Target setting is important in many ways where it helps you begin with an end in mind, and that helps you be more motivated in achieving your goals. Without goals, you can lack focus and direction. Setting personal goals hands you the steering wheel, giving you the power to transform your own life into whatever direction you desire. By setting targets you can plan your day, week and month ahead, so it will help you be less overwhelmed and teach you how to deal with stress.
Consequently, once the stress reduces in your brain, it helps you relax and that sets the creative part of your brain going.
Now, to accomplish your goals, it is crucial to understand how to set them. This process begins with careful consideration, followed by ample amounts of hard work in order to achieve what we set out to do.
When I was younger, I had several duties to juggle with. I had to manage my children- their school, their meals, their homework, playtime and leisure time with my family – all alongside my career. The daily roster was always packed and I didn’t have the time or energy to pause, review my day and analyze how I could organize my time in a way that didn’t make me feel bogged down in work. But I often found myself wondering – How to deal with stress? What is time management? Am I faltering at my time management game?
I spoke to friends and family, flipped through pages on the internet trying to find a solution and the one thing that constantly popped up was – Target setting! An interesting piece I stumbled upon while on my quest for tips and guidelines was a blog by Brian Tracy on importance of goal setting. You can read it here.
It was then I came to realize that if I had to find the answer to ‘How to deal with stress?’ then I had to understand how to manage time.
Dealing with change in lifestyle after marriage and children was not easy. I started to feel extremely overwhelmed and all over the place, losing hold over important activities, events and deadlines. That’s when I chose to organize myself and my routine. I believe that self-discipline plays an important role in leadership development because it allows you to stick to the roadmap you have created for yourself. So I decided to chart out the things I wished to achieve and how I was going to do it. I considered every element of my schedule to create a plan for myself – both short term and long term. And it worked wonders! Now when I look back I see how useful it is for all of us to take some time, even if it is for a couple of minutes, to step back and breathe, evaluate and set targets.
Here are some steps for effective goal setting:
- Believe – in yourself and the process
The first, most important step to setting goals is having absolute faith and belief in the process. If you don’t have the confidence in yourself and your abilities, then your set targets will mean nothing. However, it is natural for your confidence to quiver sometimes. In times like these, look around you. Everything you can see began as a goal in someone’s mind. Allow this idea to motivate you and turn your thoughts into a reality. Also, understand that dealing with change is no cakewalk, but the eventual outcome will always be favorable.
- Create a storyboard
To start working on your targets, note them all down with a specific timeline (because remember, you must know how to manage time) and outcome. This can perhaps be the key to success, as writing down your goals will position you as the creator. If you neglect this step, you may continue to forget them or they will diminish in importance. Having them somewhere you can see them every day will help to reiterate their significance, instill the positivity of realizing them in your mind and increase your chances of achieving them.
- Set specific goals
A goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished if it involves specific facts and events. If your parameters and guidelines are vague, they can be misconstrued and easily skipped over. Specific goals provide regimen and precision to your plan.
- Set realistic goals
When you are unable to achieve something it can feel like a major setback and a demotivating factor. So it is important to be realistic. Your goal must signify an objective which you are able to work towards. And it is only you who can determine just how substantial your goal should be. You should also ensure there is a realistic chance that in a conducive environment, you are able to achieve it.
- Ensure continuous assessment
As time passes, there is a possibility that your goals may change and evolve. The end result may not look anything like what you initially set out to do; however, this can still be a good thing as long as you’ve reached a desired stage in your professional and personal life. In order to learn from your mistakes and fix them along the way, constantly assess your progress throughout your goal-setting journey.
As aspiring professionals it is important to examine whether the goals you wish to achieve and the plan you’ve orchestrated for it is really applicable to you and your lifestyle. For the most effective goal setting, ensure you are planning your steps wisely and establishing a realistic time frame that will allow you to carry out those steps. Stick to the plan, no matter what. Self-discipline plays an important role in leadership development because it helps an individual focus and get things done.
Also, setting both personal and professional goals will help give a structure and path to success. Companies value candidates that have a record of setting and achieving goals. This shows that you can be a reliable, focused, goal-oriented employee. And if you run a business or are self-employed, it shows your associates that you are a resolute, dedicated individual driven for success.
For further tips on goal setting and managing life, career, health and wellness in tandem, visit my website to purchase your copy of the Time Management Matrix – a visual tool to help you invest your time optimally so that you can build good, sustainable habits.