So many people we work with tell me they have “tried” goal setting, but it just hasn’t worked for them.
Another group will tell us that they would really like to start setting goals in their life, but they just aren’t sure how to do it effectively…so they actually see results from the committment they enter into.
They are right to ask, there are some critical pieces to setting goals in order to have them directly and indirectly guide your behavior and achieve the results you are looking for.
FOCUS ON 1-5 GOALS
One of the readers of Attracting Greatness came to us with a list of 20+ goals they had come up with and wondered why she wasn’t able to see any real progress toward those goals in the last year.
Goal setting requires focus, emotional attachment, attention and constant manifestation around the outcome…while these aspects are relatively simple with 1-5 goals, they are near impossible when you have a long list of goals.
I like to set 1-2 goals for each of the areas below:
- Personal growth
- Relationship
- Health
- Financial/Professional
That’s it — I set these goals in a 1-3 year timeframe and then go about setting new goals (or adjusting existing goals) when the time period is up.
BE SPECIFIC
A general goal like “I will lose weight” is simply too general to accomplish the objectives of helping you focus, allow you to have emotional attachment or to monitor progress.
Instead, a goal of losing 10lbs within 90-days is very specific, can link to highly emotinal manifestations (think about what you will look like, feel like and attract when you have lost that exact amount of weight), and can be monitored regularly until you reach the objective.
HAVE A DEFINITE TIME PERIOD
A specific descripton of a goal is not enough, you also must commit to a period of time over which you will achieve the desired result. Leaving a goal open-ended is perhaps the #1 mistake people make when setting goals and the leading cause of low achievement levels
REFLECT AND MANIFEST EACH DAY
We learn best through repeated observcation. When we learn to walk, talk, read, write and become social human beings we rely heavily on observing the end behavior in someone else, internalizing that to what is possible for ourselves and through repeated exposure to both external observation as well as repeated exposure to internal reflection.
In other words, have a clear picture of what it is you want to achieve, how you want to achieve it AND what will your life be like when you DO achieve it.
Now go ahead, try and set your top 1-5 goals, you can post them as a comment here if you wish (that will help to manifest your goals and make them much more effective) – let’s get started now!
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