Goal Setting

[stickyfingerz]

Spiritual
This is that inner part of yourself. That’s that deep need that we all have to be a part of something greater than ourselves, to make a difference in the world, or to make an impact. This is going to be different for everybody. If you’re a Christian, let your Christian faith drive how you set goals in this area. For others, who may not be religious or practice a religion, that’s okay. Maybe for you it’s you want to get out and take more nature hikes or you want to get out and meditate more or just have some more down time. Whatever feeds that soul part of you, put down some goals.

Personal Development
This is your mind. Ask yourself this: how are you going to be better at who you are? How are you going to be a better husband, wife, father or mother? What is it that you’re going to do to grow yourself? What do you need to learn? What do you need to read? What events do you need to attend? What classes do you need to take? Set some goals for yourself and focus on “how am I going to be a better person? What am I going to do to grow myself?”

Health
What are you going to do to take care of this instrument, this tool that you have? What are you going to do to feed yourself correctly? Get the right rest you know so you have more energy, so you can actually accomplish all those things that you’re setting out to accomplish? This one’s pretty straight forward. I think we all know what we need to do, but we just don’t often do it, right? So don’t try and set goals that are ridiculous here. This isn’t about having six pack abs. It’s about being healthy and feeling good at the end of each year.

Romance
What are you going to do to bring the romance back into your relationships? There is no relationship that we have while we are on this Earth that’s more important than a romantic relationship, than the one with our spouse, the person that we looked at and went “this is the person I want to spend the rest of my life with”. That’s the most important relationship you have, so how are you going to keep the romance and how are you going to have some fun with it? And yes, guys, you can put some goals as it pertains to maybe getting in the sack a little more, but you’ve got to do something to get there first. I would encourage you to sit down and put some goals together with your partner, with the person you’re in that romantic relationship with, because it’s going to make this fun! It’s going to make this a whole lot more fun than maybe it would be if you just did it on your own.

Family
A lot of times people put this category and the family category together, but these two areas need to be broken apart. Your romantic relationship is the most important and if that relationship is healthy, it allows for your family relationship to be healthier. Your relationship with your kids, your relationship with your extended family all hinges on having a first and foremost a healthy romantic relationship. Here’s where you’re going to put your family goals. Do you want to invest in your kids soccer league a little bit more or spend more time coaching? Or do you want to see your extended family, make more trips or pay for them to come out and visit you? You want to have some goals and some things you’re working on to improve your family relationships.

Business/Career
What are you going to do in your business or career that’s going to move it forward? This category will probably have the most number of goals. It will probably have more goals that the other areas, because it’s the one area or the one category that deals with your professional life. All the other ones tend to deal more with your personal life, though they may have some bleed over, but this is the one that is solely dedicated to your professional life, everything else is to your personal life. So if you add up all the personal categories, they will probably outnumber the goals you have here, but don’t feel like “oh my gosh, I have six goals for my business and only two for my family…does that make me a crappy father?” No, it just means that you’ve got other areas or goals for other areas and that this is just one category for one big area of life. So you want to put your business or your career goals in here.

Finances
What do you want to achieve financially? Do you want to buy a house? Do you want to increase the amount you’re saving this year? Do you want to pay off some debt? Student loans? What are some financial goals you have for yourself? Put those down so you know what you’re working towards and again, if you’re in a romantic relationship or if you share funds with your spouse, this is something you’re probably going to want to work on with them so that you’re both on board and on the same page.

Fun and Recreation
What are you going to do for fun? Are you going to take vacations? Are you going to join a hockey league? One of our clients, she is a very athletic person. She’s awesome. She’s got so much energy and she’s involved in hockey, she’s involved in marathons, and that’s what she does for fun. When she’s not at work, she’s out there on the athletic field and so that’s how she spends her fun and that’s what she does for her recreation. For others, it’s vacations or weekends away. It’s time with friends. Whatever it is for you, put some goals down. Say “what do I want to do this year that’s going to be fun?” Skydiving? Hang-gliding? Surfing? Whatever it is, put it down.

Social
This is your friendships, this is your relationships outside of family and this is what you’re going to do socially. Do you want to spend more time with your friends? Whatever changes you want to make in your social life, put them in this category.

QUICK TIPS
Make sure that your goals are specific so you can tell whether you’re going to achieve them or not. Too many people go “well I’m going to be a better friend.” Okay, great, but what does that look like? How are you going to be a better friend? Or they say “I want to lose weight.” Great, how much weight do you want to lose? Get specific with these goals so that you’re able to figure out how to put a plan in place to achieve them.

