Setting Goals

It’s that time of year where the word “goal” is spoken often.  It might be at work, personal development, or fitness related.  There is no avoiding it if you are employed, have an email account, on Facebook or watch television.

So how do you set goals?  What gets you motivated to take them seriously?  Does your supervisor ping you to identify what you want to improve on for the coming year?  Do you feel guilty that you are overflowing your jeans or risking a button fly-off?  Is there a sense of needing to do something, that you actually completed something?

Here are some suggestions:

Inventory of what you desire to do on a sheet of paper as they come to mind.  Post-It-notes work great for this because you can move them around as you desire as you prioritize.  I took several days to do this using a planner that I bought, I would return to it several times to add a goal; then when I felt I was ready, but did not procrastinate.

Identify what you need to learn/know to be effective at work.  Have a conversation with your supervisor; find out what they desire for you to improve on.  Then identify ways to make that happen.  This may include completing courses offered by your company, by a local community group, educational facility, reading a book or two, or listening to podcasts.

Have you considered your fitness needs, because I have?  What activities do you enjoy, could you join up with a friend in walking or working out at a local gym? Honestly, there the opportunities to get active are many, we (you and I) need to identify what works for us and get to it.

Once I identified ALL my goals, I started categorizing and prioritizing.  Some started to fall to the side, recognizing what was more important.  Using the planner I purchased, I started putting them into buckets, such as daily, weekly, monthly and yearly.  This as a first for me and very helpful to see if I was setting myself up for failure—wanting to do too much.

It’s your turn.

As you develop your goals, think of these three things: Achievable–realistic for you, measurable–method to show you actually reached your goal, and desirable–you actually need or want to do it.

Goals help you focus, to set an objective you work towards, with the intention to complete them.  The key word here is “intention.”  We know life happens, things get in the way-whether good or bad, and they derail your objectives—goals.  Do not be afraid to reevaluate and reprioritize as this helps you to stay in a forward motion.