by 2 people |
Effective goal setting takes more than just expressing an aim of yours. It encompasses understanding your needs, working on the goals themselves, writing them down, getting the wording right, taking action, and having a support structure around you.
This lens looks at various approaches to becoming more effective at setting and achieving your goals.
I'm a living, working, thriving creator, earning my living through filmmaking and corporate and industrial theatre. I also teach creativity seminars, and have been doing so for just under a decade.
If you know of any Goal Setting resources I'm leaving out, please drop me a line.
You might find it useful to check out one of my sister Squidoo lenses on How to Be Creative.
Good luck! And may your goals bring your dreams to reality!
Comprehensive Life Planning Programs
- NLP, Hypnotism & Training
- My first exposure to Adam Eason was through his website. I signed up for his free e-zine, and downloaded his free 17-minute 'Deep Relaxation' hypnosis session.
My girlfriend and I have been listening to it nightly before sleeping for two weeks, and it's really awesome.
I then decided that I would like to try his stress management series. So I bought it. I've listened to three of the six sections of this two-week program, and I have to recommend it.
Head for http://www.adam-eason.com/. - My Personal Strategic Plan 2006
- Are You Falling Short of Achieving Your Important Personal Goals?
Gary Ryan Blair offers you 'My 2006 Personal Strategic Plan'.
He writes: "If you've had challenges accomplishing all your goals in the past, I've got good news for you."
He adds: "I have put together a very effective program that will help you achieve every goal you establish. It's partly an evaluation of your current habits as they are today and partly a blueprint for doing things better - and I mean much better."
In addition: "It's not expensive and yet it can make a very big difference in your life. It can make 2006 the wealthiest, healthiest, wisest and most rewarding year of your life!"
Head to Gary's 'My Personal Strategic Plan 2006' website and learn more about how to make this year your most productive ever.
Setting up a support structure
While it's possible to do it alone, a support structure around you is good in several ways.
o Support makes you more accountable for your actions.
o Support feels good when you're down.
o Support allows for excitement-transfer (it's always great to tell your support partner or partners your good news).
o Support is a way of sharing the energy.
The easiest support structure to set up involves having a regular telephone date with a buddy. This is how I set these dates up.
o I ask my support buddy to treat my weekly support call as only that. It's not a social chat. It's not a complaints session. It's purely support.
o I make the commitment to phone my support partner at a particular time on a particular day. A Thursday morning date is very effective, because if I haven't done what I agreed to do, I've still got one and a half days left to accomplish my actions.
o I phone my support buddy and report on my progress. I share my goals with this partner, and I share the specific actions I commit to taking.
o My partner is more than simply a sounding board.
o If I've taken my actions, the partner praises me, and asks what I'm doing next.
o If I haven't done what I've said I'd do, my partner asks me to recommit, and asks for a tangible, time-based action to replace the one I've missed.
o If I don't make my support call, my support buddy agrees to call me on the weekend. Missing a support call is just not cool. It wastes my support partner's time, and they sit waiting for my call.
I feel it's best not to reciprocate for my support partner. It's best to offer my support services to someone else, forming a daisy-chain of support.
'SMART' goals
Specific, Measureable, Accountable, Realistic, Time-based.
S: Specific.
M: Measureable.
A: Accountable.
R: Realistic/Recorded.
T: Time-based.
If I state: 'I want to go to the moon in a few days time', this would NOT be a 'SMART' goal. Sure, it's more-or-less 'specific' (but only just), and it's pretty 'measureable', but it doesn't meet the other three criteria. 'A few days' is not a time-based statement. It's hazy.
If I state, 'I want to walk on the moon's surface by the time I turn fifty on February 17 2018,' I'd be stating a 'SMART' goal.
It's VERY 'specific'. I'm stating the actual thing I'll do when I get to the moon.
It's something I can 'measure'... if I WALK on the surface of the moon, I'll know I've achieved my goal. If I do it by the time I turn fifty, stated as a real date, I'll know whether I've achieved it.
Am I 'accountable' for every step in the process? As Danny Thompson, 'The Left Handed Writer' explained to me:
"There should not be a major part of the goal that I can not directly influence. The outcome I desire can't hinge on someone else making something happen for me. That's not to say others can't help. Put if part of your goal relies on someone else to take action, make sure you have a back-up plan. By keeping myself accountable for each step in realizing the goal, I don't let myself accept failure just because someone else drops the ball."
