Guide to Setting Goals for Your Life
Clearly the most important step in achieving a goal is the initial act of setting one. Just as you would create a business plan for a business, create a plan for your life. Set out your mission statement, what it is you want to achieve in your life, being guided by your true values. Then set long term goals for your life, your career and your work, all of which will support your mission. A goal is attainable when you can see the whole process of what it takes to achieve it. Nothing is more frustrating than a goal which is so out there, you can’t see the end of the line.
Chances are you’ll quit trying. You’ll give up hope. You’ll get depressed. You’ll feel like a failure. You’ll end up going back to a boring and mediocre life. You can take forever to accomplish something. Not having a time frame falls into the fluffy dream and wishy-washy statements category. Put a time limit on when you will finish what you started. If the goal is flexible there is breathing room. Having temporary setbacks is not a crime. Also, recognize that life events – illness, death of a loved one, job loss – can and do happen which can stall your momentum forward. These life events play havoc on the psyche. You will need time to recover. When you do recover, you goals, your plan of action will help you to reenter into life feeling positive and energetic.
Once you have established your mission and your goals, learn to manage those smaller segments of projects. Create a to-do list of daily goals which are smaller pieces of your over all goal. Prioritize and work on your most important goals first. There’s a famous story of a management consultant who told his captain of industry client to break down all of his work into categories of A and B, then ignore the B tasks. It’s enough if we can get through the A tasks. And if we do this every day, the most important tasks keep rising to the top until, finally, they are accomplished and come off the list. Share your own frustrations and disappointments in your attempts to reach your own long range goals.
Be honest about what happened and why. Children need this sense of belonging. It helps them feel less like they are the only ones going through this. Once they understand this is a normal and expected feeling, they often can refocus on their goals. You’re on the right track if, when you break down your big goal into smaller goals, you actually accomplish the smaller goals. If you’re setting 3000 words a day as one of your goals, and you’re writing 500 words a day, rethink. There’s nothing like the forced failure of impossible goals to make you want to roll over and die. Or at least flush your dreams down the toilet and walk away forever.
