The necessity for proper goal setting

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According to statistics, just about 9 out of 10 people don’t live the way they would like to. Very few people turn their dreams into reality, be it children’s imaginings or meaningful adult desires. Rough everyday routine puts everything in its place. Or not? Or the problem is not one of this, but in people themselves? How can a person live out his dream?

Goal or dream

Goal and Dream

One of the fundamental problems that eventually can lead to a concatenation of misfortunes is that it’s easy to confuse a goal and a dream. In fact, sometimes they are completely different concepts. The goal may be your dream, the dream can become a goal. But however, they may not be identical. Let me explain with an example:

A friend of mine had a dream, and it was a certain image. The image of himself, 30-year-old, sitting in a posh Moscow club with a glass of something insanely expensive and examining surroundings as though he owned the place. He couldn’t articulate exactly what he wanted, but he could render the range of emotions he felt when thinking about his dream. Here we see liberal views of the world, lack of serious relationships, material wealth, the desire to have fun and much more. Dozens of separate goals and only one dream. Thus, you should clearly define the goals, which may compile your dream.

But before cognizing the goal you should come to know yourself.

Knowing yourself

Each person is peculiar and no one knows you better than yourself. And in order to cognize yourself, your ability to achieve a particular goal, it is necessary to identify all the weaknesses and strengths of your own personality. So, open a Notepad or a text document and start writing about your benefits and drawbacks point by point.

The main thing is not to forget about all the factors that make up your positive qualities, and to face bravely the truth, when you will enter your weaknesses. Are you lazy? Write about it! It will be a minus. Do you like sports? This is a plus. Are you very good at computer games? Again, this can be an advantage.

So, there is a list of your pros and cons before your eyes, determine for yourself which personal traits can help, and which will hinder. On this basis it is necessary to identify which ways can help achieve your goals, and which are better to exclude, as they will be the most difficult for your personality. As a result, we can shape our own methodology for achieving goals, our own motives and priorities. We know what we are capable of.

Cognizing the goal

The goal must have several very important criteria, only then it will be possible to get accomplished, and what is even more important, only then it will be needed to accomplish.

1. Significance.  The goal you are setting is to be desirable, you must genuinely want it. Ask yourself: “Do I really need this goal?” A friend of mine wanted to move to Canada, he later realized that what he had really needed was not the country itself, but a certain set of advantages that this country possesses – low crime, comfortable living conditions, government support; and then he changed his course, more simple in terms of the move turned out to be a totally different country – Montenegro. You have also to understand that the goal should be durable. Make sure it will not cease to be relevant for you tomorrow.

2. Concreteness. A goal becomes the goal if and only if it gets clearly defined, otherwise it’s a dream. You should make the most precise description without the possibility of ambiguity.

3. Structuredness.  By itself, the goal can’t tell you how to achieve it, but a concrete action plan can. You should split everything into steps, identify the objectives, arrange them in order of priority and importance. Each task should be also complemented with the list of necessary means and the description of specific methods you implement all this with. You should also add criteria by which you will assess the degree of the task accomplishment. This may be a temporary factor, material and any other. For example, the task is to gain the initial capital in the amount of 5 thousand dollars. It should be specified that the task will be executed not when the money has come, but when it is outside the scope of your necessary expenses. That is, spare cash.

Does it seem simple and clear? But the majority go down the same road again and again. People don’t understand the significance of these three principles, and this is the most important key to success.

the most important key to success

To help people become aware of these postulates and facilitate the goal management, SmartProgress, the project for achieving goals, was created. We want to organize a community for mutual assistance in a wide variety of issues, united by the most important subject matter of our life – goal achievement.

Path to success

Finally, all the preparatory steps are left behind and it is time to start actualizing our goal. When the goal in the form of a clear plan is constantly in your head, it will begin to change your everyday life. The thoughts will always come of how to better implement a particular item. In a couple weeks you will notice such metamorphoses yourself. But just to follow the plan is not enough, you need something more.

Improving the methods

While you are moving towards your goal, the time will also keep going. You will learn new things, gain experience, think more about the whole structure; new interesting ideas will appear of how to improve the methods of solving problems, may be, of setting new tasks, which will further simplify and concretize the path to your goal. And all this must be recorded leaving no detail to chance. To forget something now, means to miss the chance of accelerating the process of achieving the goal.

Improving the methods

Carrots and sticks

Actualization of a dream in the form of a goal is akin to freelance, nobody forces you to do it, you are your own boss. Thus, there are the same realities in this process. Problems with self-organization, which turn into endless “promising jam tomorrow”. To minimize such incidents, the good old principle of carrots and sticks will do very well. Specify in your diary possible rewards for a timely execution of the next task or step, and some penalties for an overdue. The reward can be a small celebration, an extra day-off or something else, the sanction – additional work.

Goal and goals

Remember, with what we began the story? A dream can include multiple goals. And if you have more than one, it is very important to arrange them in order of priority. You should always know what is more important for you, otherwise there will be a confusion and a mess. Besides, if you have achieved a particular goal, you can congratulate yourself, and take the next one right away. Not a single day should be lived without a goal, otherwise you can quickly fade out and all the enthusiasm will decline. So, make up a plan for the next goal even before the previous one has been accomplished. Especially if achieving one goal is the best motivator for taking on the next.

Setting a goal publicly

Very often, in different sources we are recommended to not just keep our goal in mind, but also to announce it in public. This can be friends, relatives or even complete strangers. When you tell about your goal to others, you subconsciously set it in execution mode, otherwise those around will deem you a windbag. For many, this motivation turns to be stronger than others. That is why the main specificity of SmartProgress is a public goal management. You must admit that through dialogue and exchange of experience you can achieve faster results.

Service to achieve goals

It hasn’t been long since we launched the project, but we occasionally get letters of appreciation from our users, who assert that the project really helps them. Some people find their motivation, some – partners, and others – investors.

Let’s achieve our goals together!

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