Mistakes People Make When They Set Goals
We set fuzzy goals
Fuzzy goals are not clear, slightly hazy. A goal to be a better leader - better than what? Better than someone else, better than what you have ever been before? That's a hazy, foggy goal.
The goal has to be precise and most definite. When a goal is clear you can visualize it in your mind and emotionally feel how you will feel when you accomplish it. When you project in your mind the manifestation of the goal it will give you the motivation to accomplish it.
Aim high, be specific as to your wants, get a mental image of it, constantly hold on to that image, see yourself in possession of it and know it will be yours. A proverb says, "As a man thinks in his heart, so he is."
Write out a complete description of your major goal, and state the date you want to achieve it. Refer to this written statement of purpose daily. Don't reveal your major goal except to those who will, in a spirit of perfect harmony and friendly cooperation, help you attain it.
We set unreasonable goals
Be sure it is reasonable, but more than you feel you can do. Evaluate your time, energies and finances. Decide what is reasonable, what will stretch your faith and what is ridiculous. Goals should seem higher than what you can do now in the present. What may be an unreasonable goal now, could in time, as you progress, become reasonable. When you set an unreasonable goal, you set yourself up for failure.
We don't set goals that can be measured
You need to look at and evaluate and all along the way you can see how far from your goal you are and what steps it takes to reach that goal. To set a goal and then have no idea how to get there or how to evaluate how far you are from your goal is very discouraging. Take a step at a time and it has to be measurable.
We don't have a plan for achieving the goal
Goals come to pass because we lay out a plan of action to achieve it. Working without a plan for attainment is as foolish as going to sea without a compass. Once you determine the goal, you must map out a plan of action.
We don't continually revise our goals
If you aren't achieving the goal as you planned, then change the plan. We need to be flexible and willing to re-look at the goal, is it too easy, too small? Keep revising your goals and plans so you don't fall behind in any good thing.
We set goals too quickly
Without evaluating where we are at the present time, we set goals much too quickly. Don't write down your six goals quickly and say, "These are my goals." Spend time on these goals. Examine them from side to side, from every aspect. This should take you weeks. Be sure of it; be sure that you really want it before you begin. A goal made too quickly can die just as quickly.
Make a list of things that are possible goals. You will find that some are big things that deal with the future, some areas deal with immediate future, some things will deal with right now. For every goal you should list these three areas to be sure they all coordinate, they are going in the same direction, if not, then you need to weed some of them out.
Then you are going to have to go over your list and make sure you really desire them. Then you are ready to make a decision. How do you make a beginning? Begin to work on them in your daily life, letting them become part of your daily thinking. As you set goals, as you look towards them, you and your goal will become one. You become what you habitually think on.
Our minds are so powerful that we can actually think into existence what we are, what we have. You begin to subconsciously take action on what you are reading about, learning about and thinking about.
Dr. Orison Swett Marden, a man who has studied successful men and women said, "One of the saddest things in life is to see men and women who start out with high hopes and proud ambitions settle down in mediocre positions, half satisfied just merely to get a living, to plod along indifferently.
To become a person of initiative you must form the habit of aggressively and persistently following the object of your definite chief goal until you acquire it, whether this requires one year or twenty years. You might as well have no definite chief aim as to have such an aim without a continuous effort to achieve it.
Do not fool yourself or permit yourself to be misled, to believe that your goal will materialize if you only wait. The materialization will come through your own determination, backed by your own carefully laid plans and your own initiative in putting those plans into action, or it will not come at all."
We fail to be honest
When you set your goals, are you being honest in what you really want to accomplish, or are you dishonest? Is that goal or plan really what you want? Have you honestly put this goal or plan through the seven test questions? (see previous article)
If it is not a true desire of your heart, you will have the frustration of never really reaching your goal, or if you do, you will have no satisfaction in it. Ask yourself, "Am I really being honest? Is that really a goal I set for my life, or has someone else set it for me?" Goals set for you by another will not give you the joy and thrill of accomplishing the plan for your life.
We don't set goals in all the key areas of our life
All the people who have done anything in life and been happy have looked at each area of their lives (personal, family, friends, spiritual, vocational, social, financial, physical) and they set goals that involve those areas.
We have not kept a balance in our life
Ask yourself: "Have I kept a balance in all areas of my life?" Of course, some areas take more of your time and thoughts than others, but so many set their goals and still spend 90% on one area and only 10% on the others.
We have not reviewed our goals daily
What we think on is what we are going to get. If we continually look at our goals, think on them each day so we can evaluate us exactly where we are and what we must do. We are going to make mistakes, so we need to decide "what did I learn from this", make the correction and move on.
There are two types of imagination. There is the one of seeing in our mind's eye things we know and experienced. The second is what dreams are made of. This is seeing things that are not yet.
Creative images that we are able to produce are a necessary part of goal setting and goal achieving. Without our dreams, we can put nothing into practice. The man without imagination says it can't be done. The dreamer says it can and persists in his dreams until they come practical realities.
As a leadership trainer and coach, I work with hundreds of people in developing their dreams into the goals to meet that dream. It is a process - not a quick solution. "Life makes way for the determined man or woman." Orison Swett Marden. One of my workshops - "The Power of Doing" - is very beneficial in helping those who really have committed to making and meeting the goals in all aspects of their life.
The next article will address accomplishing your goals.
Leslie Schneider, International Training Consultant, contributing editor, Mindspiring ddatalink@sbcglobal.net www.abmword.com