Another thing is this: don’t put down too many goals. Don’t be an overachiever and put down upwards of 10 goals in each category. The reality is you’ll never be able to complete them all. Instead, pick one key outcome that you want in each one of these nine areas and then make sure the two or three goals you have all work together to drive that singular outcome. The business category is going to be the exception because your business category is going to cover a lot of different things, but in social, maybe you say “I want to spend more time with friends. I want to go out one night a week with my friends or with a friend or grab lunch with people during the week.” Whatever it is, just make sure you are working towards the same singular outcome so that you know that your goals are aligning and pushing you in the right direction.

• Step 1: Identify the Goal. Write a clear description of what you want to achieve.
• Step 2: List the Benefits. Write out what reward, benefit or positive outcome you will achieve when you achieve your goal.
• Step 3: List Obstacles That Could Get In Your Way. Things like having enough time, limited resources or simply lack of
• Step 4: List the Skills and Knowledge Your Need To Reach Your Goal. Even if it’s information you don’t yet have, write it down, then go to step 5.
• Step 5: Identify the People and Groups To Work With. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, outsource an action item (or a few) and enlist people who can help you reach your goal.
• Step 6: Develop a Plan of Action. Write out each step or task that you’ll need to complete in order to reach your goal as well as how you’ll achieve it.
• Step 7: Set a Deadline. The great thing about actionable goals is there is an end in sight. Set a deadline based on your plan of action and list of obstacles and knowledge required. This means you may need to give yourself more time to complete certain milestones, but do your best to set a firm deadline to give yourself a date to work towards.

 

[stickyfingerz]

HOW TO USE THE LIFE BALANCE WHEEL​

1. SET UP YOUR WHEEL

To make this easy for you I created a Life Balance Wheel worksheet that you can download to get started. You can also draw your own Life Balance Wheel in your journal or wherever else you like. Do what feels best for you. All you have to do is draw a circle, and divide it into 8 equal parts. Then, label each section with a life area. This is where this gets totally customizable. If you download my worksheet, I included two versions; one with the life areas that I used, and a blank version so you can come up with your own. The life areas I focused on were:

• Physical Health
• Education
  
• Artistic
  
• Attitude
  
• Pleasure
  
• Public Service
  
• Spirituality
• Relationships
• Creativity
• Personal Development
• Career & Finances
• Overall Life Vision
• Emotional Well-being
• Blog/business
• Mental Health
• Self Care
• Education
• Home Life & Family

Example...

• Physical health
  • Exercise for 30 minutes, 3x per week
  • Meal prep for lunch every week
  • Create a consistent work out schedule
  • Try a new form of exercise such as yoga, pilates, zumba, etc.
  • Drink 8 cups of water per day
  • Take a multi-vitamin daily
• Spirituality
  • Strengthen prayer life
  • Explore new spiritual practices (crystals, smudging, incense, meditation, etc.)
  • Form relationships with others who have similar spiritual beliefs
• Relationships
  • Spend time with close friends at least twice a month
  • Have a small family get together once a month
  • Identify the people you are closest to and make an effort to talk to them often and reach out for support when you need it
• Creativity
  • Explore a new creative outlet
  • Actively practice your creative outlet a few times a week
  • Find a community of people who consider themselves to be “creatives” and form relationships with them
• Career & Finances
  • Start a side hustle
  • Get promoted at work
  • Go back to school for a new degree/certification
  • Save $1,000 a month
• Personal Development
  • Start a daily journaling practice
  • Explore more about your personality type
  • Listen to an inspirational podcast twice a week
  • Read one self-help book a month
  • Start a daily mediation practice
• Overall Life Vision
  • Create a vision board to reflect on what you really desire in life
  • Reflect on your progress towards your goals every month
  • Explore different opportunities and possibilities for your life. Push yourself out of your comfort zone.
• Emotional Well-being
  • Practice self care for at least 10 minutes daily
  • Create a self care ritual
  • Try counseling/therapy
  • Surround yourself with positive, like minded individuals

Here are some questions to ask yourself when deciding where to draw your dots:

[*]Physical health – How’s your overall diet? Any changes you’d like to make to the way you eat? How do you feel during the day (tired, energetic, fatigued, etc)? How’s your quality of sleep? How often do you exercise?

