Goal setting is an important part to your success in life and unfortunately goal setting traps are easy to fall into. In order to achieve success in your goals, it is essential to define what you want and why you want it. Once you have defined the motives for your goal, you are already on your way to victory. However, one must consider the plague of goal setting traps and how to avoid them. Here we will look at some of the most common traps and what you can do to evade them.
1. Your goals do not inspire you. It is important that the goals you've set get you energized - you see the importance in them and you feel they are a priority in your life. If you become burnt out, apathetic, or disenchanted with the outcome, or if the big picture to which your goals lead seems far, far away and unattainable, the odds of your ability to conquer your everyday moves toward it become slim to none. Why, you ask? Well, progress requires dedication. So, if you begin to lose your sense of urgency, you become more likely to procrastinate, and the likelihood of your success begins to fade into your everyday decisions to do things that don't contribute to your goal attainment. When you go over your initial goals, do you feel inspired, or frustrated?
2. Your goals don't work for you. Does your adherence to your goals find you feeling confused about the next steps to take? If your goals are not concise, attainable, practical, and/or quantifiable, they are not smart goals - thus making their execution frustrating and much harder on you than necessary. Are your goals simply outlined, and able to be completed on a realistic timeline?
The goal you set must be clear. If you are not specific in the details of what you want to achieve, the timeline in when you want to achieve it, and your desired outcome, the chances are you may get lost along the way. Specific goals paint a clear path for your success.
Your goals aren't quantifiable. Your goals should be measurable in dates, totals - in numbers. You will find comfort in knowing that your percentages toward achievement are growing gradually each day, so if your goal is something as general as 'learn more', how on Earth will you see when you've achieved this? When your plan of action is devoid of quantification, you will lose out on the feeling of celebration that arises when you make progress.
Set achievable goals. If you set a goal that you have no hope of achieving, you will only demoralize yourself and erode your confidence. However, resist the urge to set goals that are too easy. Accomplishing a goal that you didn't have to work hard for can be anticlimactic at best, and can also make you fear setting future goals that carry a risk of non-achievement. By setting realistic yet challenging goals, you hit the balance you need. These are the types of goals that require you to "raise the bar" and they bring the greatest personal satisfaction.
The goals you set must be relevant to your life and the direction you want to go. If you set irrelevant goals or goals that are incompatible with your lifestyle, you risk losing time, hard work, and possibly derailing yourself from the bigger picture. By keeping goals in sync with your life you will gain the focus you need to keep on track and maintain order.
You have no deadline. You must be aware of your successes in order to maintain a good self-image. Having time-based objectives keep you working with a sense of urgency that will find your progress coming that much more quickly.
3. Your goals live only in your head. When you can see your goals laid out in front of you, they have a real, actual presence that brings them into your life. Write them out, and keep them somewhere in which you are forced to see and acknowledge them every day. Rather than using language like, "I'd like to", or "I hope to", create more certainty by beginning sentences with language such as, "I will". This lends legitimacy to your goals, which will soon be apparent in your actions. When you use flimsy language, you give yourself a built-in excuse to procrastinate or take longer than necessary to achieve your goals.
4. Your goals don't have a plan. While you may have defined your goal and written them down, have you set an action plan? Sometimes we can get so excited at the idea of achieving the goal that we may forget to mark the actual steps needed to be taken along the way. While this is definitely an important aspect for long-term goals, it is also needed for smaller or short-term goals. The best thing you can do for yourself is to write out a list of the steps needed to reach your goal. As you hit each milestone cross it off of your list and celebrate your achievement. You are one step closer!
5. Your goals do not allow for your skill level. Although ensuring your goals are quantifiable is important, language such as "shed 20 lbs" or "win first place" can be discouraging. If you are able to shed five lbs, you've achieved something that many are unable to do - but if you're only celebrating your success when you hit the 20 mark, you lose your ability to see the successes you are making along the way by feeling you've failed yourself. Understand that there may be delays or that larger goals may take some time. If you get third place, have you failed? Or, is this an important step - and possibly and important lesson as well - along the way?
6. You gave up too quickly! Remember, goal setting is an ongoing activity not just a means to an end. Build in reminders to keep yourself on track, and make regular time-slots available to review your goals (even 5 or 10 minutes a week will do!) Your end destination may remain quite similar over the long term, but the action plan you set for yourself along the way can change significantly. Make sure the relevance, value, and necessity remain high.
