There are people who panic once they realize their day ended without being very productive.
All our effort, time, and energy are constantly challenged in this busy world. The reality is that there is simply not enough time to do everything that we want to do, or sadly, things we must do.
With goal-setting techniques, we can maximize our time. The goal-setting techniques outlined below can guide you through the basics.
1. Evaluate
What do I really want? Where do I want to go? What do I want to do now?
This is a goal-setting technique that demands a lot of reflection on your part.
Go forward and visualize your dreams, then slowly trace them back to the present and identify what you need to do to achieve that dream.
Reflect on the past to see if you’ve overlooked any opportunities and or resources that you may re-engage. The past has ways of showing things about the future we do not understand when we see them.
2. Get Real
We have dreams to reach, yes. But it is unreasonable to believe we can attain what we spontaneously dream of.
Know when a dream is attainable; learn to accept and let go of it when you realized it is not.
Know your strengths and weaknesses. Identify what does not support your long-term goals and begin removing them from your life.
3. Plan
Identify your Key Action Steps. Ask yourself, how will I go about this? What schedule or strategy should I focus on?
Planning is an important goal-setting technique. An effective plan is something that can successfully identify the interconnections between short-term and long-term goals.
Planning forms ideas in our heads and is a powerful goal-setting technique. Remember that “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
4. Focus
Sometimes, we get overwhelmed with planning and as a consequence, lose our focus. One goal-setting technique to avoid losing focus is to aim for one goal at a time.
If you dream to be a successful novelist, painter, or photographer, can you aim for it all at the same time?
The answer is yes, you can.
You won’t lose focus if you know which of your goals deserve your utmost attention and extra time. If being a novelist topped the list, you can still do painting and photography on the side, more like a hobby. Just remember, don’t let these hobbies consume your time for novel writing.
5. Monitor and Re-evaluate
In evaluating goal-setting techniques, ask the following:
- Am I doing my best?
- Am I on the right track?
- Is the time right?
- What is working and what is not?
- Can I improve my processes?
During our planning, we have outlined some action steps. But we rarely take the time to think about what actions are truly needed. By re-evaluating, we are identifying the actions that are not needed.
A Goal, a Dream
By observing the goal-setting techniques indicated above, our dreams are only a few steps away. But often, the goals we set forth remain unattainable.
We became victims of our own issues:
- Procrastination
- Distractions
- Overzeal
Final Word
It is best to minimize your pursuits so you can run as efficiently as possible. If you must pursue multiple goals, be masterful at prioritizing and committing to what needs your focus according to your plan. Identify any and all distractions from cell phones to people. And do not try to do too much because doing too much can leave you with just as much as having done nothing at all.