[*]Spirituality – How in tune with your beliefs are you? How closely connected do you feel to what you believe in?

[*]Relationships – Do you have friends/family that you can talk to? How satisfied are you with the quality of relationships in your life? How often do you spend quality time with your loved ones? How easily do you connect with others?

[*]Creativity – Do you have a creative outlet? Are you utilizing it? How satisfied are you with your creative abilities?

[*]Career & Finances – How satisfied are you in your current career? Are you in your dream career? or do you need to switch paths? How comfortable are you with your current financial status?

[*]Personal Development – Are you actively working on your personal development? How well do you really know yourself? How satisfied are you with your personal growth lately?

[*]Overall Life Vision – How happy are you with the direction your life is headed? How clear is your vision for your future? How satisfied are you with the steps that you’re taking towards that vision?

[*]Emotional Well-being – How balanced do you feel emotionally? How aware are you of your emotions? How do you process/cope with your emotions?

[*]Pleasure – How do you want to enjoy yourself? (You should ensure that some of your life is for you!)

[*]Public Service – Do you want to make the world a better place? If so, how?

[*]Artistic – Do you want to achieve any artistic goals?

[*]Attitude – Is any part of your mindset holding you back? Is there any part of the way that you behave that upsets you? (If so, set a goal to improve your behavior or find a solution to the problem.)

[*]Education – Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular? What information and skills will you need to have in order to achieve other goals?

 

[RoomService]

Balance is the key to life

 

[stickyfingerz]

bump

 

[Pimpslap407]

This is good!!

 

[CoTtOnMoUf]

Zig was the man at this shit!

Good post!

 

[stickyfingerz]

Once you have set your lifetime goals, set a five-year plan of smaller goals that you need to complete if you are to reach your lifetime plan.

Then create a one-year plan, six-month plan, and a one-month plan of progressively smaller goals that you should reach to achieve your lifetime goals. Each of these should be based on the previous plan.

Then create a daily To-Do List of things that you should do today to work towards your lifetime goals.

At an early stage, your smaller goals might be to read books and gather information on the achievement of your higher level goals. This will help you to improve the quality and realism of your goal setting.

Finally, review your plans, and make sure that they fit the way in which you want to live your life.

Staying on Course
Once you've decided on your first set of goals, keep the process going by reviewing and updating your To-Do List on a daily basis.

Periodically review the longer term plans, and modify them to reflect your changing priorities and experience. (A good way of doing this is to schedule regular, repeating reviews using a computer-based diary.)

SMART Goals
A useful way of making goals more powerful is to use the SMART mnemonic. While there are plenty of variants (some of which we've included in parenthesis), SMART usually stands for:

• S – Specific (or Significant).

Set Specific Goals
Your goal must be clear and well defined. Vague or generalized goals are unhelpful because they don't provide sufficient direction. Remember, you need goals to show you the way. Make it as easy as you can to get where you want to go by defining precisely where you want to end up.

• M – Measurable (or Meaningful).

Set Measurable Goals
Include precise amounts, dates, and so on in your goals so you can measure your degree of success. If your goal is simply defined as "To reduce expenses" how will you know when you have been successful? In one month's time if you have a 1 percent reduction or in two years' time when you have a 10 percent reduction? Without a way to measure your success you miss out on the celebration that comes with knowing you have actually achieved something.

• A – Attainable (or Action-Oriented).

Set Attainable Goals
Make sure that it's possible to achieve the goals you set. If you set a goal that you have no hope of achieving, you will only demoralize yourself and erode your confidence.
However, resist the urge to set goals that are too easy. Accomplishing a goal that you didn't have to work hard for can be anticlimactic at best, and can also make you fear setting future goals that carry a risk of non-achievement. By setting realistic yet challenging goals, you hit the balance you need. These are the types of goals that require you to "raise the bar" and they bring the greatest personal satisfaction.

• R – Relevant (or Rewarding).

Set Relevant Goals
Goals should be relevant to the direction you want your life and career to take. By keeping goals aligned with this, you'll develop the focus you need to get ahead and do what you want. Set widely scattered and inconsistent goals, and you'll fritter your time – and your life – away.

• T – Time-bound (or Trackable).

Set Time-Bound Goals
Your goals must have a deadline. Again, this means that you know when you can celebrate success. When you are working on a deadline, your sense of urgency increases and achievement will come that much quicker.

