Self Help for Setting Goals

Self Help for Setting Goals
By: Peter H. Thomas


Success, whether it's about personal happiness or career achievement, usually begins with setting goals. Unfortunately, self-help goals quickly set are often left unmet. So what goal-setting strategies move goals from creation to reality?

Setting goals is fairly easy. Setting goals that actually come to pass is harder, and requires forethought. After setting a goal, one of the greatest challenges is integrating it into daily life, making sure it aligns with what you really value in life - a crucial step to seeing a goal through. Here are three useful steps and proven strategies for setting goals and making them stick.

Goals: Write them down

Putting pen to paper makes the goal-setting process concrete. Write them down and create action steps to make them happen. These action steps may be daily to-do lists and reminders that should always be planned out the day before for the following day.

Now you have something that you can hold in your hand, and refer to as a reminder and a motivator. Not only are you creating your own accountability system, writing down your goals and action steps will help you clarify your objectives and remain focused on them. And it provides you another tool important to your self-help goals--visualization.

Prioritize your Goals

As you set your goals and focus on them, reflect upon your life and remember your values -- the past you’ve led and the future you envision. What moments have been rewarding? Or disappointing? What has remained important over time, and what is most important to you now? Who are the people who you care about the most? Of all the things that you have now, which could you give up? Which items, experiences and relationships could you not live without?

According to the self-help program LifeManual, the best goals--whether they're related to work, family, academic achievement or personal life--are the ones that align themselves with a person's core values.

Michael R. Ellison, CEO of TRIVITA, Inc., agrees. Since incorporating the LifeManual goal-setting tools in the workplace, the workplace has changed. "Now, the discussions at our meetings concern not only the care of customers, but also the specific values and goals that impacted each member of our team personally."

Set goals that parallel and honor your priorities--the things that you value. Explore everything that you have now or have had in the past, to discover why you valued it, and how you can continue to value it.

Share your goals

Goal setting doesn’t take place in a vacuum. Successful goals are usually visualized--and carried out--through feedback from trusted friends, family members and co-workers. Listen to feedback from others. Are you making goals that are really aligned with your values and priorities?

People in your home, work and community are also there to applaud your accomplishments. They can also give you a friendly reminder when you slide off track. Sharing your goals with people you trust also makes you more accountable to your goals.
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