Goal Setting Success

The importance of setting goals often only becomes clear when we realize we haven't achieved them. This is one of the reasons it is so important to write goals down in a notebook or journal, where you can track them over time. This is particularly true when it comes to reaching our career goals, where goal setting success is crucial if we are to enjoy a happy and fulfilled life.

If you set clearly defined short term and long term goals you will be able to measure your progress and eventually achieve personal satisfaction in all areas of your life. As you move towards your goals, your self-confidence will also improve as you see the progress you are making – progress which would be hard to measure if you have not formulated your goals properly and written them down. You will also find that with progress you become more aware of your capabilities, skills and talents, which in turn will also boost your self-esteem.

Learning how to set goals is not something which happens naturally, as we are encouraged to do what other people think we should do and give up our dreams as early as possible, since they are often considered impractical, if not impossible, by parents and teachers.

To start your goal setting, you should spend some time really thinking about what you want in life, not just in your career. It’s important to make sure that your goals will create a balanced lifestyle and not just career success, which, if not accompanied by friendship, family and fun, can be very hollow and lonely.

Start off with your long term goals and work backwards, considering job goals, financial goals, relationship goals, goals related to your interests and passions, and spiritual goals. Although your eventual career goal may seem a long way off, setting goals and objectives which will take you there will make the process a lot easier. For each goal you have written ask yourself what it will take to get you there. For example, if you want a senior management position in a specific company, the step before that might be middle management in the firm or a similar organization. If you are currently working in a different industry, you’ll need to find out what experience you’ll need to make the transition. There may also be qualifications and additional skills which you need to develop. As your list moves back towards the present, you’ll be able to plan each step and should find something which you can do today. That could be simply doing some online research into your chosen career or it could be checking out advertisements to see if you’re ready to move a little closer to your goal, or contacting a local college to enquire about night school classes.

As you uncover the steps you need to take to achieve your goals, you will see if your career goals are compatible with your lifestyle goals. There will be times when you have to compromise, such as when first starting out in a career which makes big demands on newcomers. An example of this is medicine, where junior doctors have to work extremely long hours. If you have a plan, you will be able to see where compromise is necessary and where it should end.

Another important consideration is that goals change as you get older. So what was important in your 20s may not matter at all by the time you reach 40 or 50. So it is essential to realize that goals will change and you must be flexible – there is no point in working towards a goal if it no longer interests you or conflicts with more important goals which have shown up later in your life.

Goal setting success is not the result of simply making a plan, it’s the result of developing that plan, making changes as necessary and perhaps even ditching it for a better one.

About the author :

By Waller Jamison Have you lost sight of your dream job? Re-motivate yourself for success. Discover what you were born to do with our Free Career Change Course
http://www.coolercareers.com

Soft-Set Goals for the Hard-Pressed Achiever

If the idea of sitting down to write out a structured plan of action that demands you perform x number of actions according to a timetable of deadlines sounds like Stress City for you, you're not alone. Springing from an industrial-age, assembly-line mode of thought, traditional goal-setting doesn't capture the organic flow of the way we actually live.

The reason why goal-setting programs persist in popularity is that they promise to help you find the time and means to achieve the things you want to achieve. But the truth is that, while they look good on paper, in real life few of us are geared to follow the rigid, mechanically structured paths they describe.

Sadly, what often happens is that because people can't fit their lives into the rigors of the programs, they give up on the goals themselves. But it doesn't have to be that way. The key is to entertain your goals in a more fluid, natural manner.

If you analyze goal-setting programs, you find the primary benefits they provide are threefold: 1) They lead you to define what you want to achieve; 2) They give you some means of keeping your goal in the forefront of your mind; and 3) They stimulate consistent action in the direction of your goal.

You can take advantage of these benefits in a way that fits your schedule and lifestyle with one little easily remembered technique. Begin by deciding what you want to achieve and then identifying as clearly as you can why you want it. Once you have done that, all you need to do is learn to ask yourself several times throughout your day, "What do I want? Why do I want it? What can I do right now?"

Repeat those three questions as a little chant to yourself and you will discover they hold a surprising power. Your mind cannot help but come up with answers; it's just the way minds work.

Try repeating them as you do mundane tasks that don't require any concentration, such as routine housework, shaving, walking, or driving. Because you have already answered the first two questions in the phrase--what you want and why you want it--your mind will simply remember your goal and motivation, strengthening your awareness of them. Then it will go on an expedition to come up with answers for the final question in the set and ideas about what you can do will begin flowing into your awareness.

As soon as you can, implement those ideas. Not only is action towards your desired outcome the whole point, but putting the ideas to work reinforces your subconscious to seek more responses for you. It will even take note of which ideas you choose to act on and increasingly generate ones that are in harmony with your purpose and style.

Instead of struggling to fit your life and dreams into a rigid, mechanized system, let this flexible, self-paced technique work for you. What is it you really want, after all, if not a workable way to move toward your dreams? Why? Because you deserve to live the life of your choosing! And how can you do that in a way that fits your personal set of circumstances?

You can do it by putting the soft-set technique into play in your life today. All it takes is asking three questions: What do I want? Why do I want it? What can I do right now?

About the author :

Susan K. Minarik is the author of Winning the Tomorrow Game: How to Discover and Create the Life of Your Dreams. Get a subscription to The Magical Mirror newsletter with enrollment in her free e-course, Live Your Dreams Click the link, or visit Susan's website, The Tomorrow Game http://www.thetomorrowgame.com/