Had you achieved your 2008 resolution?
Do you have a set of goals? How realistic is your goals? I was surprised that many people do not have a goal, they just don’t have one. I was quite amused by a reply of a friend, I asked her one day, I said “It’s only 4 more months to year end. Had you achieved your 2008 resolution?”. She smiled with feigned and said “Yes, I always have the same resolution every year and achieved them every year too”. I replied, “Wow, that’s good, what’s your resolution for this year, mind to share?”. She said “My yearly resolution is not to have a resolution, and I always achieve them, I don’t make one because often it would NOT be fulfilled.”
Goals set has to be realistic and measurable, when goals given are not realistic and clear, it’s already doomed from the beginning. It immediately gives you a negative feeling to hold on to the persistence to accomplish your mission to achieve them. Even if you neglected them for being unrealistic such as setting a goals “to live happier, having less money problems and earn more money through passive income (stocks and properties)”. At first glance, it seems to be good goals, actually it’s not clear, and it does not have a time period to achieve them. If you print this out and read them everyday, your subconscious mind would only know what you want but do not know when you want it, to be precise and clear, first, you need to list them down clearly.
1. Goals setting has to be clear and specific.
It’s easy to say “I want clear all my debt in the next 2 years”, but to be more goals specifics “I want clear my debt by cultivate habit to be good in money management (learn up financial tools, document your expenses in excel or paper), spend less for more (live frugally), save 10% of my income (saving for rainy days), I will pay my credit card balance double or triple the minimum payment required by cutting down my spending habits, and I want to accomplish this in the next 2 years” is better.
2. Goals setting must be measurable.
Health - I want to lose weight. How many KG do you plan to lose your weight in 6 months or 1 year time?
Wealth - I want to make more money. How much money do you want to make in 6 months or 1 year time?
Love - I want my relationship to be better - When will you know your relationship will be better, give result that will let you know that you’ve accomplished the goals.
3 Goals setting is followed by action.
You don’t set goals and sits there waiting for them to come, you have to be motivated to get what you want to be by starting movement towards the goals. Sticks to your goals and be persistence, start it slow if can, actions speak louder than words.
4 Goals setting in writing.
Write down your goals, it makes them more real and print it out and sticks it somewhere you can see it everyday. Visualize them everyday, feels how it is looks like when you already achieve them, and this can influence your subconscious mind.
The last things to remember is that goals naturally evolve, from time to time, we would change our goals in certain levels of life. Change accordingly and be firmed to your goals.
Hi Foongpc,
Thanks for such a wonderful comment, I totally agreed. Small progress will eventually get you there.
I agree goal settings have to be specific, realistic and measureable. Otherwise, it won't work and we might just as well not set any goals. I think a lot of people get demoralized when they don't achieve their goals, but what they forgot is even if they are not successful at getting what they want, by setting goals that are specific and can be measured, we can see the small progress along the way and that's how we get motivated to continue striving for our goals which we will reach in due time.