For example, instead of having "to sail around the world" as a goal, it's more powerful to use the SMART goal "To have completed my trip around the world by December 31, 2027." Obviously, this will only be attainable if a lot of preparation has been completed beforehand!

Set Goals in Writing
The physical act of writing down a goal makes it real and tangible. You have no excuse for forgetting about it. As you write, use the word "will" instead of "would like to" or "might." For example, "I will reduce my operating expenses by 10 percent this year," not "I would like to reduce my operating expenses by 10 percent this year." The first goal statement has power and you can "see" yourself reducing expenses, the second lacks passion and gives you an excuse if you get sidetracked.

Make an Action Plan
This step is often missed in the process of goal setting. You get so focused on the outcome that you forget to plan all of the steps that are needed along the way. By writing out the individual steps, and then crossing each one off as you complete it, you'll realize that you are making progress towards your ultimate goal. This is especially important if your goal is big and demanding, or long-term. Read our article on Action Plans for more on how to do this.

Stick With It!
Remember, goal setting is an ongoing activity, not just a means to an end. Build in reminders to keep yourself on track, and make regular time-slots available to review your goals. Your end destination may remain quite similar over the long term, but the action plan you set for yourself along the way can change significantly. Make sure the relevance, value, and necessity remain high.

Further Tips for Setting Your Goals
The following broad guidelines will help you to set effective, achievable goals:

• State each goal as a positive statement – Express your goals positively – "Execute this technique well" is a much better goal than "Don't make this stupid mistake."
• Be precise – Set precise goals, putting in dates, times and amounts so that you can measure achievement. If you do this, you'll know exactly when you have achieved the goal, and can take complete satisfaction from having achieved it.
• Set priorities – When you have several goals, give each a priority. This helps you to avoid feeling overwhelmed by having too many goals, and helps to direct your attention to the most important ones.
• Write goals down – This crystallizes them and gives them more force.
• Keep operational goals small – Keep the low-level goals that you're working towards small and achievable. If a goal is too large, then it can seem that you are not making progress towards it. Keeping goals small and incremental gives more opportunities for reward.
• Set performance goals, not outcome goals – You should take care to set goals over which you have as much control as possible. It can be quite dispiriting to fail to achieve a personal goal for reasons beyond your control!
  
  In business, these reasons could be bad business environments or unexpected effects of government policy. In sport, they could include poor judging, bad weather, injury, or just plain bad luck.
  
  If you base your goals on personal performance, then you can keep control over the achievement of your goals, and draw satisfaction from them.
  
  
• Set realistic goals – It's important to set goals that you can achieve. All sorts of people (for example, employers, parents, media, or society) can set unrealistic goals for you. They will often do this in ignorance of your own desires and ambitions.
  
  It's also possible to set goals that are too difficult because you might not appreciate either the obstacles in the way, or understand quite how much skill you need to develop to achieve a particular level of performance.

Achieving Goals
When you've achieved a goal, take the time to enjoy the satisfaction of having done so. Absorb the implications of the goal achievement, and observe the progress that you've made towards other goals.

If the goal was a significant one, reward yourself appropriately. All of this helps you build the self-confidence you deserve.

With the experience of having achieved this goal, review the rest of your goal plans:

• If you achieved the goal too easily, make your next goal harder.
• If the goal took a dispiriting length of time to achieve, make the next goal a little easier.
• If you learned something that would lead you to change other goals, do so.
• If you noticed a deficit in your skills despite achieving the goal, decide whether to set goals to fix this.

Feed lessons you have learned back into the process of setting your next goals. Remember too that your goals will change as time goes on. Adjust them regularly to reflect growth in your knowledge and experience, and if goals do not hold any attraction any longer, consider letting them go.

Example Personal Goals
For her New Year's Resolution, Susan has decided to think about what she really wants to do with her life.

Her lifetime goals are as follows:

• Career – "To be managing editor of the magazine that I work for."
• Artistic – "To keep working on my illustration skills. Ultimately I want to have my own show in our downtown gallery."
• Physical – "To run a marathon."

Now that Susan has listed her lifetime goals, she then breaks down each one into smaller, more manageable goals.

Let's take a closer look at how she might break down her lifetime career goal – becoming managing editor of her magazine:

• Five-year goal: "Become deputy editor."
• One-year goal: "Volunteer for projects that the current Managing Editor is heading up."
• Six-month goal: "Go back to school and finish my journalism degree."
• One-month goal: "Talk to the current managing editor to determine what skills are needed to do the job."
• One-week goal: "Book the meeting with the Managing Editor."

