When we watch a game of soccer we enjoy the thrill of the attack that leads to a goal scoring chance. That’s the essence of the game, to score goals. However, if it was 90 minutes of penalty shoot outs, how interested would we be in watching the game? Not at all most likely, would be a waste of time as well as unrealistic to call that a sport!
The same goes for goal setting. To score, or achieve, goals the fun is doing whatever it takes along the way. Making the right or wrong decisions, adjusting your strategy, enlisting the help of ‘teammates’, moving forward in increments and then ‘scoring’ the goal followed by exuberant celebrations.
If we were to hit every goal every time, easy peasy lemon squeezy, would that have the same appeal? No, it certainly wouldn’t, would be the same as watching a game full of penalties, right?
In soccer teams are awarded penalties because of fouls committed in the Penalty Area, the larger box just in front of the goal mouth for non-soccer peeps (you’re probably none the wiser but hey ho!) How does that relate to goal setting?
By setting a goal that in reality is unrealistic you could say you’re fouling your chances of ‘scoring’, it would be against you. So what makes an unrealistic goal? Something you want in a certain timescale but is actually, unless a miracle happens, unachievable.
Let’s say you’ve read or listened to The Secret and you decide The Law of Attraction is going to get you the lifestyle you want. So you set a goal to become a billionaire and you date it 3 months from now. Is it going to happen? Chances are it won’t and you’ll be very disappointed and claim the Law of Attraction and The Secret is a load of bull.
The truth is you had unrealistic expectations. Even if you had won the lottery you still wouldn’t have achieved your billionaire goal. Why? Well let’s break it down and see how this penalty was awarded.
To become a billionaire (one thousand million by UK standards) within 3 months would mean earning over 333 hundred million per month or over 11 million every day. That would take some doing from scratch and I don’t think even soccer players get paid that much!
There’s nothing wrong with setting big massive goals so long as you’re realistic about the time scale and are also taking the steps to get there such as breaking the major goal down into smaller Milestone goals. But not too small, you still want to push yourself and have a sense of achievement.
So is there a best way, a cut and dried method, to set goals? Well that depends on who you ask, so I guess not. That’s simply because what works for one might not work for someone else. There is a basic framework to work with, however, which works and it’s this:
First determine what it is you want, you really, really want (sorry, couldn’t resist that)
Next give it a timescale, when do you want to achieve it? Give it a specific date.
Then figure out what you have to do to get there, break it down and be as specific as you can, give these steps dates too.
Finally get started, do whatever you have to do and don’t quit.
Now there are differences of opinion on whether you should write your goals down or not, whether you should write out a detailed Plan of Action or not, whether you should focus on daily activities or only on the prize. At the end of the day it’s whatever works best for you. I’ve tried all sorts and what works for me is writing my goals down once, without too many details, and then using visualization to keep my goals in mind, thinking of them as often as possible and using picture boards (also known as dream boards) with cut outs of the things I want to achieve and so on. Like I said, works for me.
I am however a great believer in constant daily activity. A little bit each day will go a long way towards hitting your goal. Always keep your main prize in mind, however don’t focus on it. Remember what I said about the journey towards a goal? It’s not the prize, it’s what you become along the way.
There are those who say you should only focus on the end goal and not worry about how to get there because if your end goal is big enough and you believe in it enough the How will take care of itself. That may work for some, but in my experience if you only focus on the journey’s end you miss out on all the beauty spots in between and in all honesty, chances are you won’t even get started.
An architect will draw up plans for a house. The builder will look at those plans and say OK that’s what I have to achieve, that’s my end goal, but to get there I need to lay bricks every day, one by one. He’ll have his own daily target of so many bricks laid per day and will only check the plans to remind himself what the end result should look like.
To finish off here’s a few tips on goal setting to get you in the right frame of mind.
1. Take your goals seriously. Am I stating the obvious? Perhaps, yet there are so many people out there who are not achieving the success they deserve mainly because they treat their goals as a game, just a bit of end of year fun and so on.
All major companies take their goals seriously, very seriously and they have regular meetings to make sure they are still on track, making adjustments where necessary to improve results so by the time their financial year ends they will have hit their main targets.
The only difference between them and you is the number attending the meetings! Have regular review meetings with yourself and even enlist the help of a mentor or coach to help you stay on track.
2. Goals or resolutions? I know I’ve covered this already but it’s worth repeating. Goals are achievable, resolutions are not. It’s that simple. Goals are within your personal control whereas resolutions have no real substance and are, therefore, uncontrollable.
“I’m going to lose 10 pounds in the next 10 days by losing a pound a day through a healthy diet and exercise” is a goal. “I want to lose weight in the next two weeks” is a resolution. Like I said earlier, both are good but don’t get them mixed up, resolutions are the seeds and goals are the all the actions needed to reap the harvest.
3. “Aim for the stars to hit the moon” someone once said. This means dare to dream big. Have big goals as well as small goals. Big goals inspire and excite, small goals help you stay focused and are an aid to tracking your progress.
At the same time be realistic. Unless you are in business and have a massive global customer base, setting a goal to have a £1 million turnover by the end of the month isn’t realistic. Unless of course you land a multi-million-pound contract in the next few days, sadly reality isn’t always so generous.
4. If big massive goals seem unreachable and overwhelming, you would be right. How do you eat an elephant? Easy, one bite at a time! Break your big goals down into bite-sized chunks. You can have short term goals; these would be from daily to maybe three month targets. You can have medium goals, from one to three years and there’s long term goals, possibly three to five years or beyond. You set your own timescale.
For example, let’s say you wanted to achieve a yearly turnover of £100,000 and you’ve given yourself 12 months to get there. Allowing for weekends, holidays and time off, that leaves around 230 trading days. Divide the 100,000 by 230 and you end up with a figure of roughly £435 per day or around £55 per hour for 8 hours worked. Not so scary now, is it?
5. Commit yourself. Business coach Philip E. Humbert says “Secret goals are mere wishes or hopes or dreams.” Your goals won’t be tangible if you don’t write them down. Nor will they gain substance if you don’t tell someone about them. Keeping your goals under wraps, either because they embarrass you or you’re scared someone will hold you to account, shows a lack of commitment.
At the same time, it’s worthwhile to keep them constantly in mind whenever you go about your daily business or work on your project or follow your career. Now I don’t mean you have to fret and worry about them, that would defeat the object and only causes ulcers. You should, however, do everything you can, within reason, to reach your goals within the time frame you’ve set yourself.
Remember the New Year’s Resolutions? Some write them down, some tell others, very few do both and even less are serious about them. Those who write them and let others know tend to turn their resolutions into solid goals and commit to achieving them.
So score goals, not penalties and eat elephants bit by bit and you’ll achieve whatever realistic goal you set yourself.
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