How Important are Goals in Your Life Outcomes?

Change Your Life with Effective Goal Planning, Setting, and Activation!

Setting Goals Defines Your Success (Part 1)

Setting Goals: Define Your Course to Success!

Setting specific goals with dates is one of the most powerful things you will ever do. If you have never understood the POWER of establishing effective goals, please take some time to review the following sections:

Why Set Goals

Goal setting is a very powerful technique that can yield strong returns in all areas of your life.

At its simplest level the process of setting goals and targets allows you to choose where you want to go in life. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know what you must concentrate on and improve, and what a distraction is. Goal setting gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation. It focuses your acquisition of knowledge and helps you to organize your resources.

By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. You can see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind.

By setting goals you can:

• Achieve more

• Improve performance

• Increase your motivation to achieve

• Increase your pride and satisfaction in your achievements

• Improve your self-confidence

• Plan to eliminate attitudes that hold you back and cause unhappiness

Research has shown that people who use goal setting effectively:

• Suffer less from stress and anxiety

• Concentrate better

• Show more self-confidence

• Perform better

• Are happier and more satisfied

Goal Setting Helps Self-Confidence

By setting goals, and measuring their achievement, you can see what you have done and what you are capable of. The process of achieving goals and seeing their achievement gives you the confidence and self-belief that you need that you will be able to achieve higher and more difficult goals.

How do You Set Effective Goals? (Part 2)

How to set goals effectively

It is very important that you understand that the way in which you set goals strongly affects your effectiveness. The following guidelines apply to setting effective goals.

Positive Statement: Express your goals positively: ‘Execute this technique well’ is a much better goal than ‘don’t make this stupid mistake’.

Be Precise: If you set a precise goal, putting in dates, times and amounts so that achievement can be measured, then you know the exact goal to be achieved, and can take complete satisfaction from having completely achieved it.

Set Priorities: Where you have several goals, give each a priority. This helps you avoid feeling overwhelmed by too many goals and helps direct your attention to the most important ones.

Write goals down to avoid confusion and give them more force. Keep Operational Goals Small. Keep the goals you are working towards immediately (i.e. in this session) small and achievable. If a goal is too large, then it can seem that you are not making progress towards it.

Keeping goals small and incremental gives more opportunities for reward. Today’s goals should be derived from larger goals.

Set Performance, not Outcome Goals

This is very important. You should take care to set goals over which you have as much control as possible - there is nothing as dispiriting as failing to achieve a personal goal for reasons beyond your control such as bad business environments, poor judging, bad weather, injury, or just plain bad luck. Goals based on outcomes are extremely vulnerable to failure because of things beyond your control.

If you base your goals on personal performance or skills or knowledge to be acquired, then you can keep control over the achievement of your goals and draw satisfaction from them. For example, you might achieve a personal best time in a race, but still be disqualified as a result of a poor-judging decision. If you had set an outcome goal of being in the top three, then this will be a defeat.

If you set a performance goal of achieving a time, then you will have achieved the goal and can draw satisfaction and self-confidence from its achievement.

Another flaw is where outcome goals are based on the rewards of achieving something, whether these are financial or are based on the recognition of colleagues.

In early stages these will be highly motivating factors; however, as they are achieved, the benefits of further achievement at the same level reduce. You will become progressively less motivated.

Set Specific Goals

Set specific measurable goals. If you achieve all conditions of a measurable goal, then you can be confident and comfortable in its achievement. If you consistently fail to meet a measurable goal, then you can adjust it or analyze the reason for failure and take appropriate action to improve skills.

Set Realistic Goals

Never set goals that are not attainable as setting goals too far out or too challenging can become discouraging.

Be Realistic in Your Goals! (Part 3)

Below are some common reasons why people set goals unrealistically high

• Other people: Other people (parents, media, and society) can set unrealistic goals for you, based on what they want. Often this will be done in ignorance of your goals, desires and ambitions.

• Insufficient information: If you do not have a clear, realistic understanding of what you are trying to achieve and of the skills and knowledge to be mastered, it is difficult to set effective and realistic goals.

• Always expecting your best performance: Many people base their goals on their best performance, however long ago that was. This ignores the inevitable backsliding that can occur for good reasons and ignores the factors that led to that best performance. It is better to set goals that raise your average performance and make it more consistent.

