Q&A: Goal Setting Development (6.1.2022)

How can I have multiple goals without overwhelming myself?

You should focus on no more than 3 goals at a time because you only have 24 hours in a day. It also depends on how small or big your goals are. If you have a big goal, then you might only want to focus on one goal. Once you achieved that goal or goals, then you can start achieving the next 1-3 goals.

Achieving your goals is great but remember that you still need to take care of your career, relationships, and health. Those 3 life areas also need your time and focus to become successful. However, it can be difficult to take care of those 3 life areas successfully when you spend all of your time on your goals. It will also be difficult for you to achieve your goals successfully if those 3 life areas are not taken care of. For instance, you will develop stress when you are not taking care of those 3 life areas. As a result, you will fail on both sides, your goals and life areas.

Do not ever think that you will become happy once you achieved your current goals. That is a false mindset. When you have that mindset, you will try to achieve your goals as soon as possible in a way that will increase your stress level. As a human being, once you achieved your current goals, you will develop new goals. There will always be something new that you will want to achieve in the future. You might not know what those future goals are until you have achieved your current goals.

If you are taking at least 1 daily action step to get closer to your goals, that is a goal-setting success. Depending on how much time you have; you can spend 30 - 60 minutes daily working on your goals. Sometimes you might only have 5-20 minutes. And that is okay. Life is not perfect, which means the time and effort you put into achieving your goals daily will be different. For example, on any given day, life will give you challenges that require your attention that day, which means your goals might be temporarily on hold. However, you must pick yourself back up and continue immediately. There is a difference between putting things on hold and procrastination. Putting your goals on hold means there is an emergency that you must take care of on that day. However, procrastination is when you have time on your hand, but you would rather do something else than take action steps to get closer to your goals.

How to manage my goals?

One of the best ways to manage your goals is to have a goal binder. Divide your binder into different sections such as career, relationship, health, personal, etc. You can also divide your binder into short, medium, and long-term goals. Basically, you can divide your binder in any way you like to help you visualize your goals to help you achieve them successfully.

You should also want to write or type up all your goals on one document. And then, put that document on the first page of your binder. You can even arrange your goal document in the same way as your goal binder. As you develop new goals, you would include them on your goal list and binder.

In your goal binder, have a section where you can acknowledge your goal victories or successes. You can call that section such as “Achievement” or “Achieved Goals” or anything you would like to label that section. For every goal you have achieved, cut out a paper star and write that achieved goal on it, and then put it in that section. Make sure to also make a note on your master goal list that you have achieved that goal. By doing this, it serves 2 purposes. First, it helps you keep track of your goal progress on how far you have come and achieved. Second, it reinforces the time, effort, and potential you put into achieving something, and that is important to remember and acknowledged.

How do I get better at setting goals?

To become better at setting goals is to learn more about yourself from how you set your goals.

First, if you are not excited and motivated to achieve your goals, then you have the wrong goals. The purpose of goal setting is to get you excited and motivated to take daily action steps to experience more joy and happiness. However, if you are not motivated to achieve your goals, then you are unlikely to take the action steps. Joy and happiness come from your daily action steps.

If you are not motivated to achieve your goals, then you might be influenced by the outside to set the wrong goals or you are not clear on how your goals will bring you happiness, meaning, and purpose. You will always have the motivation to achieve your goals when you set the right goals with the right purposes behind them.

You want to spend some time learning about happiness, meaning, and purpose. Those are positive emotions that you want to experience in life. However, it can be quite difficult to know what kind of goals to set if you do not know how to experience those emotions. When you have a better understanding of those emotions and how to achieve them, then you can set goals that are more aligned with them.

Another way to learn more about yourself to create better goals is through your goal action steps. For instance, pay attention to the time and effort you put into achieving your goals. You will put in more time and effort to achieve a goal when you are passionate about it. However, if you are not passionate about your goals, you will rush through your action steps because you just want to get them done. Your time and effort are indicators to see what types of goals best fit you.

You can also learn more about your strengths and weaknesses from your goals and action steps. For example, when you succeed in a goal or action step, it means your strengths are within it. Pay attention to the knowledge and skills you have used to help you become successful. And then, learn how to use the same knowledge and skills for future goals and action steps. You might not use the knowledge and skills in the same way for future goals, but they can be reused to help you become successful again. In addition, using your knowledge and skills in different ways help increase your creativity because creativity is just about using your knowledge and skills in as many ways as possible.

