It’s not that hard to figure out that the more you achieve, the more self-confident you become. When your self-confidence rises, so does your ability to achieve more.
And the opposite is also true that when you fail to achieve and meet goals, your self-esteem and confidence can suffer, which in turn affects your motivation. Ahh, that does make sense.
So why aren’t more of us doing it, after all setting goals provides you with focus, long-term direction and short-term motivation to keep going. And by keeping your eye on the prize, you track your progress, you reassess your situation and you can try new approaches. Yes it can be daunting and sometime a bit overwhelming.
Perhaps a few pointers to get you started will help.
To give a broad, balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, try to set goals in some of the following categories:
Career -What level do you want to reach in your career, or what do you want to achieve?
Financial-How much do you want to earn, by what stage? How is this related to your career goals?
Education- What information and skills will you need to have in order to achieve other goals?
Attitude- Is any part of your mindset holding you back?
Public Service – Do you want to make the world a better place? If so, how?
Start the process of setting goals by looking at your lifetime goals.
First, create that “big picture” of what you want to do with your life and identify the large-scale goals that you want to achieve.
Use a vision board as a tool used to help clarify, concentrate and maintain focus on a specific life goal. When you create a vision board and place it strategically you essentially end up doing short visualization exercises throughout the day.
Then, work down to the things that you can do in the next five years, then next year, next month, next week, and today, to start moving towards them.
Next, you break these down into the smaller and smaller targets that you must hit to reach your lifetime goals.
Finally, once you have your plan, you start working on it to achieve these goals.
1. Goals need to be clear and measurable
2. Goals must be challenging, with achievement as the final payoff
3. Commitment
4. Feedback, recognition and progress report
5. Task must be complex but not overwhelming, with sufficient time and resources available.
Motivation is the key, and no it is not always easy to find that motivation each day just stick with it. Reaching your long term goals takes patience. As you make this technique part of your goal setting routine you’ll find more self-confidence to achieve your goals.
I invite you to share your question, experiences or thoughts, or comments.
You can contact me for more information on soft skills/interpersonal skills workshops that can transform employees.