SIX GOLDEN PRINCIPLES TO GOAL SETTING/ACHIEVEMENT

To set goals is one thing but to set worthwhile and achievable goals is another, if you must achieve your goals you must consider this five golden principles to setting proper and achievable goals:

1. Set goals that motivate you

What is your motivation?  Find things that motivate you and set your goals around them. We often make a mistake of setting goals randomly without considering our personal interest or passion towards the subject matter; the reality is when you are motivated by your goal you tend to live more happily, be more focused, put in more energy and commitment into achieving those goals and most importantly you have more sense of fulfillment when this goals are achieved…visit this link if you need to discover what is your motivation https://getinspiredtodaycom.wordpress.com/2019/08/16/303/

2. Set SMART goals

The SMART analysis is a tool that can be explored to set more achievable goals, if properly applied it can bring about setting goals that would yield better results.

• Specific

Specific goals are goals that are targeted at something, clear, certain and unambiguous. It does not give rooms for speculation, it points directly at a particular thing that you seek to achieve. To enable you create more specific goals you can put into consideration what you want to achieve, who is involve and where is this goal to be achieved?

Example: I want to go to school is a vague goal, a more specific goal would be I want to apply and get admission to study Law in Nasarawa State University.

• Measurable

A measurable goal is that which can be tracked and quantified, how do you know if you are achieving that specific goal or at least making progress? More than setting goals is setting trackable goals so you can know how far you have gone and what more need to be done.

Example: As a blogger if my goal for the year is write more articles on personal development on my blog, a measurable goal will be; I want to write a total of 12 articles on personal development every month, 3 article in a week, to push it further I might even say I want to publish on Mondays, Wednesday and Saturday every week; that way I have a very specific and measurable goal.

• Achievable

Another word for this would be attainable,  you would have to put into consideration your capacity and whether you have what it takes to achieve this goal including the requisite resources; material and otherwise.

Example: building on writing Personal development articles, if am a student at Nasarawa State University, considering the nature of my course and how time consuming it will be, saying I want to write 56 personal development articles in a month and probably 14 articles and 2 per day would certainly not be achievable for me.

• Realistic

A realistic goal have a very close resemblance with being achievable, when setting a goal you have to consider the possibility of that goal; your goal should be something that is possible and real, that is not to say am against being innovative and dreaming big but whatever your innovative goal is, it should be something you can see coming being a reality.

For a realistic goal you can also consider the SWOT analysis, which centers on Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, threats, when you are clear about this you should seek towards working on your weakness, maximising your strength and taking advantage of opportunities and preparing for how to  tackle the obstacles ahead to yield better results. To read more on the SWOT analysis Visit this link https://www.achieve-goal-setting-success.com/

• Time Bound

Every goal you set if you must achieve it must be time bound, creating a deadline or setting a time limit for your goals will make you more serious and focus in achieving your goals and it makes you more consciences of achieving that goal. The basic Question here is WHEN.

Example: Example of time bound goal is saying I want to apply and be admitted to Nasarawa State University September this year and finish my law degree within the Five year period.

3. Write it Down

Writing your goals help you to clearly define what your goals are. A lot of personal development coach will say writing your goals is the first step to achieving them; personally I have been doing that for more than five years now and it has worked well for me. Writing your goals makes you more conscious of them and means you can easily go back to it, rate yourself and review it at anytime.

4. Put a Plan in Action

The best way to achieve a goal is to break it down to smaller goals and put up plan on how you can achieve it, this will involve the question of WHEN and HOW? The key step here is action, makes sure you put whatever plan you  have mapped out to action. It is a process of kick starting, you can write a proper and achievable goal but once you don’t have an action plan on how you would achieve it and put that plan to action, it will remain a beautiful worthless piece of idea on paper. Personally what I do most times is to take up each goal, create an independent segment for it and begin to write what may look like a sub goal i.e how I want to achieve it, what I will need to do, how I intend to do it and most importantly when do I start, then start it.

5. Positive Attitude

More than writing goals is whether you have the right attitude to accomplish them, attitude is very important, if s goal is the flesh then attitude will be the skeleton, without the right attitude your goals cannot stand, it will be just a helpless piece of ideas. Having the right attitude will mean having a positive attitude, a popular writer Zig Ziglar said “it is your attitude, more than your aptitude that will determine your altitude” meaning the key to success is having a positive attitude. We are unconsciously designed to act the way we think, while setting your goals or working towards them you must be optimistic about them and not pessimistic, if you are starting a goal with a mindset that a particular goal is difficult/hard then you are almost never going to accomplish that goal and even if we do, you will struggle but when you see a goal as possible but requires more effort and commitment, we are more likely to achieve that goal. When setting goals we must be true to ourselves that we will encounter obstacles and challenges on the way having a positive attitude will prepare our mind and help us pull through in those rough times. Positive attitude will also include hard work, focus, commitment, determination, self discipline…. Read More about thmmpositive attitude via this link https://www.drzimmerman.com/tuesdaytip/attitude-determines-altitude

6.Review

While setting goals we must be true to ourselves that unpredicted occurrences and challenges will happen and there will be a need to adjust to this change. We may plan a realistic and achievable dream but as time unfolds, it may become impossible to accomplish those dreams in the manner you planned out and holding unto that would be futile, at that point there is a need to review your goals and adjust them to meet the trend. Secondly a review of your goals help you to keep a score on yourself to know whether you are making progress and what need to be adjusted if you aren’t making progress. An example would be the outbreak of Covid-19 last year and the lock down that followed, the lock down made it impossible for dreams that had to do with physical contact to happen and others were forced to adjust the way the do their things like working from home and working online and others had to find an alternative; for me I was going to focus on finishing my law school program as my major goal, but the lock down and shut down of schools made me adjust my goals to focus more on things that were going to be more productive at that time.

Tap this link to read more on goal Setting…. https://getinspiredtodaycom.wordpress.com/2020/01/28/perfectwaytobeginanewyear/