Goal Setting For Beginners

Do you have goals? Well, most of us do. It might be a daily goal, a weekly goal, even a yearly goal, but we have goals. However, not everyone knows how to properly set goals. This article aims to educate the goal-setting novices out there on how to properly set goals.

Setting goals for yourself is like creating a road map to get to your destination. In goal-setting, your destination is succeeding in accomplishing your goals. This means you have to write down your goals on a piece of paper so you can start to get organized. This step allows you to concentrate on your goals rather than leave your ideas scattered throughout your mind.

The first question you have to ask yourself is: Is my goal something that I would really like for myself or is it just something that looks good to other people? This question is crucial because many people make the mistake of setting a goal just to please other people. A good example of this is a college student who chooses a course so that his parents will praise him. What he should actually do is to go where his heart leads him. This means that the goal should match the individual’s personal value system.

Second, a goal should correspond with the other goals you have set for yourself. Like the example we gave above, a college student must not take courses that deviate from the career path he is creating for himself. Not only is this a waste of money but it also opposes the purpose of goal setting – which is to keep his life organized. Deviating is dubbed non-integrated thinking.

Third, set goals for the 6 aspects of your life, which are: Mental and Educational, Physical and Health, Financial and Career, Social and Cultural, Spiritual and Ethical, and lastly, Family and Home. This guarantees that you will maintain a balanced life as you evaluate and amend the basics of your daily life. This step also lessens the level of non-integrated thinking.

Fourth, create goals that emphasize positive thinking rather than negative thoughts. We create a list of goals partly because we want to program our subconscious mind to follow our instructions. This part of our mind – the subconscious – was made solely to follow instructions. So if you want your subconscious to follow positive thinking, think of positive instructions to give it. (Positive thinking is also a useful tool for our development in daily life as a person.)

The next step is to define our goal in a detailed fashion. For the college student who is trying to choose a course, he could write down: “I want to study BA European Languages with a major in German and a minor in French” rather than just state “I want to pick a course in the College of Arts and Letters”. You will notice that the more detailed statement serves to provide the subconscious mind with detailed instructions to follow. Your final outcome becomes more and more definite as you provide more details in the instructions you write down. The subconscious mind works more efficiently if the final outcome is defined well.

In the sixth step, do not downgrade your goals – keep reaching high! That way, if you do not reach your goals, at least you reached a level that is higher than you imagined you could reach.

Lastly, you ought to list your goals on paper. Read your list often so you can focus on them one by one. If you concentrate on accomplishing your goals, it is probable that you will be able to get to where you want to be in life. As you review your goals, it is also possible that you may have to revise your list but that’s okay. Stay flexible if circumstances warrant it.

Remember Live Your Life By Choice, Not By Chance.

www.selfimageimprovement.com

Dealing with Procrastination

Procrastination has been a long- time problem that sometimes can be taken for granted. Studying for an exam the day before can result in low grades and nothing more – no egos have been hurt because of it. Starting on a project a week before the deadline promises to be a little challenging and exciting. Sounds a little bit easy right? Nothing deadly?

The truth is, there really is a huge problem with procrastination. Not only do we get low grades, but we lose time, effort and attention because of it. And these are factors that money can’t buy.

So how do we prevent procrastination? How do we know if anyone is procrastinating or not?

Here are some telltale signs.

Knowing if anyone is procrastinating and what to do about it:

1) “I work better under pressure anyway!” To some, this might ring true. So what to do about this? If this is the case, then it’s better to move your time a little bit forward. Try to set a deadline for yourself. If you have a paper due on a Friday, then just imagine that your paper will be due on Wednesday. That way, you still have enough time.

2) “I just don’t know how to do it!” Don’t let this be an excuse to the things that you have to do. Life is all a learning process. If you don’t know how to do this, then approach a teacher, a classmate or a friend, and let them teach you how to do this particular job.

3) “I still have enough time!” On the contrary, you don’t have enough time. Time is of the essence and it runs faster than a racecar driver traveling at a fast pace. Before you know it, time has already passed and your paper is already due the next day.

4) “I am waiting for the right mood!” To some people, they need the “right mood” to finish what they need to do because it might turn out not as good as they had hoped to be. There is actually no cure for this since the right mood comes at no particular time. But to incur the right mood – that’s a different story. Watch television, read a book or write – do things related to the job that you have to do. That way, the mood might come in a jiffy.

Procrastination is indeed a rampant problem in the society nowadays. But it does have a cure – you just need to let yourself be aware of it. And learn how to take charge!

Remember Live Your life by Choice, Not By Chance.

www.selfimageimprovement.com