If there is one thing that successful people all have in common it is their commitment to setting effective goals for themselves. Goal setting is critical in every area of business and personal life. Many people speak of their desire for personal fulfilment and in a world that is getting busier by the day, it is easy to lose site of the goals that you are trying to fulfil. In fact, many of my previous coaching clients have told me of their desire for personal fulfilment but when I asked them about the goals they were trying to fulfil, they realised that they hadn’t taken the time to do any goal setting.
How can you possibly achieve any form of fulfilment if you haven’t actually taken the time to decide on the goals, dreams and objectives that you want to fulfil? This applies to both career and personal fulfilment.
Understanding goal setting
There are many, many things which could be written about goal setting but this is just one article and I couldn’t possibly fit it all in here. However, the following are some key points that I feel most people fail to grasp about goal setting.
1. Saying what you want is not goal setting
Most people seem to think that they do some form of goal setting but in reality, they don’t even come close. They are saying ‘I want this…’ or ‘I would like that…’ but truth be told; their mind changes as often as the wind. Goal setting is not about temporary whims, it is about taking the time to set firm goals and objectives for each area of your life. You know that these goals and objectives will take time to achieve but you are firmly committed to them.
To start with goal setting, it is worth while ensuring that you are clear about your purpose for life. The majority of your goals should then help you to realise that purpose.
2. Goal setting is not a set and forget process
Many people have sat down once and written out a list of goals for themselves. This is a positive first step but unfortunately, that is the last thought they ever put into these goals.
If you only have to think about a goal once in order to achieve it, then it wasn’t much of a goal to begin with.
Effective goals push you and stretch you. They force you to grow, learn and develop as a person. They don’t just add a few lines to your CV or Resume; they force you to become the person that you really want to be. This takes more commitment than sitting down for an hour or two with a pen and paper. Setting goals requires that you regularly review those goals and, when those goals are achieved, you will want to set, and work on, new goals.
3. Goal setting is about creating projects
To build on the previous point, although it is called goal setting, it is not really the most appropriate name. It would be more accurate to call the process goal setting and achievement. That is because goal setting is not about listing tasks; it is about creating projects. Allow me to elaborate, using David Allen’s definitions:
-
- A task is anything which needs to be done, isn’t yet done, and will only take one action to complete.
- A project is anything which needs to be done, isn’t yet done, and will take more than one action to complete.
If you can achieve your goal in one action, then it isn’t really a goal; it’s a task. Effective goals are projects. You need to approach these projects with the same level of commitment as you would approach a project that was assigned to you by your employer. The only difference here is that you are the one assigning the project. You will need to set plans, determine your key milestones, identify those who can help you etc. When you accept that goals are projects, you approach them with the right mindset which in turn will allow you to achieve far more than you would otherwise.
4. Goal setting is empowering
Everybody’s life has some form of focus and direction, though it may not always be apparent. The difference is whether you are the one who is the determining the focus and direction or, is somebody else determining them for you? Because, if you don’t take control of your life; somebody else will do it for you. If you want to live the life you desire, then you must step up to the plate and take control of your life.
To take control of your life, you need to determine the focus and direction that your life will take and, to do this, you need to do some goal setting. Goal setting empowers you by setting clear goals and objectives and breaking them down into small steps which allow you to make continuous improvements to your life. In the simplest terms, goal setting empowers you by enabling you to determine what you need to be doing and just as importantly, what you should not be doing.
5. Effective time management requires effective goal setting
Another common complaint amongst workers is the inability to prioritise. Prioritisation requires that you focus on the most important tasks but if you haven’t done any goal setting, how do determine the most important tasks? And if you can’t determine the most important tasks, how do you prioritise?
In the older days, when most jobs were manual in nature, your job was clearly defined for you. You didn’t have to think about what you should be doing in any given moment; it was clearly laid for you. However, we are now in the era of the knowledge worker and jobs are not so clearly defined. Especially as you move up the ladder or, for entrepreneurs, as your business grows. The greater the level of responsibility that you have, the less defined your work is but if you want to master your time management, you must be clear about what you have to do.
As Peter Drucker said, the first thing that you need to do is to define your job. Effective goal setting is a critical part of the process. Once you clear on what you are trying to achieve, you will be much clearer on what you need to do.
6. Effective stress management requires effective goal setting
Here is an interesting thought for you; if you were to identify all of the people, work and possessions that you do not need in your life and, you were to remove them from your life; the vast majority of your stress would evaporate.
When coaching clients with stress related issues, I often find it helpful to work on a stress map with them. We start by mapping out each relationship in their life and determining how much stress they are causing the other person and, how much stress the other person is causing them. We then work through each relationship, starting with the most stressful, and try to answer the following:
-
- Is this relationship is necessary?
- If it is necessary, what changes can we make to reduce the associated stress levels?
You would be shocked at how many stressful relationships are removed by the first question. When you force somebody to consider whether the relationships is necessary or not, you will often find that some of the most stressful relationships are not necessary at all and the person can quickly be removed from their life. Even if the relationship cannot be ended, being clear on your goals allows you to determine the options which are available to you e.g. it may be possible to restrict all communication to email thus giving you a written record of everything that is said.
I have only used the example of stressful relationships here but the same approach could be used for anything which leads to stress e.g. tasks, technology.
Simply put, setting goals allows you to determine what is important, what is unimportant and what options are available to you. All of this information allows you to make more intelligent decisions to reduce stress.
7. Effective communication requires effective goal setting
Have you ever been in a meeting that dragged on forever and just turned into a talking shop? If you are like everyone else, you will have experienced this on numerous occasions. The reason that most meetings become talking shops is that there are no clear goals.
Meetings should be about making decisions but when there are no goals set for a meeting, it is harder to make decisions. The goals of the meeting should be tied into the goals of the project which the meeting is intended to work on but this is rarely the case.
There is a big difference between a goal driven agenda and an agenda which is not focused on clear goals. The unfocused agenda will list all of the things that are to be talked about while the goal driven agenda will list the decisions to be made e.g. if the meeting is about planning the new company website. You might see the following agenda items:
-
- Determine the purpose of the website
-
- Decide the layout
-
- Choose the colours for the website
- Set the date for the website launch
With an agenda written based on goals, you can see that it would be much easier to keep the meeting on track i.e. if somebody is talking about a topic which does not address one of these issues, it will be obvious that they have strayed off track and easier to point it out.
The same goes for all forms of important communication. If you have clear goals in mind, you can get the message across quicker by focusing solely on the information which helps you to achieve those goals.
To learn the essentials of effective goal setting, check out the Ultimate Guide to Goal Setting.
Goal setting is an undervalued, misunderstood and poorly practiced process. Even those who think that they are goal setting effectively; rarely are. Effective goal setting and goal achievement takes time and commitment but the benefits of doing it properly far outweigh the costs. Goal setting impacts on so many areas of life and makes decision making easier. You will have improved time management, stress management, communication and, you will create a happier, healthier and more successful life. If you want to experience more personal fulfilment, and who doesn’t, you must take the time to identify the goals, dreams and objectives that you want to fulfil.