Goals & Goal Setting: Do You Know Where You're Going?
By Rita Monte, Executive Coach & CEO Forum Chair, CLIENT ADVOCATE NETWORK
Your Life's journey is the most important journey you will ever take, and you only make it once! But ironically, most people spend more time planning their two-week vacation than to planning the other fifty weeks of the year. They have little or no idea where they are going with their lives.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Where have you been heading for the past few years?
- Are you now where you had planned to be?
- Are you working towards achieving your goals, or do other people and outside influences largely determine your direction and agenda?
- Where do you intend to be in 1 week, in 1 year, in 5 years?
What are your answers? Are you pleased with your answers? Or are your answers indicative of not spending enough time planning and organizing your life? Successful people determine where they are going and develop specific plans to get there. Because they are well-prepared, they travel their life journey with vitality and confidence.
Organizational Goals
A clearly defined goals program also provides a foundation for budgeting and decision-making on an organizational level. It gives people a way to quickly solve problems. All they have to do is view a problem in light of the company's goals and values and decide which course of action will move the company closer to its objectives. Obviously, the more clearly people understand the goals and values, the more likely it is that their decisions will be correct.
The Principles of a Successful Plan
Crystallizing your goals is the first step toward a commitment to action. It is meant to produce results. To put goal setting to work for you and others you must follow these basic principles:
- Make sure that the goals are yours.
- State your goals positively.
- Your goals must be Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistically high, and have a Target date.
- Incorporate behavior changes into your goals.
Read - "I'm Not Sure Where We're Going - But We're Making Good Time"
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