Goal Setting Success - How To Create An Effective Plan

By: Rick Seymour
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:41:45
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You need to have a clear, specific, vivid and measurable goal, but that in and of itself is not enough. You need to identify where you are right now in relationship to your goal, and what is going to be required of you to get from where you are to where you want to go. Wanting to change isn’t enough. You also need to come to grips with what specifically has to change. How are you going to incorporate your goals into your life – your current commitments?

For your plan to be effective, it should include:
? The specific activities and actions required to achieve the goal
? The frequency of each activity: Is it something you do once? Daily? Weekly? Monthly?
? Is there an end date for the activity or is it a new discipline you are developing for the rest of your life
? Identify how you will measure ‘success’ for each activity – how will you know when you have accomplished it?
? Identify any critical dates by which the activities need to be accomplished
? Be very specific about how much, how many, how soon, etc.
? Establish the amount of time you anticipate dedicating to each activity – is it 5 minutes per day, 10 hours per week, etc.
? Where do you need to fit each activity into your schedule in order to complete it in a timely fashion?
? Identify other stakeholders and how your activities will affect them. Communicate!
? With other stakeholders, create an “Expectations and Obligations” sheet. In other words, sit down and talk about what you expect from each other in the way of support or help, and also what you obligate to each other in return. There is no need to have someone else sabotaging your efforts because you didn’t communicate – it could be your spouse resenting the extra time you are putting into your new goals; it could be your kids making you feel guilty because you changed the schedule or expect them to help with the dishes in the evening in order for you to have more time to dedicate to your goals. Whatever it is, you need to communicate with the other stakeholders, so that they understand what your goals are, how they will be affected when you succeed and what the payoff is for them. Your life will be much easier if you have buy-in from them.

I’ve often heard it said that truly effective people spend an hour planning for every three to four hours of execution. Whether or not the numbers are accurate, the point is well taken: effective planning dramatically increases our effectiveness and our efficiency and our ability to achieve our goals.

For more information on this and related topics, go to: http://www.godinyourgoals.com

Article source: Expert Articles