Simplifying the Goal-Setting Process

Three primary components are involved in order to accomplish a goal: imagination, planning, and action. This article focuses on the planning process.

When using the term goal-setting, many people have only a vague idea about what they hope to accomplish by setting a goal, and even fewer have developed a strategy to get the process started. But the idea of setting goals need not be so obscure. Here is a simple plan that will take the mystery out of the process of setting and accomplishing goals.

Begin by identifying your goal. Once identified, start brainstorming and write down all of the steps that you can imagine it will take to achieve that goal. During a brainstorming session, it is not important to think through the steps but simply to get them down on paper. Later on as you review the list, you may wish to remove or combine some steps or include additional steps that may not have been written on the initial list.

Now that you have listed the steps, each one can be broken down into various tasks. In addition to the tasks required to complete each step, potential obstacles should also be considered. Reflect on each obstacle in order to discover possible ways to overcome it—breakthroughs to get back on track toward accomplishing your goal.

Once you have completed the first draft of your goals checklist, review each step and place them in a logical order, chronologically or by level of priority, whichever makes the most sense for your particular goal.

As each task is completed, mark it off the list. As you complete more and more tasks, you will be able to mark off the respective steps, as well. Finally, after all steps have been completed, your goal will have been accomplished and you are ready to move onto the next one. Systematically tackling each goal using a simple method such as this helps facilitate the goal-setting and goal-accomplishing process.

For a FREE goals worksheet template, please send an email to: lj@newjourneychristianlifecoaching.com.