Goal Setting Problems? 6 Goal Setting Mistakes Not To Make

Image via WikipediaGoal setting can go wrong for lots of reasons. When it happens, it can be awfully devastating to our self esteem and some even swear off setting any new goals. So, try to avoid these goal setting mistakes.

1. Outcome goals are set instead of performance goals. This forces you to focus on the end result immediately instead of taking your time to go through the steps of goals setting. When you set goals properly you are doing it in a step by step manner.

Where you are using outcome goals, and you fail to achieve the goal for reasons outside your control, this can be very disappointing and sometimes leads to loss of enthusiasm and feelings of failure. Always set performance goals instead as this will give you a higher chance of succeeding.

2. Goals are set unrealistically high. When a goal is perceived to be unreachable, no effort will be made to achieve it. Set realistic goals so that you can best decide how to go about achieving them. Only you can decide what “realistic” is.

3. Goals are set so low that you feel no challenge or benefit in achieving the goal. You begin to feel that setting goals has been a waste of time. Always set goals that are challenging enough to be worth the effort, but not out of reach. Again, this is a personal decision.

4. Goals are so vague that they are useless. It is difficult to know when vague goals have been achieved. How can you know if you aren’t clear about what is to be reached? Your achievement must be able to be measured. In setting vague or unmeasurable goals you will not benefit from goal setting. Set precise and quantitative goals.

5. Goal Setting is unsystematic, sporadic and disorganized. In this case certain goals will be forgotten, and the achievement of goals will not be measured and feedback is non existent. The major benefits of goal setting have been lost. Be organized and be regular in your goal setting.

6. Too many low priority and misaligned goals are set, leading to a feeling of overload and overwhelm. Make the goals you pursue worth pursuing! Pick one BIG life changing goal or mission and then align your intermediate and short term goals within it. One laser focus to success!

Avoid these problems, and set your goals properly. Commit and persist in your actions, and you will achieve them. Spend the proper amount of time in your goal setting and you will maintain strong forward momentum until you have what you want.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Why You Should Risk Dweebhood with Written Goals [Goal Setting For Skeptics]
• Goal Setting - Set Your Goals & Achieve Your Target in Your Life
• Goal Setting Made Easy

Are Your Year's Goals Achieved? It's Getting Late In The Season

Have you ever noticed that with the beginning of each season there seems to be a push for people to make improvements in their lives? Just before the end of the year and then when the New Year arrives most people talk about making new years resolutions.

When spring comes people talk about wanting to shed a few pounds to fit into summer apparel. In the fall people discuss that they are going to plan for holiday time better and at the holiday’s people make promises to make more of an effort to stay in touch with family members and friends.

Usually within a few weeks of making a statement about changing our ways we are back to our old routine.

Here are a few tips that you can take to help achieve your goals this year:

Write down the goal that you want to work on. By writing the goal down you are making more of a commitment to work on this area of your life. Write down your goals every morning until they become part of your day.

If you seriously want to achieve your goals, then discuss them with the important people in your life. By sharing what you want to accomplish with others they can help keep you accountable by asking you what you are doing to achieve your goals. Give your friends and family permission to remind you what you have said you want to accomplish.

When you are working towards something it is often times easy to forget or overlook small steps that are made to achieve your goals. By keeping a journal of the steps that are taken to achieve your goals you can look back and see that you have been working on things, or you can look back and realize that you have not been making effort and that you need to put more time into what you want to accomplish.

The goals we set for ourselves are meant to better our lives and to increase our happiness. The journey towards goal achievement does not have to be paved with self denial and pain.

Make an effort to enjoy the steps made along the way. Bask in the glory of making small improvements. Things are not going to change over night. If a goal is worth writing down and talking about it is most likely going to take a while to achieve it.

So often people let their goals fall by the wayside because they feel defeated if they do not accomplish them immediately. When you are writing down the goals that you are working on also write down a reasonable time frame in which to complete them.

Do not make the time so long that you will procrastinate and do not make it so short that you are setting yourself up for failure. Be realistic and take time to enjoy the journey to achieve your goals.