'Realistic'? A little bit science-fiction-esque. But essentially realistic. Given the fact that South African businessperson, Mark Shuttleworth, has already walked in space, I'd say that twenty years is a fair time period to expect commercial moon travel to be possible. In that time, can I take steps to GET myself to the moon? Possibly.
And I've already illustrated the time-basedmess of it. I'm not vague about the time. I'm spelling out what 'by the time I turn fifty' means.
And of course, 'Recorded' is easy... write it down to make it happen. Have something to tick once you've done it.
Good luck with your own SMART goals.
Goal Setting Software & Online Programs
You put your goals in, and Goal Genie feeds them back to you - at time intervals you decide - throughout your computer sessions. When one of your goals pops up, your eye is drawn to it.
GoalSync
Sychronize yourself with your goals! GoalSync by Success Studios allows you to utilize the power of repetition and subliminal messaging to achieve your goals.
GoalPro 6.0
GoalPro 6.0 is a software-based goal-setting achievement system, designed to provide you with all necessary tools to define, maintain, track, and achieve your goals. Downloadable trial version available!
The Goal Setting Countdown Clock
The Goal Setting Countdown Clock keeps you on focus, on target, on purpose. And it's a bestseller at TheGoalsGuy.
MyGoalManager
MyGoalManager.com's Online Goal Achievement System uses the Power of Goals to make creating and maintaining your Goals Program quick, easy, and fun. The easy-to-follow instructions and simple forms allow you skip the learning curve of most software packages and get and up and running in minutes. You can manage your Goals from any computer with an Internet connection and there is no software to download or install.
Affirmware
Affirmations have long been recognized as a powerful tool in manifesting desires. That's because the subconscious mind can't differentiate between reality and suggestions. "Name the Top 3 Things You Want in Life" ...then use your computer for 10 minutes a day to make them come true.
MP3motivators.com
A collection of powerful motivation audio books that offer you a programed success course.
Goals2006.com
Goals 2006 is the ultimate personal goal setting program. Spend a few hours over the next few weeks and easily and totally plan the kind of year you're going to have this year -- any year.
Some Internet Based Goalsetting Resources
- How to Achieve Your New Years Resolutions - Facts and Figures
- Want to keep your resolutions this year? Visit The GoalsGuy for a collection of helpful tips, strategies, inspiration, encouragement, motivation and information to help you reach your personal goals and have the best year of your life.
- myGoals.com New Year's Resolution Tips
- Tips for Making Good New Year's Resolutions There is a right way and a wrong way to make a New Year's resolution. Here are a few expert tips to see that your resolution actually makes
- How to Keep Your New Year's Resolutions - eHow.com
- How to Keep Your New Year's ResolutionsThe new year has arrived, and you have already drawn up your resolutions. Now, how to stick to your plan?
- Personal Goal Setting - Setting and achieving life goals with Mind Tools
- Goal setting is a powerful process for personal planning. By setting goals on a routine basis you decide what you want to achieve, and then move step-by-step towards achieving these goals.
- Setting Goals, How to Set a Goal – Mind Tools
- Deciding Goals
Where Goal Setting can go Wrong
Setting Goals Effectively
The way in which you set goal strongly affects their effectiveness. - Goal Setting - Powerful Written Goals In 7 Easy Steps!
- Begin to master the goal setting process as we introduce you to the 7 steps needed to create powerful written goals.
- Learn How To Make Your Goals SMART
- Are you sure your goal is smart? Learn how to set SMART goals and objectives.
- The Awesome Power of Goal Setting—Ten Tips for Triumph
- When you begin your new year with desired outcomes and goals in mind, you set yourself up for awesome success. The new year is a beginning, so new goals and resolutions, new plans, new dreams and new directions fuel your thoughts.
- Goal Setting Tips and Secrets
- Goal setting, 77 Tips for Great Results.
Books That'll Help You Reach Your Goals
Write It Down, Make It Happen: Knowing What You Want And Getting It
On my shelf. This one has the premise that when we write our desires down, we find a way to actualise them. A rich source of inspiration.
Amazon Price: $11.70 (as of 07/10/2009) 
Do It!
