How To Set Goals And Stay Focused - An Excerpt From 'Make Big Changes' Article - Personality Development Motivation Articles

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How to Set Goals and Stay Focused - an excerpt from 'Make Big Changes'

Setting clear goals is something that ALL successful people do – whether intentionally or not. It’s certainly not a new concept and it’s no secret that setting definite goals plays a huge part in achieving results. Without clear goals, where are you heading? What are you aiming for?

Author: Hugh Mcclelland

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It’s certainly not a new concept and it’s no secret that setting definite goals plays a huge part in achieving results – just look at any successful corporation; they nearly all have a list of ‘goals’ or ‘plans’ for the next 1 year, 5 years, even 10 years.

Without clear goals, where are you heading? What are you aiming for? Striving for? What’s the reward for all your hard work and effort? And if the reward isn’t exciting enough, why bother?

Living a life without setting clear goals is a bit like launching a boat on the water without any means of steering it. What will happen? It will drift along aimlessly with no clear sense of purpose or direction.

Do you really want to live life this way? Sadly, this is what so many people choose to do – causing themselves much frustration, anger, resentment, dissatisfaction, feelings of failure, disappointments, discouragement, and a general lack of fulfilment. So yes, it is absolutely imperative to have goals to work towards – and writing them down is crucial to your overall level of accomplishment.

Writing down your goals helps focus your mental, physical, and emotional energies on the thing you want to achieve. The simple step of writing your goals down is quite uplifting and exciting – try it and you’ll see what I mean. It’s as if you feel a buzz of excitement at the possibilities of what you can really get out of life – and all the positive experiences that await you. It’s up to you to decide what you really want – be totally honest with yourself and forget the barrage of excuses your mind will bombard you with. And forget about HOW you’re going to accomplish your goals too – the aim of this exercise is to determine clearly and definitely the goals you REALLY want to achieve, and the timescale in which you want to achieve them.

Remember, living your life without goals is like trying to build a house without any plans…

Deciding what you REALLY want

‘Success’ means different things to different people. Financial success, relationships success, social, learning a new language or instrument – it can be whatever you want it to be. The whole concept of goal setting is simple to understand and works like this:

When you set yourself a clear goal, focus on it regularly (daily), and take steps towards achieving it, you put yourself in a frame of mind that will be open to every opportunity. You will be so wrapped up in the achievement of your goal, that you’ll miss no opportunity to bring it closer to you.

Some self-improvement books attribute this to an unseen mystical power; some call it the Universal Mind; some say it works because you’re instructing your subconscious mind to look for a way of achieving your goal. It doesn’t really matter how you decide to interpret the method but the fact is, it works! On a purely logical basis, it works because by concentrating on the successful achievement of your goal, you completely open your mind to the real possibility that it CAN be achieved. And when you do that, all sorts of opportunities and assistance will come your way – it can actually seem like magic. But essentially, we’re all surrounded by countless opportunities but unless we open our minds to them we remain blind to the possibilities they offer us.

Living a life without setting clear goals is a bit like launching a boat on the water without any means of steering it. What will happen? It will drift along aimlessly with no clear sense of purpose or direction.

So we know goal setting works, what’s the best way of setting our goals? Is there a right or wrong way? What works best? Before we get started on the business of setting goals, let’s be completely clear about one thing:

Your Goals should always be definite and specific, never vague and misty.

In other words, you need to be totally clear about EXACTLY what you are striving for. It is no use setting a goal along the lines of ‘I will be more organised’ or ‘I want to make more money’ or ‘I want to move to a better area’ or ‘I want a bigger car’. These goals are far too vague and open to vast extremes of interpretation. Instead, you need to be SPECIFIC and DEFINITE. In what area do you want to become more organised? What goal could you set yourself that would demonstrate that you’ve become more organised? You want to make more money, fine – how much more?

Be specific. Move to a better area – which area? A bigger car? Which make and model of car? New or used? What colour will it be? You get the idea: for goal setting to work, the goals you set yourself must be fine tuned to the point where you know EXACTLY what it is you’re striving to achieve.

Many people give up trying to set goals when they find it hasn’t worked for them – there are only 2 reasons why goal setting won’t work:

1/ not enough focus on the goal 2/ the goal itself wasn’t definite and clear enough. Imagine sending an email to a friend. Would you write out your message into coherent sentences or just type all the letters of the alphabet in a big jumble and hope that your buddy will somehow be able to interpret what you’re trying to say? There’s no doubt that the clearer your goals are defined on paper, the quicker your mind can start searching out the opportunities that will initiate their accomplishment.

Have a sense of purpose. Write down your goals, read them out aloud, visualise them coming true. By crystallising your focus on your goals by committing them to paper, you open yourself up to countless opportunities to help you achieve them – opportunities that may have still have presented themselves but been overlooked if you were not focused on the specific goal.

This is how I believe it works – it feels like a magical, mystical process. But from a purely logical viewpoint, that’s how it works.

• Think big
• Remember once you set sights on a goal it can definitely be achieved
• Move slowly towards your goal, making daily progress
• Plan your priorities – what can you do today to bring you closer?
• Keep your eye focused on the result – don’t worry about the process

One final note – successful goal setting will make you feel happier in yourself. How? Because you now have a clear sense of direction and purpose. Think about it for a moment: who do you know that doesn’t currently set goals? Think about your work colleagues, your family members, your friends – and ask yourself which of them are committed to achieving goals and which aren’t. You’ll probably notice that those that DO NOT have a clear set of objectives will often show signs of anger, frustration, boredom, lack of enthusiasm and zest, fear - perhaps even loneliness and depression. They exhibit an aura which says ‘I’m waiting for something to happen but I’m not sure what exactly…’. Start goal-setting and these negatives will soon turn around and be replaced by positive emotions – motivation, enthusiasm, control, excitement, a sense of being on a journey. So yes, the very act of setting goals can actually help you achieve greater levels of happiness, which in turn fires your enthusiasm to get things done.

The above excerpt was taken from the book 'Make Big Changes'.

About Author

Hugh McClelland is author of the self-help book 'Make Big Changes'from which the above excerpt is taken. He runs Moonsail Ltd, a small firm specialising in marketing for small businesses.

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How to Set Goals and Stay Focused - an excerpt from 'Make Big Changes'