If you failed on a goal or action step, this means your weaknesses are within it. Therefore, you want to see what knowledge and skills you lacked and see how you can improve them so you can become successful the next time. For example, if fail on your action step because you did not give yourself enough time to achieve it. Then, for future action steps, make sure to give yourself more time so you can become successful. Or ask yourself, did you set the wrong day and time for your action step? You want to learn from your mistakes. The more you learn from your mistakes, the higher your self-understanding to set better goals and action steps in the future.

How can I stay accountable for my goals?

Make sure your goals are important to you. You will not put in the effort and time to achieve your goals if they are not important to you. Important means without achieving your goals, your life will be terrible.

You must develop a commitment mindset. There are two components to commitment. First, you must be on time to achieve your goals. Whatever day and time you set aside to take the action steps to achieve your goals; you must be on time for them. For example, one of the main reasons why you might not go to work late is because you are committed to your work. Your work is important to you because it gives you money to meet your essential needs. It is the same with your goals. You must be committed to your goals and show up on time for your goals. You cannot develop the mindset that you will take action to achieve your goals whenever you are free or feel like it. Goal success does not happen with that mindset. Second, you must put in quality work to achieve your goals. For example, you will get fired from your job if you put in poor quality work. Poor quality work will not get you the result you want from your goals. As a result, it will decrease your motivation to want to continue to achieve your goals.

If you are not getting the result you want, reflect on your commitment level, time and quality. Achieving your goals requires commitment and discipline like anything else. Do not expect to achieve your goals without commitment. Do not expect to get a 100% result when you only put in 50% of your effort.

Third, focus on the process and not the destination of your goals. For example, when you have a long-term goal and difficult to achieve, you can get sidetracked or discouraged because the destination is far away. Therefore, you want to focus more on the process. This means, you take the action steps to achieve your goals because it is good for you, not necessarily because you want to reach the destination. For example, when you have a weight loss goal, you would need to eat healthily and exercise to become successful. However, do not put a strong emphasis on eating healthy and exercising because you want to lose weight, but you engage in those healthy activities because it is good for you. Remember, your goal action steps should benefit you daily, and not just for the end destination. If you can see and enjoy that your daily activities are good for you, then you will not get discouraged in taking the daily action steps, no matter how far the goal destination is. When you have that mindset in focusing on the process, you will have more motivation to take action and be accountable for your goals.

How do you get high school students to be more goal-orientated?

To help high school students become more goal orientated is to explain to them the many benefits of goal setting. Below are some powerful benefits of goal setting:

Personal growth. Students will learn a lot about themselves such as their strengths and talents, and their qualities and personalities when they set goals successfully. Successful goal setting is a personal development journey.

Create solutions. When students have their goals on paper, their brains can see their goals clearer. Therefore, their brains can find better ideas to achieve their goals at a faster pace compared to when their goals are just inside their heads.

Increase focus. Goal setting helps students develop realistic action steps that they can stay focused on. However, when students are not clear on what they want to achieve, their brains will also become confused, which will make it more difficult for their brains to come up with ideas to become successful.

Decrease procrastinating. One of the main reasons why many people might procrastinate is because they are not clear on what they need to do to achieve their goals. However, goal setting helps students map out clearly what they need to do to become successful, therefore, they will have more motivation to take action.

Decrease random action steps. When students are clear on what they would need to do to become successful, then they are less likely to take random action steps. It is important to decrease randomness because we have so many goals with limited time and energy. Therefore, it is important not to waste our time and energy on taking the wrong action steps.

If you failed on a goal or action step, this means your weaknesses are within it. Therefore, you want to see what knowledge and skills you lacked and see how you can improve them so you can become successful the next time. For example, if fail on your action step because you did not give yourself enough time to achieve it. Then, for future action steps, make sure to give yourself more time so you can become successful. Or ask yourself, did you set the wrong day and time for your action step? You want to learn from ykes. The more you learn from your mistakes, the higher your self-understanding to set better goals and action steps in the future. jb jgoal students want to achieve; it is achievable. It just depends on their commitment level.

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