• Lack of respect for yourself: If you do not respect your right to rest, relax and have pleasure in life then you risk suffering burnout. No matter how large your business is you always have the right to rest and enjoy what you have accomplished.

• Setting Goals Too Low: Alternatively, goals can be set too low which can keep you from growing and achieving true personal satisfaction.

Following are some common reasons why people set goals too low:

• Fear of failure: If you are frightened of failure you will not take the risks needed for optimum performance. As you apply goal setting and see the achievement of goals, your self- confidence should increase, helping you to take bigger risks.

• Know that failure is a positive thing: It shows you areas where you can improve your skills and performance.

• Taking it too easy: It is easy to take the reasons for not setting goals unrealistically high as an excuse to set them too low. If you’re not prepared to stretch yourself and work hard, then you are extremely unlikely to achieve anything of any real worth.

Setting Goals at the Right Level for Greater Outcomes! (Part 4)

Correct and Successful Goal Setting at the Right Level

Setting goals at the correct level are a skill that is acquired by practice.

You should set goals so that they are slightly out of your immediate grasp, but not so far that there is no hope of achieving them: no-one will put serious effort into achieving a goal that they believe is unrealistic.

However, remember that the belief that a goal is unrealistic may be incorrect. Such a belief can be changed by effective use of imagery.

Personal factors such as tiredness, other commitments and the need for rest, etc. should be considered when goals are set.

Goal Review

Now review the goals you have set, and then measure them against the points above. Adjust them to meet the recommendations and then review them. You should now be able to see the importance of setting goals effectively.

Think Goals Through

• When you are thinking about how to achieve goals, asking the following questions can help you to focus on the sub-goals that lead to their achievement:

• What skills do I need to achieve this?

• What information and knowledge do I need?

• What help, assistance, or collaboration do I need?

• What resources do I need?

• What can block progress?

• Am I making any assumptions?

• Is there a better way of doing things?

Applying this will truly help you set EFFECTIVE goals, which will change your life and those around you!

What are Your Goals? (Part 5)

Deciding Your Goals!

Determining what your goals are and where to establish them can be very challenging.

Below you will see some suggested areas that can be used to set your goals.

Your Lifetime Goals: The first step in setting personal goals is to consider what you want. Setting Lifetime goals gives you the overall perspective that shapes all other aspects of your decision making. To give a broad coverage of all-important areas in your life, try to set goals in all the following categories:

Artistic: Do you want to achieve any artistic goals? If so, what?

Attitude: Is any part of your mind-set holding you back? Is there any part of the way that you behave that upsets you? If so, set goals to improve or cure the problem, even if the goal is only to get help.

Education: Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular? What information and skills will you need to achieve other goals?

Family: Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent?

How do you want to be seen by a partner or by members of your extended family?

Financial: How much do you want to earn by what stage?

Physical: Are there any athletic goals you want to achieve, or do you want good health deep into old age? What steps are you going to take to achieve this?

Pleasure: How do you want to enjoy yourself? - You should ensure that some of your life is for you!

Public Service: Do you want to make the world a better place by your existence? If so, how?

Social: Do you have any social ambitions?

Spiritual: Do you have goals specific to your faith and belief?

Once you have decided the areas you wish to establish your goals, apply the principles of goal setting and act!

Attitude + Actionable Goals = Greater Outcomes! (Part 6)

Powerful attitudes are the key to reaching your goals

Establishing realistic goals is the first step.

The next is having an attitude that will drive you forward to your goals materialize.

Below you will find six foundational attitudes and habits that will help you in seeing your personal and business goals happen.

You need to have a positive belief.

With a belief in what you are doing, your chance for success will be even greater. This belief is what spurs passion, enthusiasm, and excitement about the possibilities your business can bring you over time. This belief will help you stay focused as you are working daily to accomplish your goals. In fact, 90% of your success in life is belief and enthusiasm. From this belief in what you are doing, many things will change. A business example of this would be, “I am not prospecting or recruiting. I am offering you a gift of incredible value.”

You must have a great attitude about your company!

Your belief must be constant about you and your company. Without this, people will see right through you.

