Pondering with a Purpose--Goals

This is Brenda Youngerman's weekly hop where she posts a prompt and you get to write to it on your blog - come back and add it to her linky and then we all get to go read what you wrote! This Week's prompt is: Goals

I am a very goal oriented person.  I make daily goals, weekly goals and long term goals.  Do I stress out if I don't achieve them?  No.  Webster defines a goal as  the result or achievement toward which effort is directed; aim; end.  If I make some progress then I have received a result.  To help me stay on track I use the SMART guidelines  Goals need to be:

S - Specific (or Significant).

M - Measurable (or Meaningful).

A - Attainable (or Action-Oriented).

R - Relevant (or Rewarding).

T - Time-bound (or Trackable)

In one of my management classes I was given these guidelines regarding goals and have found that they work in business as well as every day life.

• 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 precise goals, putting in dates, times and amounts so that you can measure achievement. If you do this, you'll 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 having too many goals, and helps to direct your attention to the most important ones.  I think that this is most important!
• Write goals down - This crystallizes them and gives them more force.
• Keep operational goals small - Keep the low-level goals that you're 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.
• Set performance goals, not outcome goals - You should take care to set goals over which you have as much control as possible. It can be quite dispiriting to fail to achieve a personal goal for reasons beyond your control!
• In business, these reasons could be bad business environments or unexpected effects of government policy. In sport, they could include 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's important to set goals that you can achieve. All sorts of people (for example, employers, parents, media, or society) can set unrealistic goals for you. They will often do this in ignorance of your own desires and ambitions.
• It's also possible to set goals that are too difficult because 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.

Sometimes I think that I enjoy planning the goals as much as working on them.