Goal Setting

Setting goals, while relatively simple, must be done correctly to ensure success. If you desire success you must commit to learning the correct techniques that will guarantee achievement. While it is impractical to attempt thorough explanations here, following are some starting points.

Write Goals Down
An unwritten goal is just a wish. Many people think of goals as just having a target but it's no use having a target if you don't aim and pull the trigger. In this analogy the "aim" is when you write down your goals and the "trigger" is when you read your goals. When you write down a goal you are making a contract with yourself. There have been a number of surveys conducted by various organisations including Harvard University and Time magazine and they have all had similar findings. It was found that seventeen percent of people set goals but only three percent wrote them down. The three percent who wrote them down were the top achievers who had more successful careers, earned more money and were generally more satisfied with their lives.

Personal
Goals must be what you really want to do, not what you think you should do. You are setting a goal to create a change in your life and you don't want to be stifled by your previous conditioning. You can only set goals for you and not for someone else. Goals should be kept to yourself unless you wish to discuss them with someone you truly believe can help you achieve them - the exception to this is when you have a group goal such as with work, your family or sports team.

Positive
You must state your goal in terms of "doing" rather than "not doing". When you think of something, your subconscious mind automatically gives you that image. If I say "try not to think of pink elephants" what picture instantly flashes in your mind? - pink elephants! If your objective is not to be poor, don't make your goal "not to be poor", make your goal "to have $........ in the bank by ........".

Be Specific
Vague goals such as - be happier, be wealthy, to travel, are seldom successful. With goals such as these there is no real target for the mind to focus on. For example you must determine what will make you happy and set this as your goal or how much money, property, shares etc. you require to be wealthy or where you want to travel to.

Be Realistic
There's no point setting a goal if you believe it is impossible to achieve. Don't limit your goals so as to reduce your potential however don't set a goal unless you think there is some possibility of achieving it. The key is to seek 'the middle ground'. The goal must be realistic but it must also stretch you a little, just enough to take you slightly "out of your comfort zone".

Read Your Goals Regularly
You must read your goals at least twice a day, the more often the better. Writing your goals on pocket size cards makes it easy to read them often. Every time you read your goals you "prime" your powerful mind with what you expect to get. One USA study set out to find the difference between the habits of millionaires and billionaires and concluded the only difference was that millionaires read their goals twice a day and billionaires read theirs four times a day!

Greg Phillips is a Director at Extended Group. He is an experienced Corporate Executive having been a Director of private companies and Group Executive member of Australian public companies. Greg has a long list of accreditations in behavioural sciences, human potential, cognitive behaviour and psychometrics and is one of Australia's foremost authorities on the most advanced and fastest growing psychometric profile system available, Extended DISC®. He works as an Executive Coach and Facilitator of Psychometric Instruments for personnel development and recruitment. Contact Greg on Phone: 1300 00 DISC, 1300 00 3472, (03) 9887 5300; Email: Greg.Phillips@DiscProfile.com.au or Web site: www.discprofile.com.au
First published: 3 November 2004.
Last updated: 5 October 2005.