Techniques for Setting Achievable Goals at Work and in Personal Life

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In our previous article, we explained what goal is and what it is not. We also defined goal-setting and looked at its importance.

In this article, we shall look at the techniques for setting achievable goals at work and in personal life.

Whether you are setting group goals for your team or personal goals, it is important to start with goals that are big enough but still realistic. The goals that you can achieve.

Tips for Personal Goal-Setting
1. Consider Your Passions
Part of the process for how to set life goals should be deciding what inspired you and what your values are. You should be passionate about your goals if you want to achieve them in the long run. What do you want to become in the future?

Define your priorities and what will bring you true personal satisfaction. To find your passion, pinpoint what your core values are.

What are you passionate about? What do you derive joy doing? What do you want in life? Consider what you want to achieve. What you like to do best, what you can do.
Your goals should be meaningful to you and provide you with a sense of pride once you meet them.

2. Set Goals You can Control
Your personal goal should be on something within your control, not on something outside your control.

It should not be dependent on other people. It should not rely on external factor that you have no control over.
Be realistic about what you can and can’t be directly responsible for.

3. Imagine Your Future
Take some time to ponder about what you would like your life to look like. What does your ideal future entail? Ask yourself some questions that will point you in the right direction.

Do you want to work for yourself? How many hours do you want to commit to on a daily basis?

Read Also: Strategies to Build A Successful Career. Part 1

Tips for Setting Goals at Work
1. Brainstorm
Spend some time brainstorming to reflect what you want to do as a team. Think of what you want to achieve, your vision as a team, what do you want? Think of these before you write down your goals for the team.

2. Include Everyone
It is important that everyone is carried along and heard during the goal-setting process. Each member of your team should feel they can speak openly and contribute their ideas or goals.

There should be we-feeling, every member of the team should have a sense of belonging, should be seen as a member of the team and have a say in the goal-setting process.

Having everyone’s input will help create goals that everyone is invested in. There should be shared vision where every member of the team contribute excellently during the goal-setting process, and make him feel he is a member of the team.

Write down each team member’s idea, no matter how silly, so that they feel heard. Together, you can go through each goal to decide if it works for the whole team.

Read Also: Strategies To Build A Successful Career (Part 2)

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Effective Goal-Setting Techniques for Achieving Your Goals

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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 … Read more

Effective Techniques for Achieving Your Goals ( Part 2)

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Effective techniques for goal-setting and how to achieve your goals were considered in part one of this article. Here, we shall look at the remaining techniques for achieving your goals. 4. Choose Goals That Inspire, Motivate, And Challenge You When you are spending a lot of time, energy, and effort working towards something, you can quickly lose momentum if you are not excited about it. This goes back to ensuring that the goals you set are relevant to you and your interests. In addition, completing a challenging goal can feel highly rewarding and can push you to learn, grow, and hone your skills. What is more, overcoming a challenge can give you even more motivation to work on other goals, provide a sense of pride, and build your confidence in the face of bigger, more challenging goals in the future. 5. Create Mini – Goals/Break It Down If your business, company, or organization has many objectives, creating mini–goals is an excellent way to break down the desired result into workable steps. Because goals are often long-term and abstract by nature, make them more digestible by breaking them down. Use a “goal ladder” by writing your main goal at the top rung of the ladder steps, writing down the smaller goals you need to achieve to achieve your main goal. Mini goals provide a perfect framework for significant goals that may seem overwhelming or unmanageable at first. You can implement this smaller goal slowly and effectively to succeed without added pressure. Read Also: Strategies To Build A Successful Career (Part 2)   6. Develop A Plan Of Action Now that you know what you are working toward, it is time to figure out how you are going to get there. Write down the individual steps you need to take to achieve your goals. Creating a plan of action will keep you on track. As you work your way through each step of your plan, cross it off so you can see how much further you have to go and feel optimistic about your progress. We are frequently so focused on the outcome of our goals that we fail to establish a strategy for obtaining them. Setting objectives is an ongoing activity, not a one-time event. Set reminders and schedule frequent blocks of time to sit down and examine your goals and progress to stay on track. Setting goals includes more than just expressing a wish for something to happen. To achieve success, you must first define what you want and understand why you want it in the first place. Create a step-by-step plan to accomplish goals that take a lot of time and effort. Break up larger, lengthier goals into smaller, manageable tasks and create a timeline for each task to ensure you are on track for your target date. This can help you avoid procrastination, keep the motivation alive, and make a big goal feel less overwhelming. Implement these steps in your goal-setting activities and watch your efforts pay off. 7. Take Action Goals are not going to be achieved themselves. Once you have a clear plan of how you want to achieve your goals, it is time to get proactive. Put your plan into action, even the smallest act makes you one step closer to your goal. 8. Make A Commitment Be honest here: are you going to do something if you don’t make a firm commitment to it? No way. You need to be passionately, firmly, unwaveringly, committed to crushing your goal. There is no room for wavering here. No half-hearted attempt at “being a better person”. Take concrete steps to structure your life to win. 9. Use Incentives Using incentives, such as a rewards system can be a great way to motivate and encourage employees and team members. This encouragement allows your team to work together to maintain progress towards your goals. Incentives provide a desirable reason to accomplish your goal within a specific time frame or deadline. They may also boost collaboration and participation. It can speed up your workflow and introduce rewards that bring value to your business. Employees will get excited to meet goals that bring success to the entire organization while also receiving personal fulfillment. Before you can implement incentives, it is essential to find out what your employees prefer or find beneficial. Common examples of incentives to meet goals may include Bonuses, social events or parties, gift cards, public recognition, extra vacation time, etc. Providing desirable incentives or rewards can increase productivity, and morale and support high performance in your organization. Reinforcing your organization’s values and mission while recognizing your team’s hard work and dedication is important for creating a positive environment. 10. Utilize The PACT Method Like the SMART strategy, PACT is another goal-setting technique that stands for Purposeful, Actionable, Continuous, and Trackable PACT is more output-focused than other techniques, which is excellent for long-term goals that require consistent progress to complete. To utilize the PACT technique, your goal should be: Purposeful: Goals with purpose are ones based on the values you have. This step involves you looking at what is driving you to achieve this goal. Actionable: In PACT, being actionable is about making progress every day without over-planning or overthinking about the future. After all, PACT goals are typically longer-term, allowing daily actions to stack up over time to achieve great things. Continuous: Continuous in PACT means that you should feel free to experiment with your actions as long as you continue to make progress. For this, avoid overanalyzing or worrying about making a “wrong” choice. All journeys will likely contain errors; it is more important that you learn from mistakes and continue to grow. Trackable: Tracking your progress not only keeps you on track, but it allows you to reflect on how far you have come and keeps you moving forward. PACT tracking can involve anything. e.g. How much time you devoted to leadership training, learning new things or skills related to your goal, and more. Tracking … Read more