The Power of Goal Setting – Goal Setting Series

Setting and achieving goals is an important step in self-development. If you know where you want to be in the future and are able to analyze your current situation, then it will be easier for you to set achievable goals. When you set goals, you basically give your mind the orientation and steps to follow through in accomplishing certain tasks, according to their importance and relevance to your primary objectives.

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What you will learn about Goal setting

Here are the subtopics we are covering in the article series on “Goal Setting”

The Power of Goal Setting

Having a clear goal, a direction to follow reduces your procrastination. And all these allow you more time and the freedom to concentrate on what really matters to you, rather than simply jumping from tasks to task, as they come up to you.

If any of the above sounds important to you, then welcome to our series of articles on how to improve ourselves and our businesses through the Power of Goal Setting. This is what we will be discussing throughout this month.

If this is your first article in the series, please make sure you see the other ones that follow, so you can get the full detail of our discussion on goal setting.

What Is Goal Setting?

This is the last month of the year 2022, so pay attention to this series of articles, because you are going to need them as you prepare for 2023 and beyond. I hope you get what I mean.

In simple terms, goal setting involves the development of an action plan designed to motivate and guide a person or group of persons towards a definite objective. And to be successful in your goal setting, there are certain principles to be observed.

We will talk more about some of these principles shortly. First, it needs to be understood that goal setting is a major component of your self-improvement and Business Mindset.

If we agree on that then, let me ask you these few questions:

  • Have you thought about where you will be and what you will be doing in the next five or six years?
  • At the moment, do you have a clear idea of your main objective at work, whether you are working for somebody or for yourself?
  • By the end of today, what do you want to achieve?

Honestly, those are not too complicated as questions. But if you have never thought of them before, they might appear so to you.

You see, if you want to achieve something, I mean anything; you need to set goals for that thing that you want to achieve. Without goals, you will most certainly lack focus and direction.

According to an interesting article, Golden Rules of Goal Setting – Five Rules to Set Yourself Up for Success, available at MindTools.com, “Goal setting not only allows you to take control of your life’s direction; it also provides you a benchmark for determining whether you are actually succeeding.”

“Having a million dollars in the bank”, continued the article, “is only proof of success if one of your goals is to amass riches. If your goal is to practice acts of charity, then keeping the money for yourself is suddenly contrary to how you would define success.”

I have said a number of times in our Obehi Podcast, that success does not mean exactly the same thing for everybody. Of course, that depends on how mature you are to define your own success, and to define your own success, you need to know what you want. Do not underestimate that.

You might be a Nigerian, a Senegalese, or a Congolese who migrated from Africa to Europe or America. And right now, there are a lot of things for you to sort out, from working to paying for your house rent, paying your bills, and some family obligations from where you are coming from. These are some of the challenges we have seen often, following our research into the African diaspora community.

These things can quickly be overwhelming to anyone, especially if you do not set goals for yourself on what you want to achieve at the end of the day, the month, and the year. You should not leave things to chance because years add up faster than you think. So, you need to determine where you are going.

Some goal-setting principles to adopt

Before, I was saying something about goal-setting principles. You see, achieving your goal requires a high level of commitment. To maximize the likelihood of success, you need to feel a sense of urgency and put on the “Yes, I can do it” attitude. There is no substitute for that kind of attitude and you are going to need it for your success.

Goal setting and achieving them are not some kinds of butter and bread. It requires hard work and many sacrifices. That is why many people don’t even bother to set a goal because they don’t want to bear the discomfort and sacrifice to make it work.

But if you are one of those few who are ready to achieve their goals, here are a few considerations for you.

Have clarity in your goal setting

Clarity is the key to a goal that is achievable. The most effective goals have a specific timeline for completion. Clarity builds motivation and allows you to measure progress through quantifiable milestones.

When we set our minds to a goal, what are we really trying to accomplish? For many of us, it’s the promise of some form of success. We want the feeling that we have achieved something worthwhile. We want validation in the form of praise and appreciation.

So, having clarity in your is fundamental if you want to archive your goal.

Motivation is the key

You have decided to set goals. Fine. But how important is the object of your goal? By that, I mean what you want to achieve at the end of the day. How much does it motivate you?

Why this is important is this: “if you have no real concern about the object of your goal, like achieving them or not doesn’t make any real difference to you, then the chances of you putting in the hard work will automatically be lacking”.

Motivation is what causes us to do something. It’s the drive that gets us going and going toward our objective. Motivational states are commonly understood as forces acting within the agent that energize, direct and maintain behavior.

In other words, it is your drive to do something and is often related to emotions. So, never underestimate motivation as a key goal-setting principle.

Set your goals in writing

It’s not enough to say in your mind that you want to do something. The other day I was talking to a woman who by the nature of her energy could be getting a lot done. In the cause of our conversation, I asked her “do you have a goal” and she replied that “everybody has a goal”.

“Do you have a written goal” and her response was “no”.

You see, you cannot set your goals in your head. No. Sorry. You need to put it in writing and that is about commitment, like holding yourself accountable for what you say you want to do.

There are some unwilling forces within you, just like in every other individual on earth. Those forces don’t want you to succeed beyond the average and they have a lot of evidence to show you such as:

  • Your past mistakes,
  • The negativities all around,
  • And probably your insufficiency in character and ability.

This is psychological warfare and you can only win it by convincing yourself with your own evidence in writing. “This is what I have said I want”.

The simple act of writing down your goal makes it real and evidence of what you want to achieve. Try to put your goals in writing.

There is power in your written goals and you have no excuse for forgetting it this time because it was written and you can see it anytime you want.

3 types of goals to set

Before we conclude today’s discussion, I quickly want to add that a goal can be of different types as:

  • Short-Term Goals,
  • Long-Term Goals,
  • And Lifetime Goals.

Short-Term Goals

By Short-term goals, we are not necessarily referring to one day or two weeks goals. Short-term goals may have a time frame of say, one month, six months, or even a year.

These types of goals might be a breakdown of long-term goals and they can further be reduced into daily and weekly goals, all to facilitate the achievement of the long-term goal.

Long-Term Goals

As the name implies, long-term goals are something you want to accomplish sometime in the future. And to succeed in Long-term goals you will need time and planning.

Although they are not the type of goals you can accomplish in a few weeks or a month, long-term goals need to have specific time limits to be accomplished, like 5 years, 10 years, or 25 years as the case may be.

Lifetime Goals

Generally, lifetime goals are those types of goals you want to accomplish over your lifetime. Depending on your age, these kinds of goals may be accomplished significantly later in your lifetime, say 10 years or much more into the future.

Lifetime Goals are very important kind of goals because they help you to focus in life without wasting your energy on things that are not relevant to you or within your core values. They might include the kind of family you want to have, the career to develop, how you want to be remembered, and all that.

It’s generally a very good idea to have a life goal, even though you might have to modify it as you grow and increase your knowledge and awareness. If you don’t already have a lifetime goal, make sure you start thinking about it today.

Your key takeaways The Power of Goal Setting – Goal Setting Series

Goal setting is the process of defining what you are looking to accomplish and mapping out the steps to achieve it, requiring more than just a dream. It is necessary to identify the goals in a way that is measurable and achievable.

To be effective, goal setting should be a carefully planned process. It’s important to set smaller goals and measure progress, so a long-term goal doesn’t seem that difficult. With the right strategies in place, it’s easy to adopt an effective time frame.

This article has been about the power of Goal setting and I hope you have gotten some value from it. In our next article, we will take the argument even further.

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