Goal Setting Process
There is joy to be had by deciding what you want to create in your life, setting a goal to achieve it, and knocking it out.
Goal setting is personal. Finding what works best for you is a trial and error exercise. Most importantly, keep trying!
Take the time to learn what works best for you. Make it a priority to learn about goal management techniques early on. If a method sounds useful to you, try it for a month or so. Check your motivation and results at the end of the month to determine if that system is a keeper.
Keep this in mind too. When there is a goal you don’t reach by the deadline, it’s time to reassess whether that goal is still relevant and whether to keep it on next year’s list. If it is, no harm done, you just estimated wrong about when you could get it accomplished. So put it on the list again and spend time feeling what it will be like to reach that goal while trying again.
If you determine that the missed goal is no longer relevant to you, let it go without worry. It turns out that it was not important enough to focus on in the grander scheme, or maybe the exercise of feeling for it reveals to you that it’s not worthy of your goals list after all. If so, again, let it go.
Learning to let it go is a valuable skill. When you release what you don’t want, you make room for what you do want!
Living in the moment and being fully present is a critical point to remember when goal setting. It can be easy to be distracted by anticipating a future goal or accomplishment that you must achieve before allowing happiness in your life, but be happy now! Even though it is good to outline goals and work towards achievements, it’s most important to enjoy the process.
Goal setting is about creating more of how you want to feel in your life. Set goals to feel good and make your life better even while working to achieve them. If a goal feels as if it will inspire an adventure in your life that you want to participate in, it deserves to be one of your goals.
It is not about shoulds or what other people set as their goals. It’s personal. Goal setting is about what you want, WHAT YOU WANT TO FEEL IN YOUR LIFE.
Does the idea for a goal seem like a drudgery? If so, that’s a sure bet you aren’t ready for it. Take some time to change your attitude about it before you add it to your goals list. It’s also possible that something that seems like it should be your goal may never make your list, and that’s okay. It must be okay; otherwise you spend energy battling yourself and essentially holding yourself back from more enlivening endeavors.
Tap into your creative power and set goals that empower you more, not less. When there is a feeling of increased energy and interest that accompanies an idea for a goal, that is how you know it goes on your list.