On my shelf. This one's a life-changer. Highly recommended. If you've ever procrastinated about your life goals, this book'll help you take the necessary steps. I enjoyed the process immensely.
Amazon Price: (as of 07/10/2009)
Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams
On my shelf. If you're visually oriented, you'll find this book a must-have. I've done several collages using her techniques, and they work. Get this book.
Amazon Price: (as of 07/10/2009)
Creative Visualization: Use the Power of Your Imagination to Create What You Want in Your Life
Amazon Price: (as of 07/10/2009)
The Creative Visualization Workbook: Second Edition (Gawain, Shakti)
On my shelf. Shakti Gawain almost single-handedly created the creative visualization movement. This book accompanies her groundbreaking CREATIVE VISUALIZATION, but it's self-contained. I love the practical nature of this book. Very easy to work through.
Amazon Price: $10.36 (as of 07/10/2009)
Goal Setting 101 : How to Set and Achieve a Goal!
Description from Amazon: This book offers solid advice on setting and achieving your goals. Goal Setting 101 helps you to become brilliant on the basics by explaining the Who?, What?, Where?, When?, How?, and Why? of goal setting. You will learn what to d
Amazon Price: $8.95 (as of 07/10/2009)
Goal Setting Forms : Tools to Help You Get Ready, Get Set, & Go for Your Goals!
Good for those of us who prefer structure. Description from Amazon: Because our goal is to help you achieve yours, The GoalsGuy offers replacement tools that support your efforts to achieve an extraordinary life. Included in this package is: Top 5 and Top
Amazon Price: $14.95 (as of 07/10/2009)
Motivation and Goal-Setting (Motivation and Goal Setting)
Description from Amazon: Motivation and Goal Setting delivers concise, how to information in a friendly, interactive format ideal for team or individual use. This book will help one clearly define their values, maintain flexibility by setting realistic go
Amazon Price: $12.34 (as of 07/10/2009)
Make Success Measurable!: A Mindbook-Workbook for Setting Goals and Taking Action
Description from Amazon: This is a how-to book, emphasizing outcomes as opposed to actions in setting goals. You'll learn how to: Set goals that matter to customers, shareholders, and funders. Set nonfinancial as well as financial goals and link them toge
Amazon Price: $40.41 (as of 07/10/2009)
The Magic Lamp: Goal Setting for People Who Hate Setting Goals
Description from Amazon: Do you have trouble setting goals? Would you like to have greater focus, stronger follow-through, and achieve dramatically better results? Would you like to learn how to get anything you want from life--more money, a new home, a p
Amazon Price: $11.16 (as of 07/10/2009)
Other Squidoos on Goal Setting
- Roy Blumenthal's Creativity Squidoo
- I've got some goal setting tools on my creativity Squidoo. Take a look at my take on 'SMART' goals.
- I Succeed By Helping You Succeed by John Dilbeck
- John writes:
I believe a successful person helps others achieve the success they want. I don't believe you are truly successful if you block others, climb over them, or use them to your own advancement.
You may be wealthy, famous, and powerful, but I don't believe you are truly successful unless you help rather than hinder.
I succeed by helping you succeed. - whatever you want in life, guaranteed!! by Ramakrishna Dommaraju
- This lens is about action. It's about doing. About doing a few Simple, easy-to-do, and practical things everyday to make your life fulfilling and prosperous. Spend a few minutes doing these things everyday, and your life will never be the same again.
- Self Improvement, Life Coaching And Goal Setting Made Easy. by Terry Vermeylen
- Are you living the life you truly deserve? Are you setting goals and always falling short? Are you true to your core values? Do you want to break bad habits? You've come to the right place!
- Living With a Life List by Susie Wyshak
- Have you had the same list of things you want to do forever? Or do you ever feel bored and like nothing interests you? Or like life is just passing by too quickly and there isn't much to show for it?
Some people live by a short list of big goals. Lots of people let life happen as it may. SuperViva exists to help you get inspired about all the fun, interesting, fulfilling little and big things there are to do throughout your life.
You can create a life you will want to look back on. Isn't that a cool thought?
by royblumenthal
I'm pretty much your common-or-garden lesser-spotted maverick.
I'm a visual facilitator, turning ideas into pictures, live, in meetings, seminars, wor...
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