The Art Of Goal Setting: 11 Steps To Create Direction In Your Life

Goal setting is a very useful and interesting process. By spending some time to reflect on what you want to achieve in life and writing your thoughts down, you give direction to your life. Having gone through the process of determining how you want you future to be and recording your goals, you have a very powerful motivational tool. It will give focus to your actions and show you the next steps to take in order to achieve them. Indeed, goal setting can turn your dreams into reality.

Most people who are admired for their exceptional achievements will have a strategy or structure in place of setting goals that help them to monitor their direction and alerts them if they divert from their path to achieve their goal.

AVOID THE HAPPY TRAPP
The biggest mistake people make when setting goals is falling into the “Happy Trap”. The happy trap is having a goal that is non-specific and intangible, for example “I want to be happy”. People in the happy trap have no idea what “being happy” means specifically, they don’t know how they will feel or what it is that will let them know, they have achieved their goal. There is no feedback loop in place that will tell them that they have arrived and their destination and can now focus on another goal.

STEP 1: CHOSE A GOAL
Take some time to think about the area that you want to address. Then you need to check whether your goal is a smart goal, meaning whether it has all the characteristics of a goal that is worthwhile striving for.

STEP 2: STATE IT IN POSITIVE TERMS
The saying "you get what you focus on" tells you that you need to focus on what you want instead of what you don't want! State you goal as "I want to eat 5 healthy meals a day" instead of "I don't want to overeat". (Avoid the positively negative trap as in "I want not to get upset about my child's untidy room".)

STEP 3:BE SIMPLE AND SPECIFIC
Formulate you goal in ways that allows you to check how well you are on you way to achieving it. If your goal is to buy a car, describe specifically what kind of car, how big, how strong, what colour, and mostly how much money do you want to spend? The more specific you are, the more likely it is that you achieve your goal.

STEP 4: MAKE IT MEASURABLE
If you want to be able to be assertive, how will you know? State your goal including those actions that tell you that you are assertive. For example “I will tell my friend that I want a more equal relationship”. As in the previous step, the more specific you are, the more likely it is that you achieve your goal.

STEP 5: IS IT SELF-INITIATED?
It is important that your goal is self-initiated and self-maintained. That means that you and you alone have to work towards achieving it (self-maintained) and that it is a goal that you choose, not for example your partner. It is also important that your goal is only for you. You can't have a goal for somebody else, i.e. I want my partner to communicate better!

STEP 6: IS IT ACHIEVABLE?
It is unrealistic if you are 45 years old to take up ballet dancing to become a prima ballerina. It won't work! Sorry! So don’t reach for the stars but make sure that, with some good effort, your goal is achievable. Don’t risk a damper on your self-confidence or your self-esteem by announcing goals that are not achievable.

STEP 7: WHAT IS YOUR EVIDENCE PROCEDURE?
It can’t be emphasised enough how important it is to have a way of telling whether you have achieved your goal. Goals like “I want to earn $50,000 per year is easily measurable. It might be more difficult with goals that are more abstract, for example like the goal of “wanting to be assertive. In the latter case, write a number of examples that will tell you that you have achieve being assertive. For example “I will be able to say no when Maria asks me to look after her children on the weekend”.

STEP 8: DO YOU HAVE THE RESOURCES TO ACHIEVE THE GOAL?
When checking out whether a goal is achievable, it is important to think whether you have the resources you need in order to achieve it. Ask yourself, what do I need to get the outcome I desire? If there are resources missing, do you know someone who can assist you? For example if your goal is to build a house but you lack some skills, do you have a friend who is able to help you out?

STEP 9: PROJECT YOUR GOAL
A very powerful technique is to project you goal into the future. High performance athletes use a similar technique for achieving their goals. They rehearse in their mind over and over again their performance. They programme their brain to know what to do when they actually have to perform. Gold medals have been won with this technique. So, make a picture in you mind of you having achieved you goal. Make sure you are in the picture. What exactly will you see? Be really specific and create a vision of achieving your goal in the most intricate detail. Are there any sounds that go with the image? Add them too. What will you feel? Imagine the feelings, make them stronger and let them wash through your body until you feel it in every cell and limb. Add the feelings too. Change colour, sound, and feelings so that the picture of having achieved your goal is as compelling as possible. Then make a mental image of it and put it out into the future to the point in time when you want to have achieved your goal. You can plant it in the future as a sign post that you can’t miss.

STEP 10: HAVE A TIME FRAME FOR YOUR GOAL
Set yourself a realistic time frame for achieving you goal. Putting a time frame onto you goal makes it easy for you to check whether you are on track. It also gives you information about the things you need to do in order to achieve your goal.

STEP 11: ADD MOTIVATIONAL POWER
Sometimes we want to achieve a certain goal without knowing exactly why or what is driving us. A very interesting sequence of questions borrowed from quantum physics will help you to determine the consequences of achieving your goal or not achieving your goal. Ask yourself the following questions:

What will happen if I get it?
What won't happen if I get it?
What will happen if I don't get it?
What won't happen if I don't get it?

This completes the goal setting and are now well on your way to achieving the outcome you are looking for! Go back to step nine and look back to now. Notice that the pathway to your goal leads over a number of smaller steps. Write them down on a sheet and place it where you can see it daily to remind yourself.

Share your goal with family, friends, or colleagues and ask them to support you in achieving your goal(s). Everything is much easier when you are not alone.