Remember it's more important to happily achieve your goals then to achieve your goals to be happy . . .

Goals! How To Hold Your Focus When Life Challenges Arise

Goals! What Do You Do When Life Gets in the Way?
- Dale Stuemke

Is life fighting against your goals as hard as you're working to achieve them? Sometimes it seems like it. You have an important goal and a good action plan, but you find yourself distracted, you can't focus. What's going on?

Situation One: Life Throws You a Curve Ball

This really isn't unusual, but it can certainly stop our progress. It can also cause doubts about whether we can really complete the plan and reach our goal. Let's look at this, I have a suggestion or two for you to use to defeat the distractions of life.

Have you ever had life really can get in the way of your goal achievement? I've experienced it many times. In fact, life seems to really go after me after I've set goals!

Sometimes we set work plans that turn out to be a bit too ambitious. Other times we will experience something that is just totally unexpected. Often something happens that disrupts more than just our goal plan. There can be health issues that pop up and require our total attention. There also can be other emergencies that throw themselves into our lives at the most inopportune time.

My wife and I had one of those inopportune events. We came home after being gone for a long weekend to find that a water pipe had broken and had run water into our home for three days! All of a sudden we were living in a hotel and dealing with the insurance company, contractors, and all sorts of problems we hadn't planned on. Life really did get in the way!

When something like that happens, you really need to accept the fact that your priorities have temporarily changed. Once you understand what the new priority requirements are you can make some adjustments to your work plan. This is really no different than when you find something in your work plan that doesn't produce the results you expected. You adjust the plan to fit the situation.

But remember, you are not throwing your goal out! The reason you are adjusting your plan is to keep the goal in place, even if its achievement is somewhat delayed.

Situation Two: No Curve Ball, Just Life

It's pretty easy to understand how you need to adjust to dramatic events in your life. But, what about life just taking its normal course and still distracting you from your goal? What about the more "normal" distractions? How do we deal with them? That's a little different topic and can require different tactics!

We need to learn to use specific techniques to hold our focus and overcome "daily life" distractions.

There are at least two different types of distractions. The first is where you've established your work plan, but, after diligently trying to follow it, you just can't fit it and the rest of your life into the 24 hours you get each day. You find yourself letting things that should be lower priority take time from your work plan. The second case occurs when your work plan is just too aggressive.

You need to carefully examine the situation to see which of these is the case. If lower-priority activities are the problem, you'll need to push those into their proper place. If your work plan is truly too aggressive, you'll need to carefully rework your plan so it fits into your life properly.

That sounds like an over simplification, but it really is that simple. We can try to find all kinds of reasons why our problems are different, but they probably fit into those two categories...unless...

What about the times when you are just struggling with maintaining your focus. You know what that's like as well as I do. Maybe you find yourself procrastinating instead of taking the actions you know are needed. Maybe you're starting to doubt whether you can really do it. You might be thinking "Yeah, those others did it, but can I?"

I'm going to suggest that you learn how to talk to yourself. Really!

Start by writing your goal statement onto an index card. Make sure this is a positive wording of your goal. Next, be sure you have that card with you at all times. Read your goal statement aloud, with excitement and energy.

Do this at least three times a day. Early in the morning, in the middle of the day when you're in your routine, and the end of the day are the best times. (If you really want to add power, read it seven times at each of those three times!) When you do this, you will be helping your brain keep its focus.

You will literally reprogram your brain to believe that you can achieve that goal. Your subconscious mind will be listening. It will hear your goal, and it will hear your excitement. Do this every day, and your subconscious mind will gradually keep you focused.

Does that sound preposterous? Try it for 21 days. Then look at the results, you'll be pleasantly surprised!

by Dale Stuemke

Copyright (c) 2008 Dale Stuemke

I'm a husband, father, and grandfather. Through work in product development and marketing I've learned that goals are achieved with a good plan, focused effort, and commitment. Humans are designed to be achievers. Visualizing the future and achieving goals to make it a reality is uniquely human! I'm still dreaming my future into existence and setting goals to make it happen. Get my free report today and Launch Your Goals!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dale_Stuemke