See you and your company with integrity, having a mission for being in business, one with a passion for its representatives and employees and for their customers. Hold its management in high esteem. Be a believer in you and your company. Never talk bad about other companies, people, and organizations.

Believe in you, your product and/or services.

What drives business the best and most is word of mouth. This is the most powerful marketing in the world. If you do not love you and your products and/or services, you will not be able to expect anyone else to care about them.

You must have an attitude of “I will succeed”.

Ask yourself, “What will it take to succeed? Am I willing to do what it takes?” If your answer is not a resounding YES, then the first obstacle that comes your way will likely be your reason to quit.

You must be willing to serve others.

For you to succeed, you must help others succeed.

Each person will need something different from you – some will need to know you are there, some will need help with calling, some will need help with becoming more of a leader, some will need help with being accountable in their weekly activities, some will need help in other areas…. TEAM is what it is all about – Together Everyone Achieves More.

You must be honest.

This is true about people and about you. If you cannot be honest with yourself, you will not be able to truly accomplish your goals.

Outlined Goals for Success! (Part 7)

Goals outlined for success

Find the Right Goals

“People are not lazy,” says personal development author Anthony Robbins. “They simply have impotent goals – that is, goals that do not inspire them.”

Many people have different goals. You may be dealing with a person whose goals in life are different from yours. It may not be laziness in a person, but a person who has not yet seized upon a sufficiently compelling reason to offer their total commitment.

Keep this in mind as you are working with people, getting to know team players and supporting your team. Get to know each person and their goals, so that can encourage them on.

Use Goals to Help You Grow

A goal is an objective, a purpose. A goal is more than a dream; it’s a dream being acted upon. A goal is more than a hazy, “Oh I wish I could.” A goal is a clear “This is what I am working toward everyday.”

Nothing happens; no forward steps are taken until a goal is established.

Without goals individuals just wander through life - They stumble along, never knowing where they are going, so they never get anywhere.

Goals are essential to success as air is to life. No one ever stumbles into success without a goal.

No one ever lives without air. Get a clear idea and route where you want to go.

Without goals we cannot grow. The modern corporation does not leave its future to chance, should you?

Before you Start Out

Start your day, start your week, start your month, start your year, start your life, know where you want to go!

Two steps that will help you have a clear path:

• Demand precise answers to these questions – What does it take to satisfy me? What do I want to accomplish in my life? What do I want to be?

• Visualize yourself in work – visualize yourself in home – visualize yourself in social.

Desire, When Harnessed is Power

Failure to follow desire, to do what you want to do most, paves the way to mediocrity.

Success requires heart and soul effort and you can only put your heart and soul into something you really desire.

Surrender to Your Goal! (Part 8)

When you surrender yourself to your desires, when you let yourself become obsessed with a goal, you receive the physical power, energy, and enthusiasm needed to accomplish your goal.

Deeply entrenched goals keep you on course to reach your target. When you surrender to your goal, the goal works itself into your subconscious mind. This subconscious goal constantly speaks to you the image you want.

Surrender to Your Goal

Let it obsess you and give you the automatic direction needed to accomplish what you want.

As you press forward to success, set goals! Do this with your deadlines, target dates, and self-imposed quotas.

You will accomplish only what you plan to accomplish.

Progress is Made One Step at a Time

The step-by-step method is the only intelligent way to attain any objective.

Sometimes it appears that someone achieves success all at once. But if you check the past histories of people who seemed to arrive at the top suddenly, you will discover a lot of solid groundwork was previously laid. Sustainable successful people have laid the foundation on a solid foundation, process, plan, and have continued to believe!

© Ted Landgraf, Above the Standard

What are You Going to Do Today and Each Day for the Rest of Your Life?!

©Above the Standard

"Increase Profits, Reduce Cost"

Erwin Jack | [email protected] | AboveTheStandard.net

About Above the Standard

Above the Standard has global experience empowering and changing the lives for many executives, leaders, and organizations in more than 100 nations, having increased profits in the tens of billions of dollars, with sustainable outcomes.

Above the Standard is a dedicated and highly motivated leader and executive with more than 30 years global Business, Training, Strategic, Procurement, Finance, and Leadership experience in many different industries, from small to Fortune MNC’s.