Effective Goal Setting: A Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving Your Personal Aspirations

Establishing personal goals requires self-exploration and planning. You should choose goals that match your resources, abilities, values and lifestyle. Here's how to get what you want.

Instructions

• 1

  Identify positive goals you want to achieve in a specified period. Think of where you want to be six months from now. Decide what you need to do to get there.

• 2

  Keep the personal goals positive rather than negative. Stating "I'm not going to gamble anymore" does not explain what you are going to do to achieve that. Think of a goal that specifies exactly how you can bring about change in your life.

• 3

  Keep your goal attainable. Stating, "I want my boss to listen to me more" is beyond your control, and so the outcome of the goal is left to chance.

• 4

  Establish a realistic goal. Be wary of goals that are infeasible or inconsequential. Vowing to lose weight in six months and then only losing one pound is a hollow victory, as nothing of consequence was achieved.

• 5

  Identify goal advantages and disadvantages. Review them to discover if your goal is worth the investment of time, money and energy.

• 6

  Organize a list of clear, specific goals and brainstorm ways you can accomplish them within a specific period. Establish benchmarks so you can assess your progress.

• 7

  Identify obstacles that may prevent you from achieving your goal. Unexpected events can happen so be prepared to re-evaluate your goals?Adjust them without losing focus of the big picture.

• 8

  Define the resources you need to successfully reach your goal. Money, time and the support of others are examples of the resources you may need.

• 9

  Begin with simple goals. When you achieve something relatively simple, the sense of success reinforces the idea that you can achieve more.