Demystifying Effective Goal-Setting

Ever wondered about the secret to effective goal-setting ?

However simple and easy goal-setting may sound but there's so much more to it than what appears to

be at the outset. Goal-setting is an important process that defines the future course of our life, and therefore should be catered to with full attention and focus. The most basic purpose of goal-setting is to ensure our progress in life and pave the way for us to achieve and accomplish. Agreed, "action" is what helps us achieve and accomplish, but this "action" is a wasted effort if applied on wrongly prioritised/ identified things or tasks. Therefore, it becomes imperative for our success that we set right/ appropriate goals.

Isn't it the case that in full excitement, so many of us set numerous goals during  the onset of new year but only to find ourselves lose steam while pursuing them, during the course of the year, and ultimately ending in agony at having missed accomplishing the goals we set out to achieve ?

To  whatever extent, we may blame other factors for our failure in accomplishing our goals, the fact remains that the simple act of building "clarity" about things could have addressed this issue for us. 

So, the secret to effective goal-setting is CLARITY and this clarity is about the WHAT, WHY and HOW of Goals. Let's look at each of the 3 steps/ elements in detail

WHAT goal/ goals should be established ?

This is the first and foremost thing to to addressed and getting it right will set the tone for the rest of the 2 steps. How would it feel to see our effort and energy go waste just because we spent it on the "wrong" thing ?  It is definitely not a great feeling and plays heavily on our mind and body because a good amount of our emotion, energy and time got consumed on something that did not yield any returns for us. So, is there a way to identify and establish goals that ensure progression for us ? Surely, there is a way and it is quite simple. A quick recall of our passion and purpose could set the ball  rolling for us in terms of  identifying the appropriate goals. Each one of us are passionate about something and live with a bigger purpose in life, something that gets ingrained in us and become a part of our DNA (not literally). For living that big purpose in life require us to identify some practical milestones and these milestones get referred to as goals. So, whenever in doubt about identifying and establishing appropriate goals, think about what milestones would help you live the purpose of your life. Believe me, this could help us come up with plenty of relevant goals and then it's our discretion to pick the ones that matter most in the given context. For example, if my purpose in life is to be an enabler and empowerer of people, then my identified goals would be around Life Coaching, Training, Counselling and Blogging. Basis my SWOT Analysis, i could identify and establish few goals to focus on.

WHY those (identified) goals should be pursued ?

This is all about finding reasons for pursuing the identified goals. Asking ourself the following few relevant questions could help us be better convinced about the established goals 

• How do these goals help me live the larger purpose of my life ?
• What benefits these goals offer to me to help me progress and grow ?

Seeking rationale behind pursuing those identified goals keeps us focused and motivated and the
more direct and specific we get about the returns/ benefits, the better would be our effort for accomplishing these identified goals. For example, if one of my identified goal is to get certification in Life Coaching, then this step is where i start defining the benefits of accomplishing that particular goal. Here, in this example, one of the key benefit might be adding an international credential to my portfolio and opening my offerings to global audience. Anywhere, close to 3 reasons per goal should be convincing enough for us to pursue that goal.

HOW to accomplish the identified goals ?

This step is all about the Action Steps that we need to take for achieving the goals. Getting clear about the steps to take for accomplishing a particular goal makes it easy for us to take action. A goal may just remain a wish in the absence of action and so it becomes very important to identify the actions that will help us in fruition of goals. Anywhere around 5 action steps should be sufficient. Discussing the same example as above, few of the action items for the goal of "getting certified in life coaching" could be to research about the schools/ institutes offering the certification in terms of their validity, duration, fees, content, trainer, etc. Another step in the regard could be to connect with an existing coach to seek their opinion/ suggestion. Here also, SWOT Analysis could help in adopting a more realistic approach to identifying the appropriate action.

Related Articles :

• The Art of Achieving Goals 

• SMART Goal-Setting 

Remember, life is not made merely by setting goals but by achieving them too !

N.B. : The images used in this post are sourced from internet