What goals should I set?- “If you aim for nothing, you’ll hit it every time’’
What goals should I set? At the dawn of every season be it summer, new year, fall, this is the question greased to my thoughts I reflect on my goals in life, outline the goals I’ve accomplished, wrong goals I set and wasted my energy, momentum and look for better ways to get ahead.
As we journey through survival and the daily grind there are several routes, milestone, tracks, steps we climb, goals in life we chase for adequate progress and growth. We set these meaningful and tangible goals in life to keep track of our activities, outline a catalog of accomplishment, chart our progress, to make better plans.
The importance and power of goal setting have often been overlooked; according to the University of Scranton 92% of people who set new year’s goals never achieve them leaving 8 percent as goal achievers who employ unique goal settings.
I used to fall under the former category until I properly dived into knowing what goals should I set, the types of goals we need to set, how to set these goals and achieve them, the several categories of goals and created an effective list of goals to set for myself. And I will be sharing the directive tips on setting goals and buckling your into reality.
All who have accomplished great things have had a greater aim have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible.
Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a better plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success in the jiggle of goals setting, goals in life, examples of goals, types of goals, categories of goals, it can be overwhelming leaving an impending question on what goals should I set?
Before we dive into the ounces of setting effective goals we must understand what goals are, the types of goals that are out there, and the several categories of goals.
Life goals can be outlined as a blueprint encrypted for our development, growth self-improvement and prosperity. Goals are our momentum to strive and succeed in life past our daily routines and habits. There is no definite definition but they are constructive stairs we build to climb up with our actions leading to a fair destination.
These goals are created from our ambition, sense of purpose, direction, accountability as we strive for development and growth.
Science acclaims that our brain is a goal-seeking organism which implies that whatever goals you outline your brain works like a puzzle to fit each piece together and bring these goals to life.
Goals do not have to be category big, most of the time goals are formulated from the neutral habits of accountability.
Goals give us the momentum to push through the adversity we experience while chasing our dreams. A lot of us have dreams we want to chase, crave for greater heights, financially, personally and in our over hall life but we often go around our goals the wrong way.
There is a gloom of reluctance from complied failed goals over time and we begin to wonder if we should set goals to encrypt success and what goals should we set? The answer is yes we have to set goals to encrypt success.
Note that people without goals are not successful as they hope to be. People who don’t write down goals are less likely to accomplish them as they’ll keep scampering around the question “what goals should I set? By recording your goals on paper or into remembrance you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be.
You put your future on fruitful soils. No one can get anywhere unless he knows where he wants to go and what he wants to be or do. A goal properly set is halfway reached.
The challenge for so many people is that they have not created goals that will make them succeed, they are setting the wrong goals or having a poor goal orientation leading to discouragement and reluctance. This was me a few years ago I would set goals at the beginning of the year, compile several lists of resolutions and then never go back to look at them or create action steps or plans I just keep living with the vibe of survival.
Sometimes we set unrealistic goals, we set goals that are not directional which shouldn’t be so as we understand the type of goals our efficiency in planning will increase.
There are 6 major types of goals that you need to be aware of, I will be sharing these tips and how you can achieve results by setting these types of goals.
These 6 goals apply to 6 different situations and it is up to you to effectively decide how you want to employ them in your life. These types of goals are divided into 2 broad categories the first is;
Categories Of Goals
- Action Based Goals
This entails working in the direction of action, you think about a purposeful action and you move in an effective direction. The second type of goal is:
- Time-Based Goal
These goals are based on a particular time phase or period you move towards your goals.
Underneath the action-based goals, there are several goals which are;
Types Of Goal
1. Outcome Goal
A lot of us set outcome goals financially, socially, and spiritually. We see a vision for ourselves and employ creative measures on how to walk our way to achieving those goals; this could be wanting your blog to rank in the 100th position in the world, getting better grades in the new season, saving up some more money for Christmas, etc.
A major secret of the outcome goal is to be specific, endeavor that you set a specific vision and make sure you have the necessary capabilities that are going to ease your journey.
You may not have them immediately but you can slowly walk your way up there. An outcome goal focuses on the result and how you are going to get there.
