Goal Setting

It's 2010, and in typical fashion, all blog owners are laying out their goals, I'm going to take a slightly different approach, and try to teach you how to lay out your own goals and help you achieve them. I'll do this by going through the process of laying out my own goals, but please adapt this to whatever is relevant in your own life.

I am a firm believer in the use of goals for the achievement of success. I have my overall life goals, my long term goals, short term goals, and super short term goals.

I don't have all of these written down in a nice pretty notebook or something...we all have these different goals, we just don't take time to write them down. Everyone secretly knows some life goals (raise a good family, become wildly successful in business, become a music star: those are life goals)

Long term goals might be graduating college, or looking for a director position in your firm, they aren't all clearly defined, but we all know where we would like to go. Short term might be to 6 month to year long goals like losing weight to fit into a dress for a wedding, or building up some muscle in the gym. Super short term might be that this week you want to go work out, or this month you would like to eat out less. Everyone has goals, few people write them down.

Writing down goals is a HUGE part of motivation: reminding yourself of where you are going can be a huge help in all aspects of life. Remember, we all have the power to achieve our goals, we just have to be willing:

My one year goals are as follows:

1. Lose an average of 2.5 pounds per week (130 pounds on the year)
2. Use motivational tools to drive success in all aspects of life
3. Have a good job that I like by the time I turn 22
   

Those are my main goals for a one year period. Some call it a new years resolution, so I'll go with that for now, but I HATE that term. First of all, no one ever keeps their "New Years Resolutions" so it kind of sets you up for failure, secondly, January 1 is one day apart from December 31...there is not a huge monumental change, time goes on at a relatively constant rate as far as we know; years are only for our benefit for the use of knowing the seasons.

Side note, at the New Years Eve party, I made a promise that we would celebrate New Years 2042 on Mars (2032 on the moon) and I realized...it won't be the new year on Mars, since Mars has a different year than us. Years are arbitrary in the grand scheme of things.

Anyway, so above are my three main goals for the year. Call those strategic goals, it outlines where I would like to be; now we need tactical goals, or the steps we will take to get there.

Goal one: Lose an average of 2.5 pounds per week
Tactical Goals:

1. Do some workout everyday, incorporating weight lifting and cardio
2. Eat mostly fresh foods
3. Avoid all processed foods
4. Eat well (note: I know what eat well means for me, if you don't know EXACTLY what that means for you, get more specific, do calorie counts if you must)
   

Goal Two: Use motivational tools to drive success in all aspects of my life
Tactical Goals

1. Use quotes as motivational material (I have a wall where I hand write quotes to inspire me, this way they stay fresh and I don't become "used" to them)
2. Use calendar trackers (I use small calendar trackers to track small goals, like Neville does at NevBlog Motivations - The Seinfeld Calendar)
3. Use daily to-do lists (Again, inspired by Neville, read more about them there: To-do Lists)
4. Use affirmations - basically, write down specifically things about you that you want to be true (ex: I work out every day, I spend time to look good in the morning, I am a successful man at work, I have a great job) and every morning and evening, look yourself in the mirror and say them to yourself. Now, if these things are not true, it will create an inner conflict between what you are saying, and what you are, so you will start to shift your mental mind into what you are saying, to reduce that conflict. Also, keep them positive to the max (I am not addicted to chocolate vs. I am able to resist the temptation of chocolate)
5. Drink coffee - It sounds simple, but I know that for myself, when I am on a caffeine induced high, I am much more motivated, then once I get going, even when the caffeine wears off I am motivated.
   

Goal Three: Have a good job that I like by the time I turn 22 (June 17, 2010)
Tactical Goals:

1. Update resume
2. Put out feelers with all corporate contacts
3. Prepare for EVERY company at the Supply Chain Management Career Fair
4. Do 2 mock interviews
   

So You can see, goal setting is very important. There are different levels of goals to use, and there are more specific levels (for example, those to-do lists I will be using are daily tactical goals which will lead me to achieve my tactical goals, to lead me to achieving my three main goals) When you are looking to create goals for yourself for this year (or any time frame) try to achieve some balance between the three most important areas of your life.

Health, Wealth, and Love. All three need to be balanced, and you can't achieve success in life without these three things. They are very general labels, but because of that generality, they can apply to everyone. Improve your health and wealth, and have no love or relationships, your mental health will suffer. Find love and health, but no wealth your relationship could suffer...etc.

I will stop rambling now, and leave you with one of my favorite quotes:

I cannot become who I want to be by remaining who I am.
-Adapted from a Max Depree quote