How to Make Sound Goals
Posted October 31st, 2016
We all have goals. Goals at work, goals in our personal life. No one would argue that having goals isn’t important. But when we take a closer look at our goals, we find that they are not always well thought out or expressed very clearly.
If goals are left vague, they do not help us as much as they could. If we are not sure where we want to go, it is harder to develop a plan on how to get there. But if goals are stated clearly, they can be an important way to get motivated. Goals energize people in several ways, according to psychologists.
1. They enable us to concentrate on what is important to us.
When we make a goal, it becomes a priority, something that rises to the top of our attention. It becomes something we focus on. It stands out from the crowd of things that are demanding our attention.
2. They get us moving
When we have a goal we want to reach, we feel the urge to get moving, to make progress toward our goal. Not only that, with the goal as something to work toward, it gives us more tenacity and fortitude.
3. They create a starting point.
In other words, once we establish a goal, that in itself will get us thinking about how to reach it. It is the impetus for coming up with a strategy or game plan. A goal can change anger at your situation into a desire to change it.
For goals to be really effective, they need to have several elements, according to psychologists.
1. They need to be precise.
It needs to be clear and definite enough so that you know when you have achieved it. For example, “I will get more sleep” is too vague. But “I will get eight hours of sleep each night” is a specific goal.
2. Not too easy to attain, but not too hard.
If the goal is too easy, we really won’t be motivated to go after it because we won’t feel it’s worth the effort. If it is too hard, we also will lose our motivation because we will despair of ever being able to reach it.
3. They have to matter.
If the goal does not mean that much too us, we really won’t make much of an effort to reach it. The goal has to matter to us; it really has to mean something. We have to care about reaching it. It has to be something that will really make a difference in our lives.
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