It's not too late to set your goals for this year!
*Audible groans*
The Problem
Alright I get it. Setting goals is not the most exciting activity you can complete. It can be mind numbing work and half of the things you write down are not achieved anyway so why bother to do it at all!? I was once very much against setting goals and having the new year new me tribal mindset. I thought that the process of setting goals, sticking with them for 2 weeks, and then never looking at them again for the rest of the year was for wannabes. Too many times I have been around people that would say things like, "my only goal this year is to be happy" or "this year things are going to be different", yet I never saw these people truly improve their lives in any significant way. Why would anyone set goals with results like that all around them as constant reminders of the (allegedly) ineffective pursuit?
The Truth
Over the years my resilience was worn down and I finally
gave in and started setting goals. At first, just as I expected, I
ended setting the goals, pursuing them for about 2 to 4 weeks, and gave up
or forgot about them. In fact, it wasn't until about my third year of
setting goals that I started to notice I was pursuing them with a little
more rigor. What changed? Well, let me tell you. I
believe, just like in all things, that the more time and effort you put into
a skill, the better you become at using that skillset. I started
setting goals and slowly over the years I started to read about setting
goals, how to set better goals, how to develop systems that help to achieve
goals you set and the list goes on. I spent more time working through
these tangent activities that are all related to setting goals and I got
better at it! It turns out that there are more to goals than the goals
themselves. There are a couple different skill sets involved with
setting and achieving them. To name a few there is vision,
organization, critical thinking, communication, task management,
prioritization and self motivation. What a list! I will not be
covering all of those skills in this post but I will show you how I
personally set goals and maybe it will help you achieve yours.
The Process
My process has been refined over the years but here is a
quick checklist of how I set my 2023 goals.
[ ] I review my goals from previous years
[ ] I look at the trends in my project work (10,000 ft. view)
[ ] I list skills I might need to acquire to help me achieve success
[ ] I write down things that bother me about my current state
[ ] I consider CONSTRUCTIVE criticism or feedback others have provided
[ ] I write a draft of my goals
[ ] I finalize my goals
[ ] I create action items each month to push me towards my goals
- I am struggling to focus on key tasks critical to my primary role responsibilities and that I need to invest in my team so they can take on tasks that I no longer have time for.
- I need to develop a plan or trajectory for my team so that not only do I have a compass, but my entire team has one as well!
- That I believe my team can play well with others and that I should encourage it to better meet organization goals.
- That I want to fix big problems that will help everyone else achieve more. See a previous post of mine to better understand my motivation with this goal: Leadership - How to become a Leader
- I feel that I have more to offer my team and those around me and I want to make it a priority to invest my valuable time in others to help them grow.
The Call to Action
Writing goals is an important part of achievement and leadership. I would encourage anyone reading this blog to take the time and set goals. Setting goals is the important first step to realizing you want a little more out of life. Acknowledge that there is a gap between where you are today and where you want to be in the future and take that first step towards conquering the unknown!
For an interesting article I stumbled across on goal setting while doing a homework assignment check this out 7 Tips for Setting More Effective Goals
For those of you that have stuck around this long, start writing those goals down and be ready because I will be posting on this topic again in the near future. Look for: Achievement - Making Goals Actionable
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