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goal setting definition

Goal setting is all about having a clear plan and a future vision of where you want to be in the future. In order to set goals or have a plan you must first have some kind of a dream or something that you really want.

This dream can be anything like wanting to have a successful relationship, wanting to buy a big house or a car or even wanting to be the president of the united states.

The First step to goal setting

The first thing you need to do in order to set goals correctly is to decide what you really want.

What is the thing that will change your life if you got it? what do you really need? what is the thing that can make you happy if you achieved it?

visualization can help you much in knowing what you want. Just sit in any place where you wont get disturbed and dream about your future!

After visualizing your dream the goals that you are going to set should have the purpose of serving the big dream.

For example suppose that you decided to be an ambassador , most likely your goal list will contain items such as studying political science, learning more than two languages and having superior communication skills.

each goal on its own won't make you become an ambassador but together they serve the plan and so help you to get closer to your dream. upon finding out what you want start setting your goals.

Goal setting rules and guidelines

There are some important rules for goal setting which are:

• Goals must be challenging but achievable: For example if your plan was to have a perfect form then one of your goals may be losing 10 pounds of weight. If you decided that you are going to lose those 10 pounds in one week you may end up depressed because you may never do it. On the other side if you decided to lose 0.1 pounds per week you wont be motivated at all because the goal wont be challenging. Your goal must be challenging enough to motivate you and in the same time achievable to prevent depression.
• Goals must be time limited: in order to set a goal you must have a time limit set for it. After all you aren't going to live hundreds of years. Life is short and not setting time for your goals may result in lack of motivation or indifference.
• Goals must be measurable: after all you can't set a goal such as "i want to be good at computers. What do you mean exactly by being good? instead you should have clear goals such as reading 50 computer related articles and learning two programming languages .Your goals should be divided into short term , medium term and long term goals. Short term goals must be very specific. For example if being an ambassador was your long term goal then one of the medium term goals could be learning three languages and one of the short term goals could be mastering French language this year. If your goals were not measurable you wont be able to track your performance and you may end up feeling lost. I still remember the days in 2007 where my goal for 2knowmyself was to make it generate 1000 USD/month,Setting such a measurable goal helped me bypass my own targets and i managed to make 2knowmyself generate thousands of dollars/motnh, setting measurable goals can not only help you achieve your goals but it can also help you beat your own targets
• You must be flexible in setting the goal: for example the goal "earning a five digit monthly salary" is more flexible than the goal "i will be a sales person who works for Cisco corporation and who earns a five digit monthly salary". your goal should be focused on what you want and not on how you are going to do it. After all if you only wanted a five digit salary then why limit this to being a sales person? There are hundreds of ways to achieve that goal. flexibility is the ability to reach your final goal using whatever method you could find and not getting bound to a certain method that might not work.
• Long term goals: It was found that people who set long term goals usually achieve them while people who set short term goals usually end up disappointed,frustrated or depressed. Planning for the long term can increase your chance of reaching your goals and can help you compensate for the lack of some resources like time or money (see the importance of long term planning)

one final tip which can help you in reaching your goals is having self discipline. Self discipline in brief is the ability to delay short term pleasure in order to reach your long term goals.

Goal setting and time management

Usually when goal setting is mentioned another topic must be mentioned along with it which is time management. Learning time management will make you more capable of using your time efficiently and this will lead to reaching your goals faster.

Goal Setting and Lack of Resources

Some people mistakenly think that they should set goals that can be achieved within the limits of the current resources they have.

By doing so those people put constrains on their dreams then end up with a humble list of goals. This is totally wrong, you should visualize your dream first then set goals that can help you fulfill it with disregard to the resources you have.

Once you do so you will be amazed when you find that your subconscious mind is sending you new ideas that you have never thought about before that can help you to reach these goals. (read this article to know how it works)

2knowmyself is not a simple article website nor it’s a place where you will find shallow fixes, but it’s a place where you will find effective techniques that are backed by psychology and that are presented in obvious and understandable format. If you think that this is some kind of marketing hype then see what other visitors say about 2knowmyself.The book How to make someone fall in love with you was released by 2knowmyself.com; the book will dramatically increase your chance of letting someone fall in love with you.

what else do you want to know?

How to reach a goal

How to manage my time?

I am not motivated enough to start setting goals

How to set goals effectively

i am not in the mood to start,what should i do