16 Step Goal Setting Program

 

 

 

The following goal setting workshop is a structured way to identify your goals. You can use this technique to find out your goals in all areas of your life. Do each step one at a time before going on to the next.

 

It is a powerful way to focus your efforts in life. If you make this process a habitual part of your daily life, then your life will change dramatically for the better. Every longnitudinal study into achievement has identified goal setting as a major ingredient in success. People who set goals achieve far more than those that do not.

Step 1

You can set very general goals or choose one of the following goal setting categories:
  • Career
  • Family
  • Relationships
  • Self development
  • Finance
  • Health

Step 2

For the chosen category, write down a list of all the goals you want to achieve in your life. Include the minor ones as well as the major ones. Take 5 minutes to do this and keep writing the whole time. Do not stop. Write whatever comes into your mind.

Step 3

Mark all of the goals that you want to achieve over the next two years. They should be achievable goals and not so fantastic as to be unrealistic in the two-year time frame. Put aside all the other longer term goals. You may look at these later to decide what skills or preparation you should start working on now to help realise these goals later. You may incorporate these into later goal setting workshops.

Step 4

Choose the top 4 goals from all the marked goals.

Step 5

Write each goal out in detail. Be as specific as possible. This could run into several pages. Detail helps the subconscious mind to visualise and concentrate on the goal. It also makes it easier to monitor progress later, as each detail is completed.

Step 6

List all of the advantages and benefits that you will get from attaining each goal. List as many as possible. Go for fifty or a hundred. It is important to have definite reasons to motivate yourself.

Step 7

List all the potential obstacles and setbacks you could experience. Knowing what pitfalls to expect in advance helps you to deal more effectively with them when they occur and not be overwhelmed or surprised. Once written down, problems often seem less serious or threatening. Also, solutions may present themselves just through the process of writing them out.

Step 8

Identify who can help you and how you will enlist their help. Identify how you can help them in return and give back more than you receive.

One of the traits of the world's most successful people is always to always put more into any relationship than you get out.

Step 9

List all the skills you will need to achieve these goals. Identify the areas where you are lacking essential skills and identify how you can get the skills you need.

 

Step 10

Set a specific date for yourself, when you will achieve each goal. If your goals are very detailed you may have identified clear stages in the achievement of the goal. In which case, set completion dates for each stage in the process. You might find it useful to do some goal setting for each of the individual stages. Keep a written diary and refer to it every day.

 

Step 11

Identify how far towards each goal you have already progressed every day if necessary. You will notice early if any of your targets look as if they are slipping and will be able to take corrective action. This process is not just about goal setting but also about goal monitoring.

Step 12

Run the following problem solving technique, originally developed at Harvard.

 

  • You select the highest priority problem that you have and write down on a sheet of clean paper, clearly and concisely, exactly what the problem is.

     

  • Then write down twenty possible solutions, one after the other, as they pop into your head.

    What you will find is that the first five will come very easily, the next five not so easily. By the time you get to the last five you will find you are really sweating to come up with a solution.

    Write down anything, even if it seems a little unlikely or bizarre. Strangely, users of this technique have found that 80% of the solutions to their problems come in those last five ideas.

     

  • A development of this idea is then to take each idea and consider the opposite of that idea. Also, you can combine different ideas to see if a new practical solution presents itself.

Step 13

Make a detailed plan of how you are going to achieve the goal, including a plan to build skills and overcome obstacles.

 

Step 14

Rewrite everything over and over until it is perfect.

Step 15

Visualise the goal as already attained. See a movie in your mind featuring you after you have reached those goals. Make it vivid and play it back in your mind daily if you can so that your unconscious becomes focused on the idea that it will work hard to attain them.

Step 16

Never give up. Be persistent. Redo this goal setting workshop regularly. Review and rewrite the goals regularly.

Links - Further Information

www.mastermind-strategies.com Mastermind Strategies provides motivation and inspiration and practical strategies for personal and business development. The Mastermind Strategies Alliance provides a forum for sharing Mastermind Strategies.