Goal Planning Tips

In this article on goal setting we are going to be looking at how to do goal planning and some goal planning tips.

Creating a plan for your personal goals is important, because it will allow you to determine what you want to do and how you will do it. So let’s get started!

Goal Planning Step 1 – Define Your Goal

If there is only one thing you remember about goal setting then remember this, all goals should be as specific as possible.

If you try to do goal setting with vague goals, you will not know exactly what you are trying to achieve or how you will achieve it.

So the first step in goal planning is to create a specific goal. Think of what you want to do, and then write it down as if you were trying to describe it to someone who knew nothing about it.

For example, instead of saying “I want to loose some weight” say “I will loose X amount of weight by X”

Goal Planning Step 2 – Plan Your Goals Backwards

One of the best and most effective goal setting techniques you can use is to first set yourself a large long term goal, and then work backwards from that goal creating lots of smaller short term goals.

For example, if you set yourself a yearly goal then by working backwards you would decide what steps you can take on a monthly, weekly and daily basis to reach that goal.

Using this goal setting technique not only helps you to break down large long term goals, but will also make it much easier for you to complete them since you will be working on a series of small goals rather than one giant goal.

Remember to make each of these sub goals as specific as you can, working backwards from the goal above them (i.e. work backwards from a monthly goal to create a series of weekly goals).

Goal Planning Step 3 – Conquer Your Fears

A major hurdle many people face when planning out their goals is conquering their fear. They may set goals they want to achieve, and even create a goal plan, but because of their fear they never take any action to achieve the personal goals they have set.

Fear of goal setting can come as a result of many things, although usually it’s because a person has set goals the wrong way and is trying to tackle very large goals without breaking them down enough into smaller sub goals.

The other reason which can create fear is feelings of inadequacy or self doubt.

If a person has experienced many setbacks in the past and doesn’t feel confident in being able to achieve what they want, they may choose to take no action because they start out with an expectation of failure.

Conquering Goal Setting Fear

In order to ensure you are successful at goal setting you must conquer any fears you have relating to your goals.

To do this first identify the doubts you have about your goals. If your doubts are due to you not having the skills needed to accomplish your goal, then create separate goals to address each of those fears.

You may find that there are certain things you need to do before you can start working on your main goal, and so you might be better postponing it until you are ready.

If your goal setting doubts are due to feelings of inadequacy, then question whether those beliefs are really true or not?

Most of the time you will find that your beliefs are actually things you picked up a long time ago from other people, and so are not relevant to what you are trying to do now.

However the best way to overcome a fear of setting goals, is to ensure that you strongly desire to achieve the goal you have set.

If you want something badly enough you will be motivated to try and get it, and you will soon forget about any fears you may have.

So make sure you get this goal planning stage right, because if you skip over it you may find it difficult to successfully complete your personal goals.

Goal Planning Step 4 – Putting Your Plan Into Action

This is the most important step when it comes to planning your goals, because without action, goals are just dreams.

Once you reach this stage you should have a list of your main goals and the monthly, weekly and daily sub goals you will need to do to complete your overall objective.

This is a good time to review the goals you have set and modify, delete or add to them if needed.

Seeing the big picture will allow you to determine exactly how everything fits together, and so this is a good opportunity for you to optimise your plan.

Once you are happy with your goal plan, the next step is to start planning what order you are going to do them in.

Some goals will be more important and so should be done first, whilst other goals may rely on the completion of another goal before you can start working on them.

How you do this is up to you, although some people like to plan their goals using a timeline approach where they map out the things they need to do on a straight line.

This can be quite a good method of goal planning, because you can see how everything fits into a set period of time.

Celebrate Victories

The final thing to remember about goal planning is to give yourself certain milestones you need to reach.

These should be significant tasks which once completed will signify that you are well on your way to completing your goals.

These milestones could include loosing a certain amount of weight, earning a certain amount of money or anything else you can easily measure or quantify.

Once you reach these milestones make sure you celebrate, because this will help to increase your goal setting motivation and determination.