Key Behaviours for Effective Goal Setting
With the 2021 New Year, many of us are now setting our goals, resolutions, hopes and dreams. This year plan your approach to ensure success.
Your ability to achieve your goals will depend greatly on your approach:
o Visualise the outcome: imagine being at the completion point of your goal. State your goals as if you have already accomplished them. Strive for performance, not outcomes.
o Develop a support network: determine the resources that will be necessary for you to achieve your goals. Obtain support and commitment from individuals who will be essential in ensuring your success. Connect with people who will support you in attaining your goals.
o Be honest with yourself: evaluate objectively how well you accomplish your goals and objectives and focus on self improvement. Ask others to give you feedback in the important areas and any ideas they may have for improvement.
o Reward accomplishments: once you have reached a step or milestone, provide yourself with a reward. Celebrating your continual accomplishments will help to maintain your optimism and belief in your abilities while recharging your commitment and motivation to goal achievement.
o Don’t lose sight of the big picture: make a habit of reminding yourself of your goals on a daily basis.
o Review the process: goal setting is not a one time action; it is an ongoing process. Your priorities may change, so your resources may need to be re-evaluated or you may need to make adjustments to overcome unforeseen obstacles. Goals should remain fluid, enabling you to plan, react and adapt to changing circumstances as needed.
o Being positive: when facing obstacles and challenges. The ability to maintain a positive attitude and resilience in the face of difficulty is a key success factor in goal setting. Understand that there will be setbacks and continually search for means to overcome obstacles and secure all necessary resources.
o Adopting an optimistic ‘can-do’ attitude can be most beneficial and this may also be a good time to tap into your support network. It is also helpful to describe goals in a positive tone; focus on achieving a positive rather than trying to eliminate a negative. For example, say ‘I want to develop and use my coaching skills to build a high performing team’ rather than saying ‘I need to improve my poor coaching skills’
o Chunking: involves breaking goals down into smaller, simpler, more manageable tasks. Successfully completing small goals will build confidence and create momentum towards future goal setting behaviour. Setting milestones for marking your progress will make broader, long-term goals seem more attainable.
o Accepting personal responsibility: even though you may need to ask for help and support of others, you are in control of your actions. Set your goals with the understanding that you have the power to direct your efforts towards personal productivity. You can only influence or change things over which you have control; and a lot of things are already within your control.
o Persevering: effective goal completion requires the ability to maintain strong forward motion. Perseverance is essential for successfully reaching every goal you want to achieve.
Planning your approach to how you set your goals, may mean this year you actually complete your goals!
On behalf of the Pivot team, we’d like to wish you a happy, successful and health 2021 and we look forward to seeing you during the year.