5 Tips for Setting Goals

“Goals are dreams we convert to plans and take action to fulfill.” – Zig Ziglar

We've all heard of 'someone saying that they have set goals. And you ask yourself, "What is that and how do I do it?" Well, I am here to help you get started.

Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future and for motivating yourself to turn your vision of this future into reality. The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life. It gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation. It focuses your acquisition of knowledge, and helps you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life. By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals.

Many people set goals for every area of their lives such as family, career, education, financial, pleasure, travel, and physical. It does not matter which category your goals fall under, or if they fall under all of them. What matters is that you know what it is that you want and when you want them. From here, all else will eventually fall into place.

Here are 5 tips to help you in your goal-setting

SPECIFIC / SIGNIFICANT
Be specific about the goals that you want to achieve. Specifics are the What, Why and How of the goal setting.  What is the significance of the goal that you want to achieve? For example, you want to have $12,000. Spell out why you want to this amount, what you're planning to do with the money and how you're planning to get it.

Write your goals in a positive statement. Always start on a positive note. Write them down in some place where they are easily accessible to you so that you can review them constantly. This will help to keep you focused and on track to achieving them.

MEASURABLE/ MEANINGFUL
Make sure you have something to measure your success by. You cannot manage what you cannot measure. Set targets such as dates and amounts obtained within a certain amount of time. For example, if your goal is to have $12,000 in your account within a year, then set small incremental goals that will keep you on track within that year, such as target deposits of $1,000 into the account each month.

If the goal is meaningful enough to you, you'll let nothing stand in the way of you achieving it. Distractions will become a thing of the past to you.

ATTAINABLE / ACTION ORIENTED
Set goals that are just out of your reach. This will allow you to expand yourself, causing you to grow in many areas, with each achievment. Is it really a goal, if it is easily attainable, something you can do without any effort?

Take steps to achieve your goals. Successful completion of your goals is about more than identifying them and writing them down. You need to include plans for achieving them and then take steps to carry out those plans.

RELEVANT / REALISTIC
First thing first. Prioritize your goals and identify which ones are need to be completed first. Focus on those particular ones first. Also, make sure that the goals are relevant to what you really want so that you will be more aggressive about achieving them. If you have the attitude that achieving them really do not matter, you'll be more passive about do anything to attain them.

An alternative term for the acronym 'R' is to be realistic about the goals you set. I am not a fan of this one and I'll tell you the reason why. To be realistic means to look at only what YOU are able to achieve or what ir pratical for you. It is simply saying that you have to 'real' about it, not leaving much room for you to expand your yourself, or leaving room for all of the POSSIBLE things that GOD can do. I always leave room for GOD to do the impossible.

TIMELY
Yes, you should be specific with setting target dates or time frames for achieving your goals. If you leave this part of your goal open, you have nothing to really motivate you to get it done. With no specific timeline, you'll just keep putting it off until a later time and before you know it, you have not done enough to achieve the goal. So set achievable time lines such as weekly, monthly, 90 days, 1 year, 5 years.

When you've achieved a goal, take the time to enjoy the satisfaction of having done so. Absorb the implications of the goal achievement, and observe the progress that you've made towards other goals. If the goal was a significant one, reward yourself appropriately. All of this helps you build the self-confidence you deserve.