CHARACTERISTICS OF OUR GOALS

I've done the goal setting things in the past. I heard
of the studies where only the successful 3% have goals
written down. I had ideas of what I wanted to
accomplish. But for differing reasons, I didn't always
reach them as often as I would have liked. Some were
just ideas which stayed ideas. Others I worked at
didn't turn out as planned. So I wondered why.

>From what I came up with, some were due to things I was
or wasn't doing. Not happy with that as an answer, I
looked around for other possibilities. And I came up
with my own list of what goals have in common.
Characteristics if you will.

A goal must be…

ACHIEVABLE: Just because we may not have done
something doesn't make it impossible for us. Odds are,
someone, somewhere, at some point in time, has done
what we would like to do. That by itself, makes it
possible. And, like running the 4-minute mile, what
seemed impossible before, is now achievable.

BELIEVABLE: Can we do it? Can we learn how to do
what it takes? Do we have the time? Can we find the
time? Do we have the self-discipline it will take to
keep going to achieve it? Have we made any steps toward
it? Have we reached any other goals in our lifetime no
matter how small they seem now? As long as we can
answer yes to some of those questions, and our goal is
within reason, it can happen for us.

DESIRABLE: Whatever we set as a goal, it must have
meaning to us. We should have our own set of reasons as
to why attaining this goal is important. By knowing why
we want to attain something is a powerful force behind
our getting it. Things will happen to derail us, but
keeping focused on why we do what we do, will help
considerably on those days when things seem to be
against us.

MEASURABLE: We need to know we are getting
someplace. All too often we feel as if we are stuck
just because we haven't gotten where we wanted to go
yet. We don't always see how far we have come, we just
see the long road ahead. By having our goal set up in
such a way that we can see the steps we can take, will
help provide the momentum needed to keep going.

WORKABLE: Each step along the way is part of our
plan to get there. The plan should be written out so we
can see what we will need to do next. Plus, it gives us
something to mark off along the way. Like a shopping
or to-do list, the plan gives us a basic guide for what
needs to be done. It's up to us how to work it.

FLEXIBLE: Our plans should provide room for changes
along the way. We have learned so much from Murphy's
law that whatever can go wrong, will at some point. We
need to be able to just go around the problems we face.
It may mean adjusting our goal a bit or re-working our
plans. But as long as we have room to change, we won't
get stuck.

I hope something in this article inspired you to begin
looking at your own goals. Well, at least that was MY goal.

© 2002 David Stoddar