Inspire Through Goal-Setting

Those without goals often go through their lives like rudderless ships – without clear direction or a way to effectively navigate the storms and winds in the sea of life. Lack of direction can often lead to feelings of stress and anxiety, poor concentration levels, lack of confidence and living life from a place of being reactive rather than proactive. Not only that, but people without goals often have little determination, patience or tenacity.

When you set and achieve a goal, you have an opportunity to pat yourself on the back. Even if you don’t achieve exactly what you set out to do, there are likely to be numerous achievements and lessons learned along the way. All this helps build self esteem.

When it comes to your business, setting goals is an essential ingredient to success. But in spite of this, not everyone does it.

The following are some things to keep in mind when setting goals:

Don’t make your focus too narrow (or too wide)
There is a delicate balance between working on all areas that need attention and just working on one area. Focusing on multiple areas can be distracting, leading to little being achieved. Focusing on one area alone also has its downsides. That’s why I recommend identifying a few key goals and narrowing your focus to those goals until you have accomplished one or more.

Prioritize
Your next question may be, “How do you know what goals to focus on?” I find clients are most motivated if they are working on the areas of their lives which are going to make the greatest difference to them. It is important to bear in mind that what may be important today may not be so key in a few months time. If you find yourself neglecting an area that you have designated as a top priority, one reason for this may be that it is now not so important. If you find this happening, give your goals a “checkup” to see if your goals are still relevant or if you should refocus your efforts.

Inspiration is key
Once you have identified your top two or three priorities, the next step is to set a goal that is going to really inspire you in each of these areas. Defining an inspiring goal is a challenging exercise to do. However, a goal that is inspiring has an energy of its own – and once you find an inspiring goal, rather than wondering what to do next, you’ll find that a lot of the initial steps and work that goes into achieving that goal will seem to just come naturally. I equate it to what happens when a surfer rides a powerful wave. Once on a big wave, all a surfer needs to do is focus and balance and he will be carried to the shore – without the need to do much more. (Of course, if he wants to reach the road from the shore, he will need to take some action).

Don’t forget any of the essential ingredients
Like making a cake, there are several ingredients that are important when it comes to setting a goal. With a cake, I would say flour is most essential, and, with goal setting, inspiration is the most essential ingredient. The second most important ingredient is succinctness. A really powerful goal can also double up as a mantra. It is easy to repeat as often as possible and it is easy to remember. (For instance, finding a new job can become “Love what I do” and recovering from a difficult patch can become “Sparky, witty Johnny is back!”) Finally, the level of challenge that accompanies a goal is also important – and it can work hand in hand with inspiration. A challenging goal doesn’t necessarily make it difficult to achieve. However, what’s important to consider when it comes to setting challenging goals is your own response to challenge. Some are truly inspired by challenge. However, for others, too much challenge can be counterproductive and can stop them from taking action. It’s important to set goals that are just challenging enough to help you maximize your productivity.

Keep classical goal-setting strategies in mind – with some exceptions
Classical goal setting encourages goal-setters to go for something realistic within a specific time frame. However, I say that if making a goal realistic means that some of the inspiration is lost – then go for the inspiration instead. In most cases, it makes sense to frame goals in the positive (which is what classical goal setting would advise). That said, there are times when a goal which appears to be expressed in the negative is more motivating than a goal that is framed positively. Finally, classical goal setting will encourage you to go for goals that are measurable. I would 100% agree with that. Not only is a measure motivational, but it will help you know how close or how far you are from achieving your goal at any point in time.

Failure is not final
So what happens if you don’t achieve the goal that you set? This may be because you changed your mind. What you set out to achieve initially may no longer hold the same interest for you. For the more spiritually minded, it can be useful to include a caveat to your goal setting – particularly when you find yourself hugely attached to the outcome. This can take the form of a simple sentence which can be added to a goal e.g. “I will achieve my goal… or whatever the grand design has in store for me.” Often, it is only a matter of time until the goals that you set become yours. However, there are likely to be many lessons learned and other achievements that you will stumble across on your path beginning the moment that you set your goals. Keep a record of these things as people are particularly good at forgetting, as well as dismissing, their achievements. However valuable goal-setting is, and whatever the outcome, I find it empowering to remember that “life is a journey, not a destination!”