Goal Setting Tips to Boost your Personal Growth

Is goal-setting important and does it really help you to achieve your full potential?
Goal Setting Tips to Boost your Personal Growth
By
Lori Wade

Many of us want to be the best versions of ourselves, and in doing so, we try to work on our self-development by setting various goals and smashing them. For some individuals, setting goals can be a herculean task. But is goal-setting important? Yes, because it will help to lead you towards achieving your full potential.

Many factors are involved in personal development, and goal setting plays a major role. Hence, this article entails tips that can help you set goals, achieve them, and hasten your self-development process seamlessly.

1. Decide on What You Want

As the saying goes, “Before scrambling the ladder of success, ensure it is leaning on the right wall.” So, before setting goals, you need to decide where you want to go and what you want to achieve. Knowing this can ignite the passion in your life and put you on the right path that assures success.

“Before scrambling the ladder of success, ensure it is leaning on the right wall.”

Take a look at specific areas of your life that need improvement. First, analyze and rate them. Ask questions like, “how satisfied am I with my health, finances, relationships, personality, and competency?”

Say for instance you give yourself a rating of 5 out of 10 for finances. This means you feel your performance in finance is average. Be sure to rate those areas of your life you would like to improve, so you know where you are at present and can start to make improvement plans.

With the present analysis of your performance in various spheres of your life projected to you on paper, ideas begin to come. Ask the following questions and provide honest answers to them. You may want to discuss with your friends or boss to help you gain better insights.

  • What will I gain if I improve this area of my life?
  • What will I have to give up to improve this area of my life?
  • What will I have to adopt to improve this area of my life?
  • What will I lose if I refuse to improve this area of my life?
  • What resources will be required to help improve this area of my life?
  • How will I know I am making progress in my efforts towards improving this area of my life?

The answers you provide to the questions above will help you decide if you want to improve any area of your life or another.

Too many people fail to accomplish their goals simply because they chose their goals in error.

This is also why some people don’t feel better even after achieving what appears to be a significant feat. Achieving worthwhile goals should lead to improved self-worth, satisfaction, and happiness.

2. Time Tracking

Freelance time tracking comes in handy in achieving your set goals and maximizing your potential. You can use this to track and record the time spent on the tasks you need to complete for achieving your goals.

3. SMART

The acronym SMART is one of the best guidelines for goal setting. Let’s discuss it further below:

  • Specific — Your goals must be specific, straightforward, and easily understood. Identifying your goals, why you want to achieve them, and how you intend to achieve them gives you higher motivation towards achieving the set goals. Often, unclear goal paths yield undesirable and frustrating results, while concrete goals put you on the right track!
  • Measurable — Are the goals you set measurable? What methods do you use to measure these goals? Is it monetary yield, task completion, or goal outcome? With this, you can decipher if you are progressing with your set goals or you need to put in more work and motivation. However, if you leave your goals to “whatever will be, will be,” it will be hard for you to know if you are advancing or need adjustments to make on your end.
  • Attainable — Although goals can sometimes be challenging but shouldn’t be unattainable. Set attainable goals for yourself with the resources at your disposal, vision, and the right energy, as failure to do this can leave you frustrated and unmotivated.
  • Realistic — When setting goals, be realistic, and let them align with your life purpose. Societal or peer pressure play a huge influence here, and if not well-orchestrated, it can leave you in disappointment. This somewhat shares a similar trait with attainability! For example, you earn $50,000 a month, and you want to purchase a luxury that costs $400,000. Indeed, this is attainable if you want to acquire this from a long term view, but it is unrealistic if you intend to acquire the luxury in 2 months based on your salary. However, realistic and attainable in this case if two years is what you set to buy this property!
  • Time-sensitive — It is important to attach a deadline to every goal you set. As the deadline approaches, you get energized to complete the set tasks before your time elapses. Also, when you break bulk tasks into smaller ones within specific timeframes, it is easier to complete set targets on time. There is no need to feel bad if you do not achieve your set goals within the deadline. It matters the consciousness and focuses you have enacted, and as such, you can make time adjustments towards getting it done.

