The following broad guidelines will help you to set effective
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 a precise goal, putting in dates, times and amounts so
that you can measure achievement. If you do this, you will 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 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 you are 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.
Derive today's goals from larger ones.
_ Set performance goals, not outcome goals: You should take care to
set goals over which you have as much control as possible. There is nothing
more dispiriting than failing to achieve a personal goal for reasons beyond
your control. These could be bad business environments, 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 is important to set goals that you can
achieve. All sorts of people (parents, media, society) can set unrealistic
goals for you. They will often do this in ignorance of your own desires and
ambitions. Alternatively you may be naïve in setting very high goals. 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.
_ Do not set goals too low: Just as it is important not to set goals unrealistically high, do not
set them too low. People tend to do this where they are afraid of failure or
where they are lazy! You should set goals so that they are slightly out of your
immediate grasp, but not so far that there is no hope of achieving them. No one
will put serious effort into achieving a goal that they believe is unrealistic.
However, remember that your belief that a goal is unrealistic may be incorrect.
If this could be the case, you can to change this belief by using imagery
effectively.