Key Points
Goal setting is an important method for:

• Deciding what you want to achieve in your life.
• Separating what's important from what's irrelevant, or a distraction.
• Motivating yourself.
• Building your self-confidence, based on successful achievement of goals.

Set your lifetime goals first. Then, set a five-year plan of smaller goals that you need to complete if you are to reach your lifetime plan. Keep the process going by regularly reviewing and updating your goals. And remember to take time to enjoy the satisfaction of achieving your goals when you do so.

If you don't already set goals, do so, starting now. As you make this technique part of your life, you'll find your career accelerating, and you'll wonder how you did without it!

 

[stickyfingerz]

The Backward Planning Process
Here's how it works:

Step 1: Write down your ultimate goal. What specifically do you want to achieve, and by what date?

Example: "By January 1, 2015, I will be the key accounts director for Crunchy Chips International."

Step 2: Then ask yourself what milestone you need to accomplish just before that, in order to achieve your ultimate goal. What do you have to do, and by when, so that you're in a position to reach your final objective?

Example: "By September 30, 2013, I will successfully complete the executive training program offered by Crunchy Chips International."

Step 3: Then work backward some more. What do you need to complete before that second-to-last goal?

Example: "By March 1, 2013, I will submit my application for the executive training program, outlining my successes as a key accounts manager, and I will be accepted into the program."

Step 4: Work back again. What do you need to do to make sure the previous goal is reached?

Example: "By January 1, 2013, I will complete my second year as a key accounts manager with Crunchy Chips International, and I will earn the prestigious Key Accounts Manager of the Year award."

Step 5: Continue to work back, in the same way, until you identify the very first milestone that you need to accomplish.

Examples: "By January 1, 2012, I will complete my first year as a key accounts manager with Crunchy Chips International, and I will be rewarded for my performance by gaining responsibility for clients purchasing over $10 million per year."

"By January 1, 2010, I will be promoted to key accounts manager with Crunchy Chips International, and I will have responsibility for clients purchasing over $1 million per quarter."

When you read a backward plan, it doesn't look much different from a traditional forward plan. However, creating a backward plan is very different. You need to force yourself to think from a completely new perspective, to help you see things that you might miss if you use a traditional, forward-looking chronological process.

 

[stickyfingerz]

• Non-SMART goal: Start a jewelry business.
• SMART goal: Start a jewelry business by December 1st, 2018 by selling 10 pieces of jewelry per month.

 

[stickyfingerz]

Contribute beyond yourself.
Another one of the examples of life goals worth setting is about giving, because it’s true that the more you give, the more you get in return.

The sad truth is, most of us live pretty egoistically: we make ourselves feel good and do what makes our life comfortable, but that also means putting the happiness of those we love aside, and never considering helping those around us in any way we can.

Giving doesn’t need to mean donating money or even joining an organization. It’s about leaving behind your own wants and needs, every now and then, to see if you can be of help to others. Also, it’s proven to make us way more satisfied with our lives, rather than when we’re just focusing on ourselves.

Here are some examples of things you can begin doing:

• When socializing, listen more and respond as genuinely as possible
• Give advice when necessary, encourage others to try again after failure, be their biggest supporter, and remind them of the potential within
• Love without expecting to receive the same in return
• Share what you have when you can
• Donate things that you aren’t really using
• Be kind to anyone you meet
• Seek opportunities to do good things to others, whether it’s helping an old woman cross the street, giving a dollar to a homeless person, not judging when somebody is sharing their opinion, etc.

 

[stickyfingerz]

Leaving your comfort zone.
Life becomes pretty boring and lacks fulfillment if you stay in one place, both physically and mentally.

Traveling is one way to get out of the rut and explore more of what’s out there. By traveling, you put yourself in a new environment and see how you react. You learn to become adaptive and grow in countless ways.

Leaving your comfort zone can also mean leaving your job and entering a new field, or ending a relationship in order to get to know yourself as an individual.

Ditching your comfort zone means doing something that you’ve always wanted to but never had the courage to.

Take more risks. Go on an adventure without planning. Take a big decision quickly and make the most of it. Start talking openly about yourself and don’t be afraid to be judged.

This an exciting and fantastic way to live your life.

 

[OUT THARE]

 

[stickyfingerz]

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