this time ~ this space

Whether we state them out loud or not we all have goals in life. What sets the achievers apart from the non-achievers is they have a written set of goals and that they work towards achieving them. That being said, it’s important to recognize that your sub-conscious can be given powerful suggestions to overcome any blocks to achieving your goals and thereby ensure your success.

Key points:

Goal setting is an important method of:
Deciding what is important for you to achieve in your life;
Separating what is important from what is irrelevant, or a distraction;
Motivating yourself; and
Building your self-confidence, based on successful achievement of goals.

You are unique, you are strong, and you are able. Never undervalue yourself. No matter what anyone may say to you, never consider yourself to be a failure. You may have setbacks, and you may need to hone your goal setting and achievement skills (after all you are learning to do just that), but do not, under any circumstance, allow anyone to convince you that you are a failure. You are not; you are learning to be a success!

Stay away from negativity. It is much easier to achieve your goals if you are in a positive frame of mind. Avoid people who constantly give you negative feedback, or who are themselves are in a negative frame of mind. Avoid negative news reports and entertainment programs. These can only bog you down and hinder your progress.

Be clear about what you are out to achieve, ensure that your goals are positive goals and start dreaming dreams that come true.

If you don’t already set goals, do so, starting now. As you make this technique part of your life, you’ll wonder how you did without it.

Personal goal types

1. Spiritual
2. Physical Health and Fitness
3. Mental Health/Relaxation
4. Intellectual/Learning
5. Creative Expression
6. Family
7. Social
8. Financial
9. Professional/Work

• State each goal as a positive statement: Express your goals positively - ‘Execute this technique well’ is a much better goal than ‘Don’t make this stupid mistake’
• Be precise: Set a precise goal, putting in dates, times and amounts so that you can measure achievement. If you do this, you will know exactly when you have achieved the goal, and can take complete satisfaction from having achieved it.
• Set priorities: When you have several goals, give each a priority. This helps you to avoid feeling overwhelmed by too many goals, and helps to direct your attention to the most important ones.
• Write goals down: This crystallizes them and gives them more force.
• Keep operational goals small: Keep the low-level goals you are working towards small and achievable. If a goal is too large, then it can seem that you are not making progress towards it. Keeping goals small and incremental gives more opportunities for reward. Derive today’s goals from larger ones.
• Set performance goals, not outcome goals: You should take care to set goals over which you have as much control as possible. There is nothing more dispiriting than failing to achieve a personal goal for reasons beyond your control. These could be bad business environments, poor judging, bad weather, injury, or just plain bad luck. If you base your goals on personal performance, then you can keep control over the achievement of your goals and draw satisfaction from them.
• Set realistic goals: It is important to set goals that you can achieve. All sorts of people (employers, parents, media, society) can set unrealistic goals for you. They will often do this in ignorance of your own desires and ambitions. Alternatively you may set goals that are too high, because you may not appreciate either the obstacles in the way, or understand quite how much skill you need to develop to achieve a particular level of performance.

SMART Goals:
A useful way of making goals more powerful is to use the SMART mnemonic. While there are plenty of variants, SMART usually stands for:

S Specific
M Measurable
A Attainable
R Relevant
T Time-bound

Goal Setting Tips
The following broad guidelines will help you to set effective goals:

Six hints for goal setting success:

Quantify—how will you know when you have achieved it?
Time—when do you want to achieve it?
Why—why do you want the goal—what will it give you?
How—how will you achieve the goal? Break the goal into steps
Flexibility—remain flexible in your approach to your goal
Feedback—failure is excellent feedback on your success

Achieving Goals
When you have achieved a goal, take the time to enjoy the satisfaction of having done so. Absorb the implications of the goal achievement, and observe the progress you have made towards other goals. If the goal was a significant one, reward yourself appropriately. All of this helps you build the self-confidence you deserve.

With the experience of having achieved this goal, review the rest of your goal plans:

• If you achieved the goal too easily, make your next goals harder.
• If the goal took a dispiriting length of time to achieve, make the next goals a little easier.
• If you learned something that would lead you to change other goals, do so.
• If you noticed a deficit in your skills despite achieving the goal, decide whether to set goals to fix this.

Failure to meet goals does not matter much, as long as you learn from it. Feed lessons learned back into your goal setting program. Source

Links to related self help blog posts.

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