Effective goal-setting is critical and essential in life. Setting effective goals is just the beginning, after taking the time to identify what your goals are, achieving your goals can feel overwhelming at times.
In this article, we shall look at effective goal-setting techniques and some of the tips on how to achieve your life’s and organizational goals. Goals should focus on your overall purpose, vision, and actionable steps.
1. Write Down Your Goals
Physically writing your goals down can help you keep track of them and why they are important. Seeing your goals every day may solidify your intentions and prevent you from making excuses, transforming your goals from thoughts into actions.
Writing goals out can highlight the power and passion behind your vision and bring it to life. Use positive language to encourage action and motivation.
According to a study carried out by Dr. Gail Matthews of the Dominican University of California, it shows that people who write their goals have a better chance of accomplishing more than those who do not write down their goals.
Why is this? Because writing down a goal puts all your focus on that goal and reminds you constantly.
Of course, it is not enough to just write a goal on a sheet of paper and then throw that paper in the trash. You need to review that goal consistently.
Brian Tracy the master motivator says: I discovered that if it is powerful for you to write down your goals once a year, it is even more powerful for you to write down your goals more often.
The main point is simply to put the goals onto paper and then keep them at the front of your brain at all times.
Read Also: The Key To Unlocking Your Full Potential
2. Create SMART Goals
SMART goals are an essential element of success when it comes to goal-setting methods. SMART goals help organizations, individuals, and businesses set and achieve predetermined objectives, reducing the implementation of vague or ineffective goals that lack guidance.
Generating goals that are trackable and consistently monitored will lead to more powerful changes. SMART goals let you succeed while highlighting the particular steps you can take to get there.
SMART stands for: S: Specific, M: Measurable, A: Achievable, R: Realistic, T: Time-Bound.
Specific
The first step in designing your SMART goals is to ensure that they are specific to your needs and requirements. General or indefinite goals and steps can often get quickly misinterpreted, which reduces your likelihood of seeing intended results.
Specific SMART goals allow you to list exactly what you want and how you will get it.
Your goals may change as you aim for success. Questions you can ask when determining specific elements might include:
Where is your life, business, company, or organization now and where do you want to end up?
What are the purposes and benefits of fulfilling these targets?
What are the possible risks or outcomes of these goals?
Who should be involved in the process of setting and meeting expectations?
What requirements or restraints are there to this process?
What particular tasks will help you accomplish your goals?
Research by the creators of goal setting theory, Locke and Latham, found that in 90% of studies conducted, specific and challenging goals lead to higher performance than when people set either easy goals, “do your best” goals, or no goals at all.
Both you and your employees need to have clear and established aims, to avoid potentially setting goals so broad that they are overwhelming and therefore too difficult to set into action.
The more specific you can be with your goal, the better.
When setting a goal, try to answer the six “W’s”
1. Who will your goal involve? This can be professors, parents, peers, classmates, and others.
2. What are you trying to achieve?
3. When do you want to accomplish this goal? Is there a hard deadline, or is there some flexibility?
4. Where is this goal located?
5. Why is this an important goal to you?
6. Which resources will you need to use to accomplish this goal? Which constraints and requirements do you have to complete this goal?
These questions will help you break down each goal into manageable steps, recognize what areas you may need support in, and identify and solve roadblocks early on. This also enables you to get extremely specific when setting SMART goals.
Measurable
The second step in producing your SMART goals is to decide how they can be measured, calculated, or evaluated.
Measuring your goals gives you tangible, quantitative results so you can check your progress and determine whether you have achieved your intended results.
Measurable goals could include particular dates, times, numbers, or percentages.
Measurable goals also allow you to establish if you are surpassing your goal or falling short of it.
A few questions that will help you determine measurable goals include:
How or when will you know that your objectives are accomplished?
What other indicators will you use to measure progress?
What amount of expenses and resources do you need to obtain your goal?
What data or feedback measures are in place to calculate success?
How can you track or estimate progress during the goal journey?
When you are setting goals, ask yourself how you will know when you have accomplished the goal and how many things you will need to do between the starting point and the finish line.
Achievable
While the goals you set should be challenging, they also need to be achievable. Consider your capabilities and constraints, such as time, finances, resources, and capacity.
Use these factors to inform your decision and ensure each goal you pursue is worthwhile. A SMART goal must be within reach and reasonably attainable.
If your goals are too impractical, you and your team may become discouraged. It is always wise to ensure that you have the proper finances, resources, and staff before going ahead with a plan or goal. Techniques for setting goals should center on rationality to reduce the likelihood of failure.
Focusing on smaller, incremental steps toward your goal may create enthusiasm for efficiency and confidence among your team.
Some useful questions that can aid the process of setting achievable goals include:
Do you have the necessary skills, experience, and resources to achieve this goal?
Do you have staff or personnel with sufficient abilities to accomplish this goal?
Does the required effort for achieving this goal align with the intended outcome?
Do you have enough time to realistically complete your objectives?
Realistic
The fourth step in creating your SMART goals is to assess if they are realistic. Effective goal-setting methods should always be relevant to your overall purpose and business.
Relevant and realistic goals will effectively steer your business or project in the direction you want to go. Avoid tasks and procedures that are not aligned with your ambition and don’t contribute to your larger business goals.
Questions that may stimulate brainstorming for setting realistic goals include:
Do these new goals and objectives align with the overall business operations?
Are these goals significant and worth putting effort into?
How can you tell that these goals are relevant and worthwhile?
Do these goals accommodate other needs and desired results?
Time – Bound
The last step to initiating your SMART goals is to establish deadlines or timelines for goals. Setting deadlines can help reduce procrastination and create a sense of urgency for taking action.
These time frames should be reasonable, allowing room for some challenges while keeping employees motivated.
Following deadlines on your schedules also gives you greater satisfaction when you achieve those milestones.
It is not productive to set a deadline too far in the future for a simple task, or an unrealistically short deadline for something complex and time-consuming.
Assigning end dates for effective project or plan management is a great way to stimulate progress and keep employees organized and on track.
Some questions that can reinforce setting time-bound goals include:
What are the deadlines or time frames for accomplishing these goals?
When should you expect significant progress in this schedule?
Is this time frame realistic for when these goals need to be achieved?
When will your team implement the identified goals?
Would smaller, incremental deadlines be more effective?
What short and long-term expectations do you have for these goals?
By setting goals that have these characteristics, you are setting yourself up for greater success.
Read Also: Strategies To Build A Successful Career (Part 2)
3. Make Your Goals Visible
To keep your eyes on the prize, put your written goals somewhere you will see them. It should be a place you visit regularly so that you are constantly reminded of where you want to be and as a nudge every morning of what you want to achieve.
For teams, your group goals should be somewhere all your team members can see them. This could be a bulletin board.
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