How Often Are You Setting Goals?

So…how often to set goals?  And how often do you revisit your list?

We all know that setting goals is important, but we often don’t realize how important they are as we continue to move through life.

Goal setting does not have to be boring. There are many benefits and advantages to having a set of goals to work towards.

Setting Goals

Setting goals helps trigger new behaviors, helps guides your focus and helps you sustain that momentum in life.

Goals also help align your focus and promote a sense of self-mastery. In the end, you can’t manage what you don’t measure, and you can’t improve upon something that you don’t properly manage. Setting goals can help you do all of that and more.

We will also look at how goal setting can lead to greater success and performance. Setting goals not only motivates us but can also improve our mental health and our level of personal and professional success.

Setting goals helps trigger new behaviors, helps guides your focus and helps you sustain that momentum in life. Goals also help align your focus and promote a sense of self-mastery. In the end, you can’t manage what you don’t measure, and you can’t improve upon something that you don’t properly manage.

What happens in our heads when we start setting goals? An effective goal setting process isn’t quite so simple as deciding on the things you’d like to accomplish and working towards them.

According to the research of psychologists, neurologists, and other scientists, setting goals pushes us to invest in the target as if we’d already accomplished it. That is, by setting something as a goal, however small or large, however near or far in the future, a part of our brain believes that desired outcome is an essential part of who we are – setting up the conditions that drive us to work towards the goals to fulfill the brain’s self-image.

The human power of visualization is one of the most fascinating results of evolution. We are able to distinguish between information received from our senses (afferent information) and information that the brain self-generates (efferent information). When these two things don’t coincide, we experience a “surprise.”

Ideally, this tension is resolved by driving us towards accomplishment and doing our best to avoid unpleasant surprises caused by visualizing an end goal that we don’t ultimately achieve. In order to set and achieve goals, we need to understand how our brains work for and against us throughout this process.

Goals help motivate us to develop strategies that will enable us to perform at the required goal level.

Accomplishing the goal can either lead to satisfaction and further motivation or frustration and lower motivation if the goal is not accomplished.

Goal setting can be a very powerful technique, under the right conditions according to the research or Locke & Latham.

According to Lunenburg, the motivational impact of goals may, in fact, be affected by moderators such as self-efficacy and ability as well

Locke and Latham also stated that there are five goal-setting principles that can help improve your chances of success.

• Clarity
• Challenge
• Commitment
• Feedback
• Task Complexity

Clarity is important when it comes to goals. Setting goals that are clear and specific eliminate the confusion that occurs when a goal is set in a more generic manner.

Challenging goals stretch your mind and cause you to think bigger. This helps you accomplish more. Each success you achieve helps you build a winning mindset.

Commitment is also important. If you don’t commit to your goal with everything you have it is less likely you will achieve it.

Feedback helps you know what you are doing right and how you are doing. This allows you to adjust your expectations and your plan of action going forward.

Task Complexity is the final factor. It’s important to set goals that are aligned with the goal’s complexity.

Here’s my question to you: What are your goals for the next 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, or even 10 years?

If you just take some time out to set your goals now, I can guarantee you that you will definitely experience more growth as a person. By just spending a few minutes to articulate some aspirations that have been in your mind, you will experience more progress in your life a year from now than if you don’t.