Maybe this will be the year that you vow to learn once and for all how to build self confidence and finally start feeling better about yourself. It’s that time of year again! Everyone seems to be setting goals – whether they are just the same old “gonna lose 20 pounds” kind or the “gonna go on a trip around the world” kind, unless you reevaluate the way you set and work toward your goals, you’ll have the same result as usual – nothing new, nothing special, and the goal abandoned or forgotten within a month. How can you have something different happen this time? Here are some important tips for goal setting. Let them help you!
Identify Specific Lifetime Goals
The first tip for effective goal setting is to figure out what matters to you. What are key issues, things you feel are really important in your life? Is it your family? Your education? Traveling? Your dog? Then set some lifetime goals about those things. I know, you just want to lose those extra pounds, but trust me – they’ll come off easier if you follow these tips for goal setting. So, what is important to you? Your health? Is that way you want to lose the twenty pounds? Then write a statement about your health. And whatever else you value. These will probably look like a “mission statement”, and (for our purposes) they are called your “lifetime goals.”
Intermediate Goals – Both Long And Short Term
Next is to identify goals for the next few years that are logical steps to your lifetime goals. These goals will also reflect your values, since they are based on your lifetime goals. This tip for goal setting can help you keep those goals in alignment with your true values.
These should be both long and short term goals. A long-term goal is usually said to be from three to ten years. A short-term goal is usually from six months to three years.
Activities Will Get You There
Finally, you need to set some activities that will get you to each specific short-term goal. They should be written down, with certain characteristics: relate directly to the goal (accomplishing an increment of it); be very specific, very detailed; have a date, time and place to be done; repetitive, carried out either daily or weekly. Less often than weekly, it won’t lead to an attitude change and reaching your stated goal.
This goal setting tip is critical, so take a look at the activities you have in your life – do they lead you toward accomplishing a short-term goal you’ve set?
