Mastering the Fine Art of Goal Setting
If you’re reading this article, chances are you are a goal setter. And, depending how long you’ve been setting goals, you may be a novice at it or a Pro.
Learning to set meaningful, measurable goals is a process. If you use the Best Year Yet system, you know what I’m talking about. Best Year Yet helps you create a one-page plan with no more than 10 annual goals and provides software that enables you to enter and score weekly and/or monthly goals to help you advance your annual goals.
To advance your status as a goal setter, I’m going to share three pieces of advice:
Make sure you break down your annual goals into monthly goals
Set SMART goals
Learn the difference between a results goals and a process goal
Set Monthly Goals
For many people, creating the annual plan is a huge accomplishment: “I’m taking charge, I have a plan. This feels great!” But don’t stop there.
I recommend that you set new goals at least once a month. Take a look at your annual goals one by one and ask yourself, what can I do in the next 30 days to advance this goal? Set one or two monthly goals for each annual goal, but don’t over promise. If you don’t feel you can get it all done in 30 days, pare down your list and don’t worry if you don’t have a monthly goal for one or two annual goals. Set yourself up for success, not failure.
Schedule a date with yourself – actually put it in your calendar – to revisit and score your monthly goals and set new goals for the next 30-days. Little by little, you’ll make steady progress on achieving your annual goals.
This process of setting and scoring monthly goals will help you perfect your skills at setting goals that are meaningful and achievable.
Make Your Goals SMART
SMART is an acronym that can help you remember the criteria for creating meaningful goals.
Be Specific – make sure your goals are worded so that there is no question what you intend to accomplish. I often find clients who word goals like this: Meet with Mike about the house. What about the house? What do you want to accomplish by meeting with Mike? A more specific goal would be: Meet with Mike and agree to list the house with him.
Set Measurable goals - How many? How much? Who? To make the above goal more measurable, add a date by which you will agree to list the house, for example: Meet with Mike and agree to list the house with him by September 10, 2011.
Make sure goals are Attainable - We suggest you set your goals to stretch you a bit but not so much that you set yourself up for failure. Shoot for a goal that has at least an 80% chance of success. Again using the house example, if you are planning to make renovations to the house before selling it, will you have enough time to get it done by September? If you have the summer open to prepare the house, three months is plenty of time.
Are your Goals Relevant? - Relevant goals are important to you, your family, and/or the people you serve. They should be relevant to your future viability as well as your vision and values. If one of your values is family and you need a bigger house to grow your family, then listing your current home is certainly a relevant goal.
Add a Time element to your goals - if you are setting annual goals, then they should be timed to be completed within the year. Not every goal will take a full 12 months. For instance, if your annual goals include selling your current home and moving into a new home, then you should include the time frame in which you plan to do this: Move into the house of our dreams by May 2012.
Know the Difference Between A Results Goal and a Process Goal
When you set your annual goals, think about what you want to achieve 12 months down the road, and when setting monthly goals, focus on the results you want at the end of 30 days. Too often our natural inclination is to start making a list of what needs to be done in order to achieve a goal. I like to use the following example to illustrate the difference: pretend you are a quarterback on the 10 yard line and you have 90 yards stretching out in front of you…what is the result goal?
Frequently, people will say something like: a first down, a great pass, an awesome offensive tackle. Wrong! These are all process goals. The result you want is 7 points on the score board, a Touchdown!! Think about this as you set your annual and monthly goals and make sure you’re setting results goals, not listing the process or interim steps you will need to take in order to reach a goal.
So, there you are. To master the fine art of goals setting, break your annual goals down into monthly goals and measure your progress once a month; make sure your goals are SMART; and set your goals with the end result in mind. And finally, if you’re not yet using Best Year Yet to set and score your goals – and make this you Best Year Yet. click here to get started
Written by Kris Gleason,Certified Program Leader of the Best Year Yet System. Visit www.Results Coaching.us
