Goals, Why Bother?

It is the beginning of the year and it feels like a good time to set goals for the months ahead. Not everyone sets goals and to be honest I was never great at setting them myself. I would set them at work because we get asked to but I wouldn't usually set them in my life outside of work.

Which leaves the question, are they worth setting?

Feels like a good place to start and it is worth exploring before deciding whether you need them.

A goal is a defined statement of something you want to achieve in the future. You can apply it to all different scenarios and situations. You can have goals for your career, your business, your personal development, etc.

Everything you read about goals suggests that you should you should set them using the SMART model. The SMART model is a technique to use when setting your goals and looks like this:

• S - Specific: Your goal should be specific enough to know exactly what it is and when you have achieved it, it is not up for debate. It should not be broad and ambiguous as it will then leave you with not achieving anything.
• M - Measurable: Your goal should be able to be measured as then you will know how you are doing and it is an objective view on your performance.
• A - Achievable: This is probably an obvious one but your goal should be possible to achieve otherwise it is pointless. It should not be easy, but it should be stretched enough without being impossible.
• R - Realistic: I find this is similar to the point above so I would change the R to 'Relevant'. Your goal should be relevant to what you want your life to be like. I go in to this in more detail further down in this post.
• T - Time bound: Define when you want to acheieve your goal. This crucial as it sets a target for completion so you have something to work towards.

When I have had goals at work I have noticed the benefits of having them and have now questioned why I do not have them in my life outside of work.

Goals help you focus. The problem a lot of people have is being able to focus on what is important. There is so much noise around and so many distractions, it can be easy to forget what is important and get side tracked.

Goals can give you a sense of achievement. When you achieve a goal it feel amazing because you set out to do something and through hard work and focus you achieved it. It reminds you of what you are capable of and it makes you then want to do it more.

Goals help you improve. In their nature, goals are supposed to improve on your current situation. No one sets goals to get worse, so whatever your goal is, when you achieve it, you have got better.

This can be the stumbling block in creating your goals as it requires a lot of thought to start out.

The way I approached it is I thought about the areas of my life that I want to focus on. So I came up with (in no particular order):

• My mental health
• My physical health
• My career
• My money management
• My Blog

Next I then challenged myself to come up with one SMART goal for each one of these areas. The only other rule I stuck to when coming up with my goals is that they are all going to be within 3 months.

Obviously setting your goals is only the start of the challenge. You then need to keep track and make sure the goals stay alive in your everyday life. Keep your eyes on my blog as I will be writing about techniques to help you keep your goals alive.

I am using this goal planner book by Clever Fox which my wife got for me and it is actually really good. It is well structured and set out in a smart way which should help me keep on track.

Good luck with achieving those goals!

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Thanks for reading,

Gav

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