4. Important Personal Growth Goals Matter

You need to know that every part of your life (whether career, health, family, or relationship, amongst others) matters for your growth, and you need to make important plans in each area in order to achieve your goals.

If the goals are many and require time, you can split them into short and long-term plans. For illustration, clearing off a debt of $2500 or 2 months of management training on retaining top employees can be scheduled for a short term while having a net worth of $2M in the next eight years fit into a long-term goal.

5. Passion

It’s important that your goals align with your passions and dreams. Brainstorm on things you yearn for, dream about, and how vital they are to the future you crave for. Your goals need to emanate from your excitement about your dream or vision for your life, as this motivation fuels you to create strategies towards attaining them.

6. Get the resources you need

There is hardly any goal you would want to accomplish that does not require one or more resources. This may be in terms of materials, human efforts, investments, etc. When setting your goals, you may have to rely on some other people’s input in terms of ideas, expertise, money, tools, etc.

You need to identify all the resources you need so you can make plans towards harnessing those resources. For example, you may need a professional certificate to land your dream job.

Consider your goals and list out the major resources you need to accomplish them.

Identify those resources you already have access to. An example is project management software. Pick out those you can afford to buy. Look for ways to improvise for the ones you may not be able to afford right away.

Plan on how to utilize these resources. Which one will you need first? Which resource must follow? Sometimes, the major reason for top performance is the availability and the utilization of resources.

7. Work Daily on Your Goals

Check out your to-do list for the day, and activate the necessary work environment and motivation towards its realization. You can also set up a progress completion board to help you see your daily progress, which triggers your inner motivation to do more.

You need to work on your goals every day.

For instance, if you schedule to read 2–3 articles daily for one month to create a work/life balance while working remotely for career improvement, ensure you don’t skip a day without reading at least 1 article every morning and night!

8. Evaluation and Reflection

To set new goals, look back on your past success record and evaluate your current state. This helps you stay focused. The reflection and evaluation processes include the following:

  • Locate a serene and distraction-free location
  • At regular intervals, reflect upon and evaluate your goals and the processes involved
  • Revisit your previous accomplishments and document your record
  • Plan the next goal

9. Delegate Tasks

As you work through your goals, you may find that you are busy working on your goals every day. At this point, you can help yourself by delegating tasks to others around you.

Be sure that the other person has time margin and can handle the delegated tasks with little or no supervision. Delegating tasks is one of the most underrated productivity techniques. Delegating tasks gives you more time to work on higher-value tasks that only you can achieve toward goals.

10. Use Consequences and Rewards to Stay on Track

It is a common experience that many people start their goals with great enthusiasm but then abandon them after a while. One way to help you stick to your goals until you achieve them is to set up a reward system.

Since your goals will be reached in phases, you can attach a reward for the accomplishment of each stage. The reward should be something tangible enough to motivate you.

Some people find treating themselves to a movie or a treat as a tangible reward for a worthwhile achievement. Find out what works for you as a reward. Have some rewards attached to the accomplishment of major goals.

This will inspire you to persevere with your goals.

On the other hand, if you’ve failed to achieve a particular target, create a negative consequence. For instance, you can take on more chores, go to bed some minutes later to catch up, etc. For example, Drake gives his friend, Willy, $50 every Saturday Drake fails to show up at the gym. After paying twice, Drake somehow broke free from playing truancy at the gym. Now, find some consequences that will work for you!

Rewards and consequences help you to build personal integrity. Using a reward system will help you stay on track and make achieving goals a fun and motivating adventure for you.

What is your relevant experience with setting goals for personal growth regarding the tips we discussed above? If you have more tips that have proven effective for you, please share them in comment section below!

Author’s Bio

Lori Wade is a journalist from Louisville. She is a content writer who has experience in small editions, Lori is now engaged in news and conceptual articles on the topic of business. If you are interested in an entrepreneur or lifestyle, you can find her on Twitter & LinkedIn. She has good experience and knowledge in the field.

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