plan your course from that point to camp two;
• At camp two you need to review your goals and the progress made so far. Look up at the pinnacle of the mountain and re-consider the goal. This is a re-motivating phase;
• Once again consider obstacles and or difficulties you might still have to deal with and prepare yourself mentally to overcome these;
• Continue your climb and stay with your plan of action until you reach camp three. Rest and re assess your goal. Ho are you progressing;
• You are already a long way on the road to achieving your goal so why give up now;
• Consider the next set of obstacles and how you will overcome them. Commence the climb to achievement and conquering the peak;
• The obstacles you encounter may be more difficult than anticipated but you are ready and prepared to deal with them; and
• Should you hit any unforeseen weather conditions, or obstacles you have not prepared for, you can go back to camp three in order to reassess the situation. Once you do this you can then proceed forward and upward to the achievement of your goal.

Finally, celebrate the achievement of your goal and consider the obstacles you have overcome in doing so. What have you learned on the way? What might you avoid in the future?
This approach to mapping your life - setting your goals - can be applied to any area of life or work. What I like about it is, I can see what I have planned on paper, I can visualise my successes and I can stay motivated as I progress.
Each stage of re-assessment can refer to any period of time you want. It can represent a day, a month, six months or whatever you wish it to represent. The smaller the stages, the better the chances of success! A child learns to walk by taking one step at a time - don’t be too ambitious.
The following guidelines may help you set effective goals:

• State each goal as a positive statement: I am the best customer service consultant because I always listen and treat the client with respect;
• Be precise: Set a precise goal, putting in dates, times and amounts so that you can measure achievement. If you do this, you will know exactly when you have achieved the goal;
• Set priorities: When you have several goals, give each a priority and direct your attention to the most important ones;
• Write goals down: This crystallizes them and gives them more force;
• Keep goals small and achievable: Keep the goals you are working towards small and achievable. If a goal is too large, it can hamper your progress;
• Break larger goals down to smaller segments: Keeping goals small and incremental gives more opportunities for reward. Make today’s small goals part of a bigger one;
• Set goals you have control over: There is nothing worse than failing to achieve a goal for reasons beyond your control; and
• Be realistic: Set goals within your range of capabilities and experience.

When you have achieved a goal, take the time to enjoy the satisfaction of having done so. Consider what it is you have achieved and what it means to you.

• Will this achievement assist you in achieving some greater goal?
• Have the obstacles encountered highlighted a shortcoming or lack?
• Can this lack of something become another goal?
• Are thee goals you can achieve that will assist in the achievement of greater goals?

Des Squire is the Director of Applied Management Studies International (Pty) Ltd (www.amsi.co.za).
19/04/2010 – www.hrfuture.net