Strategic Goal Setting 2009

1.       Express you goal in terms of specific events and/or behaviors. For a dream to become a goal, it has to be specifically defined in terms of operations, meaning what you will have to do to meet it. When a goal is broken down in to bite-sized steps, it can be managed and pursued much more directly. “Being happy,” for example, is neither an event nor a behavior. When you set out to identify a goal, define what you want in clear, specific terms.

2.      Express your goal in terms that can be measured. How else are you going to be able to determine your level of progress, or even know when you have successfully arrived at where you wanted to be? For most people, this will be defined in precise numbers. It could be total weight lost, debts paid, or income earned. For instance, my wife is a part of a great direct sales organization, Premier Designs Jewelry. In the past few years she has experienced a significant level of success because she developed a laser-like focus on her goals and developed a strategic plan to make them happen.

3.       Assign a time line to your goal. Once you have determined precisely what it is you want, you must decide the time line for having it. The deadline you have created will foster a sense of urgency or purpose, which in turn will serve as an important motivator, and prevent inertia or procrastination. By the way the only way to overcome procrastination is to move forward.

4.      Choose a goal you can control. Unlike dreams, which allow you to fantasize about events over which you have no control, goals and strategic planning have to do with aspects that you control and can manipulate. In identifying your goals, strive for what you can create, not for what you can’t.

5.       Plan and program a strategy that will get you to work your goals. Pursuing a goal seriously requires that you realistically assess the obstacles and resources involved, and that you create a strategy for navigating that reality. Willpower is unreliable, fickled fuel because it is based on your emotions. Your environment, your schedule and your accountability must be programmed in such a way that all three support you-long after an emotional high has ended. Those temptations and opportunities compete with your more constructive and task-oriented behavior. Without a plan you will find it much harder to stay the course.

6.      Define your goal in terms of steps. Major changes in your life and business don’t just happen. Success does not just jump out and attack you. Progress toward you goals happen one step at a time. Steady progress, through well-chosen, realistic, interval steps, produces results in the end. Know what those steps are before you set out.

7.       Create accountability for your progress toward your goal. Without accountability, people are apt to con themselves. If you know precisely what you want, when you want it by – and there are real consequences for not doing the assigned work-you are much more likely to continue in your pursuit of your goal. Find someone in your circle of family, friends or business associates to whom you can be accountable. Make periodic reports on your progress.

I believe that you can accomplish great things in 2008 if you set a plan in place now. For help in getting a jump start on 2008 be sure to check out John’s, Living in Your Strengths Seminar January 5^th 2008.