The second type of goal is;
2. Process-Based Goal
Once you have the outcome goal in place, you can set up process goals; process goals are the performance and activities you focus and indulge in to reach your goals.
You can track your progress and see how far you’ll come, it is an additional benefit when you are looking to adopt a particular skill or trying to learn a particular skill that will improve the chances of crushing your goals.
Let’s say you are a sportsman and you are looking for a way to perfect a particular strike of the game, you are looking for a way to improve in your past performance, you are trying to create all of the things necessary to make sure that the process falls into place.
This is the most powerful way to track your progress and see how far you have come, how far you need to go and in terms of your outcome goals it serves as a reference point to always focus on the process and once you get enough of the process done right then your outcome will actualize.
The third type of goal is the performance goal;
3. The Performance Goal
The performance goal entails a proper evaluation of the steps and action you indulge in to bring your goals to life. This creates room for evaluation; let say you are competing, you are a musician you tell yourself I have to play all these musical notes and I have to be good at it. So you set yourself up to perform well when you tell yourself you need to do well.
This is essential because it is the small goals that give you the momentum, motivation, and confidence to move on. So setting more performance goals helps in driving your success.
These are the 3 types of Action based goals.
Moving on to the other categories of goals which are Time based goals they include;
1. Long Term Goals
Your long term goals relates to your outcome goals because when we look at the result, the vision that we have for ourselves, we see a long term process.
A long term goal is any goal that requires you spending more than 12 months on it, this usually walks up to a number of years.
Long term goals are best achieved when we break them into shorter goals which are easy to achieve and gives us further.
Long term goals have to do with our future goals such as;
- Financial stability.
- Self-improvement/ Personal Development.
- Marriage, family, and harmony.
- Staying Healthy.
- Intellectual Growth.
- Fulfilling Personal Morals.
- Exploring.
- Stability and Safety.
- Expanding And Growing.
- Obtaining and Maintaining good credit.
- Getting out of debt.
- Living within your means.
- Retirement planning.
- Building up an emergency fund bucket.
- Saving money and Investing.
- Creating multiple income streams.
- Avoiding additional future debts.
- Church Involvement.
- Spiritual Growth.
- Gaining more technical skills Etc
2. Short Term Goals
A short term goal is any goal that requires you to spend 12 months or less, these goals bring about clarity. Let’s say your long term goal is becoming the best graduating student, you’ll have to understand and structure how’ll you lead up to that.
Your short term goal becomes having a good grade in every test, examination or evaluation.
You need to understand that short term goals have to be a process it’s not always going to work with the time you set out for yourself, hence you have to recalibrate your short term goals constantly with your long term goals. Because your long term goals will not change, but your short term goals will always change.
The last type of goal when it comes to the time-based goal is immediate goals.
Short term goals include personal goals such as;
- Self-Growth.
- Maintaining Boundaries.
- Intentional Living.
- Self-Forgiveness.
- Self-Validation.
- Self-Love.
- Self Confidence.
3. Immediate Goals
This includes the productive routines and rituals we set for ourselves daily.
Immediate goals entail what you can get done within the next 24 hours. This is a very important goal because it can drastically charge up your motivation. You have to set daily goals moving toward what you want because it’s these small steps that lead up to bigger goals.
There is a great degree of disparity to what we want and what we want to achieve and setting these goals allows us to bridge the gap that exists. At the end of this article, you need to be setting your first immediate goal to align with your vision.
Now to be big question How do I set goals?
The first step you need to encrypt to set the best possible goals is to;
1. Start With The End In Mind
This entails visualizing your process into your long term goals; visualization employs the power of the mind, by visualizing a certain event, situation or goal you attract it into your life. Goals are the workhorses that make your dreams come true by developing and visualizing these goals you are naturally steering your life in the right direction.
Losers visualize the penalties of failure while winners visualize the rewards of success. Visualization entails daydreaming with a purpose to bring anything into your life, imagine that it’s already there.
One thing I always do after outlining goals is to take a moment to visualize the result of achieving those goals. You have to cultivate this habit if you want your goals to beam into reality.
This exercise enables you to evaluate what you want, it enables you to see how far you could go by crushing those goals. You figure out the constructive process you have outlined as well to crush these goals.
