The Ways To Set Goals

 

The Ways To Set Goals

A goal has got a few key elements. 

First, it got to be very Specific. Otherwise, it will not be clear but fuzzy, fuzzy goals are not goals.

Next, it got to be Measurable. No point in having goals, if you can’t track or measure your progress, whether you’ve attained it or not, right?

A goal has to be Actionable. “I will increase my knowledge about business” is a great aspiration but is it actionable? To turn it into a goal, something like “I will read two good business books in the next 3 months” would be more actionable, more specific, and measurable.

Goals that are Realistic are more likely to be attainable. Some people like to say, “If you aim for the stars, at least you might hit the moon”. You can call this a fallacy. It’s setting yourself up for failure. Goals have to be set in context. If for the past seven years your business struggled to reach a $1 million annual revenue, don’t set a goal for $5 million this year just because you’ve read a book or attended a course. Have you got your production, storage or delivery capacity upgraded? Are you overhauling your Marketing? Do you need to review your product range? And so on.

This doesn’t mean you can get to $5 million. It just means it might take more than a year to get there. So, always perform a reality check for your goal — given your current situation and resources, is it realistic, is it achievable within the timeframe?

And finally, your goals need to have a time frame. Hence, “I want to buy a bungalow by the sea” is not a goal. By when do you want to buy it? In 5 years, next year, or in 3 years?

This will help you to achieve your goal of reaching financial freedom.

Here is the formula for setting SMART goals.

S — Specific and Stretched

M — Measurable and Meaningful (i.e. congruent with your value)

A — Actionable and Aspirational

R — Realistic and Relevant

T — Time-bound and Transformative

Several things need to be in place for us to achieve the goals that we’ve set.

1. Make a Vision Board or a Vision Card

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, isn’t it? When we see a picture, it captures our imagination. So a vision board or a vision cad would really help us. This is nothing more than having a few carefully selected powerful pictures that clearly depict the goal and highlight the benefit or the outcome that you would like to achieve. It has to be very clear and also very exciting. It must stir our emotions. Otherwise, your goal has no power to move you. An incremental goal like “increase sales by 10%” just may not have any oomph!

Obviously, if you have a vision board, it should be placed somewhere prominent where you can see it on a daily basis. The alternative is to have a pocket-sized vision card which is something that you can put into your pocket and carry around with you and look at many times during the day.

You will be amazed at how powerful these little tools are in helping you achieve your goals. It helps you visualize your possible future. But, magic will NOT happen just because you have a Vision Board or card or even a Vision Book. To make your dreams come true, yo have to take action. And you need to have a strong belief that you can achieve your goals and dreams. Visualizing helps keep you focused. To strengthen your resolve further, you need to also emotionalize your goals and dreams.

2. Clarifying the Importance of Your Goal

Another important aspect of helping you achieve your goals is to clarify why that goal is very important to you. What does it mean to you? What would it be like to achieve that goal? is the goal truly inspiring for you?

3. Share Your Goals With a Trusted Friend, Mentor or Coach

When you share your goals with someone who is supportive and rooting for you, you are energized, and are at the same time, making yourself accountable. Your public declaration of your intention makes you commit to it. And that’s very powerful.

4. Stay Focused and Celebrate All WinsNext is to keep focused on the goal, and this is where the vision board and vision card come in very handy. With the vision board or vision card, you would also need to do a daily exercise of visualizing the outcome that you want, what it would be like when you achieve your goal, and emotionalize it. What would the feeling be once you reach the goal? Set milestones towards your goal. And celebrate every success, every win. This will build up your belief, and the positive emotions will drive you to do whatever it takes to achieve your goals.

5. New Skills Needed

Finally, you may need to look at what sort of skills or new skills you might need to achieve this particular goal, or who you need to become to achieve that goal. perhaps you need to become a better leader, perhaps to be a better marketer, or to be a team player.

When you get good at goal setting, your results will multiply. Combine it with good planning and you will be able to move at greater speed — so much faster actually.

This will help you to achieve your goal of reaching financial freedom.

That’s all for now, my friends. See you all in my next article.