Goal Setting

Why is setting goals so important?

Setting goals is an important part of life that gives people something to work towards. Whether the goal be made by the person, or given to them by someone else. For example, someone may set the goal of wanting to lose weight, or seeking to get a better grade, or they may have a goal put on them, like a coach asking them to run harder or a boss telling you to sell more of a specific item.

So what makes goals so important, why are they something we work towards?

Typically people work toward goals because they are motivated to accomplish them, and recieve some sort of reinforcment for completing them. However, one of the biggest factors that stops people from reaching goals is.....


THEY'RE DOING IT WRONG!

Things to Consider When Setting Goals

Realistic and Challenging

When setting a goal for oneself it is important to consider whether or not the goal is possible or too lofty. Often we set goals for ourselves with the best intentions, but make the goals so challenging, that reaching them seems near impossible leading to a feeling of learned helplessness.

Instead of setting yourself up for failure with a goal, make them manageable and possible.

Such as, if you want to lose weight for your health, losing 50 pounds in two months is unhealthy and for most impossible, while losing 2 pounds a week is a more manageable and healthy goal.

By setting goals you can meet but are still challenging, people can take pride in their accomplishments and are more likely to continue on to other goals as they typically feel more emboldened and capable.

How do i get there?

As stated before a goal is only as realistic as we make it. Once you have set a realistic goal the next step is to plan how we would get there.

Let's take an example of getting better grades in school. This is a reasonable goal, although unspecific, and could be made better with some details like a goal of improving all of my grades by five points. With this goal in mind how do we get there?

So an example of steps could be:

  • Go to extra help for each class at least once a week
  • Study for each class 15-30 minutes a day even when there is no test
  • Ask questions when we don't understand something in school
  • etc

By setting these markers we can check our progress toward a goal, and ensure we are taking steps in the right direction.

what do i do after I accomplish my goal?

Work harder. A simple answer to this question is to keep working.

The first thing to do is take account and take pride in achieving your goal!

Next look at what else can we improve or how can we continue to improve in this area. Acieving goals is fantastic, but we are human and we can always keep improving.

Once you accomplish a goal you may have some momentum built up, use this to accomplish more and reach out to others for continued support and assistance.