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How do I make sure my goals are effective?
Home » Executive Coaching » Life Coaching - Goal Setting » How do I make sure my goals are effective?Write them down. Writing goals will help you put vague thoughts into something concrete and tangible. And a written list of goals gives you something to refer to frequently to refresh your mind and renew your motivation.
Be specific. When setting a goal, include dates, times, amounts—anything specific that you can use to measure your achievement.
Identify obstacles—then make a plan to overcome them. Identifying obstacles that stand in your way helps you plan ahead, and forces you to think through the steps you’ll take to get through rough patches along the way.
Set deadlines. Deadlines get results. Break goals into small, achievable goals that feed into a larger goal. For example, rather than saying you want to write a book, break that goal down by giving yourself a deadline by which you’ll identify the subject of the book, sketch a rough outline, write the introduction, write each subsequent chapter, and so on, through the end of the process. This makes a large goal seem much more reasonable.
Give yourself a mental image of your goals. Our minds often think in pictures. For many people, having a concrete image of what an end result looks like—and referring to that image daily—helps keep their goals front and center, thus making it more likely that they’ll succeed. For example, if you want to plan a Caribbean vacation, gather pictures of the resort you want to stay at, and post them places you’ll see them everyday. Seeing these pictures will motivate you to take steps to achieve your dream vacation, whether it’s finding time to get away from work, saving the extra money, losing those last five pounds, whatever it is you need to do.
Keep operational realistic. It’s better to set several smaller goals than to list one huge, towering goal. The reason? It’s much easier to stay motivated to achieve a goal if it’s one you think you can do, and achieving a goal gives you motivation to keep striving for the next goals.
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- What is Goal Setting?
- Why do I need to set goals?
- How do I get started setting my personal goals?
- How do I make sure my goals are effective?
- How do I start achieving my goals?
- What do I do once I’ve achieved my goals?