1. Your goals do not inspire you. It is important that the goals you've set get you energized - you see the importance in them and you feel they are a priority in your life. If you become burnt out, apathetic, or disenchanted with the outcome, or if the big picture to which your goals lead seems far, far away and unattainable, the odds of your ability to conquer your everyday moves toward it become slim to none. Why, you ask? Well, progress requires dedication. So, if you begin to lose your sense of urgency, you become more likely to procrastinate, and the likelihood of your success begins to fade into your everyday decisions to do things that don't contribute to your goal attainment. When you go over your initial goals, do you feel inspired, or frustrated?
2. Your goals don't work for you. Does your adherence to your goals find you feeling confused about the next steps to take? If your goals are not concise, attainable, practical, and/or quantifiable, they are not smart goals - thus making their execution frustrating and much harder on you than necessary. Are your goals simply outlined, and able to be completed on a realistic timeline?
The goal you set must be clear. If you are not specific in the details of what you want to achieve, the timeline in when you want to achieve it, and your desired outcome, the chances are you may get lost along the way. Specific goals paint a clear path for your success.
Your goals aren't quantifiable. Your goals should be measurable in dates, totals - in numbers. You will find comfort in knowing that your percentages toward achievement are growing gradually each day, so if your goal is something as general as 'learn more', how on Earth will you see when you've achieved this? When your plan of action is devoid of quantification, you will lose out on the feeling of celebration that arises when you make progress.
Set achievable goals. If you set a goal that you have no hope of achieving, you will only demoralize yourself and erode your confidence. However, resist the urge to set goals that are too easy. Accomplishing a goal that you didn't have to work hard for can be anticlimactic at best, and can also make you fear setting future goals that carry a risk of non-achievement. By setting realistic yet challenging goals, you hit the balance you need. These are the types of goals that require you to "raise the bar" and they bring the greatest personal satisfaction.
The goals you set must be relevant to your life and the direction you want to go. If you set irrelevant goals or goals that are incompatible with your lifestyle, you risk losing time, hard work, and possibly derailing yourself from the bigger picture. By keeping goals in sync with your life you will gain the focus you need to keep on track and maintain order.
You have no deadline. You must be aware of your successes in order to maintain a good self-image. Having time-based objectives keep you working with a sense of urgency that will find your progress coming that much more quickly.
3. Your goals live only in your head. When you can see your goals laid out in front of you, they have a real, actual presence that brings them into your life. Write them out, and keep them somewhere in which you are forced to see and acknowledge them every day. Rather than using language like, "I'd like to", or "I hope to", create more certainty by beginning sentences with language such as, "I will". This lends legitimacy to your goals, which will soon be apparent in your actions. When you use flimsy language, you give yourself a built-in excuse to procrastinate or take longer than necessary to achieve your goals.
4. Your goals don't have a plan. While you may have defined your goal and written them down, have you set an action plan? Sometimes we can get so excited at the idea of achieving the goal that we may forget to mark the actual steps needed to be taken along the way. While this is definitely an important aspect for long-term goals, it is also needed for smaller or short-term goals. The best thing you can do for yourself is to write out a list of the steps needed to reach your goal. As you hit each milestone cross it off of your list and celebrate your achievement. You are one step closer!
5. Your goals do not allow for your skill level. Although ensuring your goals are quantifiable is important, language such as "shed 20 lbs" or "win first place" can be discouraging. If you are able to shed five lbs, you've achieved something that many are unable to do - but if you're only celebrating your success when you hit the 20 mark, you lose your ability to see the successes you are making along the way by feeling you've failed yourself. Understand that there may be delays or that larger goals may take some time. If you get third place, have you failed? Or, is this an important step - and possibly and important lesson as well - along the way?
6. You gave up too quickly! Remember, goal setting is an ongoing activity not just a means to an end. Build in reminders to keep yourself on track, and make regular time-slots available to review your goals (even 5 or 10 minutes a week will do!) Your end destination may remain quite similar over the long term, but the action plan you set for yourself along the way can change significantly. Make sure the relevance, value, and necessity remain high.
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