Goal setting strategiesGoal setting strategies are necessary if we are to achieve the goals that we set for ourselves. One of the most important principles of setting goals and achieving them is to include short term goals in your goal setting activity. There are many theories about setting and achieving goals. The following article contains tips on setting goals. It has been generously provided by Moshe D Tokayer of Inspiration River.
Tips on setting goalsby Moshe D Tokayer
What is it about trying to work out goal setting strategies that seems so difficult? The answer, I believe, is that most of us set goals about once a year – on New Year’s Day. When everything falls apart after a week we wonder what happened. We have very little chance of reaching those once a year goals because they are simply too overwhelming. Reaching goals is critical to success in any endeavor so it’s crucial to have strategies that work. In this article, I share what I consider to be the most fundamental component to achieving our goals. Long term goals are, of course, important and necessary. They provide direction. However, they are not enough. Short term goals are just as important and just as necessary. Once you know what direction you want to take, short term goals show you how to get there. Goal setting activity that does not include short term goals are bound to fail for the same reason that a car trip from New York to Los Angeles (long term goal) will fail if you don’t know how to get to New Jersey first (short term goal). If your long term goal is to own and run a successful web business but you haven’t the foggiest idea as to what that entails, you are not going to succeed. If however, in addition to the long term goal, you take a first stab at the tasks that are necessary to attain that goal, your chances of succeeding rise dramatically. I’ll go one step further and state that successful goal setting strategies have a fractal nature. Long term goals can be broken down into medium term goals which in turn can be split further into shorter term goals and so on. You stop splitting your tasks into smaller ones when you are comfortable with your ability to perform the task successfully in a reasonable period of time.
Job goalsHere is an example. If you are seeking employment (long term goal), one of your tasks may be to contact everyone you know who you think can help. But this is task is still too large. It needs to be broken down. You need to make a list of the people you want to contact, get their contact info, make the phone calls or send the emails. Then you’ll want to record the information you’ve gathered. Afterwards, you’ll probably need to follow up with some of the people you’ve contacted which will lead you to additional tasks.I’ve found that an important technique that can be used in all goal setting strategies is making an outline. It will help you stay focused on your long term goal. In the example the outline would look like this: Of course, this is an incomplete list of tasks. Finding a job usually involves more than simply calling everyone you know. But, this list gives you an idea of how I would go about breaking down my long term goal into shorter doable tasks. Of all the strategies I’ve encountered, this one is the most fundamental and universal. It holds true for all long term goals and it can be combined with other goal setting strategies. Remember this. You will reach your long term goal only if you break it down into doable short term tasks.
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