Practical, Effective Goal Setting Creates Confidence

by Joanie
(Kewanna, IN USA)

In order to be effective in setting goals in your life, be very certain the goals are realistic. If you're searching for that special career, try not to set your sights too high. It may sound appealing to reach for the stars and say, "I want to be a CEO of a large corporation," or "I'd like to become a famous novelist like Stephen King." However, is that attainable at this point in your life? In most cases accomplishing smaller, short-term objectives would be not only practical but also much more encouraging.

Think of it this way. Let's take a man named Tim who wants to lose 50 pounds. He gets discouraged because each time he looks in the mirror, a slender body seems awfully far away. However, what if Tim set short-term goals each week that were super easy to accomplish? His goal for one week could be to simply take brisk fifteen-minute walks on three days. At the end of the week he can look back and see what he's done. He gains confidence because he set a goal and obtained it. He can set the same goal for the next week but possibly add another day of walking or plan to avoid the pizza and chips during the late movie. That's easy to do and measurable.

Reasonable, down-to-earth aspirations are much easier to attain than far-sighted ones. We can define some short-term goals for ourselves as we examine our career choices. If you want to be a writer, set a goal to increase your typing speed and offer to write short articles for your local newspaper this month. Do you want to become a CEO? Decide you will do all you can to save up money to pay for an evening management or finance class at the community college. Take those small but necessary steps in making changes to your lifestyle so that you can gain confidence as you work toward the larger, more demanding tasks. You'll be amazed when you look back and see all you've accomplished!