Proper visualization by the exercise of concentration and willpower enables us to materialize thoughts, not only as dreams or visions in the mental realm but also as experiences in the material realm.
It is the most important part of your mental package, you start by visualizing your immediate goals chunked out from the big question what goals should I set?
You can’t do anything that you can’t picture yourself doing; once you make the picturing process conscious and deliberate, you begin to create the self you want and take charge of those goals.
2. Write Specific Actions For Each Goal
You want to become a musician that is an amazing goal but how do you intend to achieve this, what goals do you need to set?
How many music gigs do you need to release before you can get the hit track to push you up to the eyes of popularity? How much money is needed? What record label do you want to work with? Do you need a sound engineer? Do you need a producer, a director or a manager?
You have to outline the specific things you’ll need to indulge in to achieve these goals and if you don’t know find out!
When I embarked into the journey of Blogging, I had no idea on what Blogging truly entails I stacked up lots of articles and read my way up to productive management.
If your goal is to start a 6 figure business, you’ll to ask yourself some questions about what do you need to do to achieve this? What coaching packages or courses, freelance services do you need to sell? How much do you need to promote to sell? After visualizing your goals, write them out and write at least 5 actionable steps you’ll need to shake that goal up, steps that are going to help you achieve that goal.
3. What Needs To Be Exchanged
Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment
This is a vital point and a key step in goal setting, so many people set goals, resolutions but are not ready to go through the tough season, they are not ready to exchange their comfort for the distress of going the extra mile in bringing those goals to life.
I used to be extremely guilty of this; one of the main reasons you are not achieving your goal is because you are not willing to sacrifice. There is always something you’ll have to give up to achieve that goal, there is something you’ll have to sacrifice; be it time, money or comfort for your goal to become a reality.
Take for example you want to get those exceptional grades, you have to be willing to exchange your time to study and research eliminating several distractions such as partying, watching Netflix, etc
You want to have a successful business where you are your boss but you are not willing or ready to make the sacrifice or exchange of giving up your fears, safety or comfort to put yourself out there you never succeed with that. You have to be bold and confident enough to make that exchange.
There is always an anchor of limitation we create that is stopping us from achieving our goals. After visualizing your goals and mapping out those specific actions you have to take out time to outline the limitations that are still holding you back and eliminate them.
You are worth more than flesh can tell hence you do not need such harmful excuses bounding you to failure or stagnancy when you can eliminate such obstruction, crush your goals and live your best life.
4. Focus
Another reason for the backdrop of stagnancy is that we are not constantly reminded of our goals. Halfway into the year some of us fail to remember the goals we set or the resolutions we acclaimed. You have to constantly be reminded of your goals, put them in your phone, mirror, beside your bed, on the wall, etc.
I created a frame for my logo and hanged it in my room, changed the wallpaper of my phone to my symbolic logo; holding all my goals and plans.
I look at it every day and use them as a spur of motivation on those dead nights when I’m weary and climbing down to my computer can be havoc.
This is a very elementary tip but it surely works because just being focused on your goals activates a part of your brain that is going to help you move in the direction of opportunity and motivation. Putting your goals at the forefront of your mind and ultra-focusing on them makes it easy for you to achieve them.
To create something exceptional, your mindset must be relentlessly focused even on the smallest detail. Productivity is never an accident it is always the result of a commitment to excellence, planning and focused effort.
5. Do Not Measure Your Value By Your Goals
What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. I hope this doesn’t confuse you; our goals change, some goals take longer time to beam into light while some take no time so do not attach your value or worth to these goals when goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goal or dilute your self-worth; simply adjust the action or steps you employ.
Successful people maintain a positive focus in life no matter what is going on around them, they stay focused on the next step they need to take to get them closer to the fulfillment of their goals rather than the distractions and challenges presented to them.
Cultivate positivity, your goals are the road maps that guide you and show you what is possible for your life. Stay focused, go after your dreams and keep moving towards your goals and remember slow progress is still progress!
I hope this article gives an in-depth step on goal setting, the types of goals, categories everything you need to know about the goals to set.
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Hi Afam really love your blog on goal setting it can be a really dry subject but you brought it to life thank you