A lot of people feel lost in this world. They were born with so much hope to seek their purpose. But many events in life lead them to feel hopeless and stuck — until they have no other choice but to concede defeat.
If right now you’re on the verge of giving up, I want to say that this is not the end-game for you. Part of the reason why you feel this way is because you haven’t spent enough time thinking about what you truly want in life. Think about it, when was the last time you attempted to set a personal goal for yourself?
Personal goal setting is such a powerful process for those who want to find their purpose in the world. It motivates everyone to turn their vision into reality.
In this article, we will show you everything you need to know about personal goal setting and how you can achieve them.
Why is Personal Goal Setting Important?
The importance of personal goal setting comes down to two things: improving your productivity and taking control of your life.
When you have personal goals you want to achieve, it optimizes your productivity concerning your chosen goals. Having defined goals keeps you focused, which helps you balance your daily responsibilities.
It’s easy to be adrift when you have no goals for your life. While having no goals makes you feel relaxed in the short-term, it can be risky in the long-term. For instance, at first, it feels comfortable to do an unchallenging job. But in the long run, you’ll realize that it doesn’t satisfy you anymore, and it’s too late to shift to another career.
What Makes a Great Personal Goal?
These tips will serve as your pattern when creating a goal for yourself.
1. Start by setting life goals.
Consider what you truly want in your life or at least by a significant age in the future. These life goals will give you a peek at the overall perspective that gives life to other aspects of your decision-making.
Try to set goals in some of these categories. You can also set goals in other categories of your own.
- Family
- Education
- Career
- Financial
- Physical
- Pleasure
- Public service
As you do this, make sure that the goals you are about to traverse for are the ones you genuinely want to achieve for yourself — not for other people.
2. Set smaller goals.
Break down your life goals into smaller goals. How do you do this? Set a five-year plan of smaller goals that you need to achieve if you want to reach your life goals. Then, set even smaller goals by creating a one-year plan, six-month plan, or a one-month plan relative to your life goals.
To make this work, you need to create a daily to-do list of things that you should do. Lastly, you may want to review your plans to ensure that they fit the way you want your future to be.
3. Stay on course by setting SMART goals.
The most useful way you can create smart goals is to implement the SMART mnemonic. SMART usually stands for:
- S – Specific
- M – Measurable
- A – Attainable
- R – Relevant
- T – Time-bound
Here’s a better example: instead of planning to get better at data science to become more helpful in your company, a good SMART goal is to identify your biggest gap in the field of data science and grow your skills by the end of 2021.
Extra Tips for Setting Goals for Yourself
These tips will help you to further set effective, attainable goals.
1. Know your priorities.
Give each of your goals a level of priority. This will help you know which to prioritize first so that you won’t feel overwhelmed by having too many goals. Furthermore, it will help you focus on the most important ones.
2. Keep your goals positive.
Instead of saying, “don’t make this mistake,” it will be much better if you say, “make sure to execute this technique perfectly.”
3. Make it precise.
Don’t forget to put dates, times, and amounts to make it easier for you to measure achievement. It feels rewarding knowing exactly when you have achieved the goal, and it will also motivate you to achieve more goals.
4.Write your goals.
Writing down your goals can help you create a vision of how you want to be in the future. It helps you understand your goal and see the difference it will make in your life.
5. Your operational goals should be small.
Don’t force yourself to make sudden changes. Start by doing baby steps — or small and achievable steps. If a goal is too large, it will be hard for you to notice the progress you are making. On the other hand, small and incremental goals can easily track progress and will give more opportunities for reward.
6. Keep your goals realistic.
Your goals should be attainable. All sorts of people can set unrealistic goals for you without considering your own desires and ambition. But to keep your goals realistic, you need to know how much amount on your plate is enough.
Achieving Goals
So you’ve come far on reaching your goals. Be sure to enjoy the moment and the satisfaction of having done so. If the goal was a major one, boost your motivation by rewarding yourself appropriately.
And having the experience of achieving a goal, you can use it as a pattern to review the rest of your goal plans:
- Make your next goals harder if you achieved the goals too easily.
- Make your next goals a little easier if the goal you’ve achieved took a discouraging amount of time.
- Feel free to change your other goals if you learned something that you think will be better for your future.
- Decide whether you need to add more goals if you noticed a lack in your skills despite having achieved the goal.
Keep this lesson in handy every time you’re in the process of setting new goals. You must also remember that it’s okay if your goals change since they really bound to change as time goes on. Feel free to adjust them regularly to reflect growth in your knowledge and experience. And if your goals do not make you feel excited any longer, consider letting them go.