Goal Setting, One Step at a Time
Photo credit: lululemon athletica)[/caption]
Michael Hyatt has an excellent blog on leadership and productivity. He recently realized, based on some audience feedback, that many of his readers weren’t very effective at setting goals, so he wrote a primer on goal setting. It is one of the best I’ve seen at quickly detailing why goals matter and how to set good goals.
I wanted to highlight one of his first points about goal setting. Early in my career, ambitious and eager to make a HUGE impact in business and in life, I would commonly set a number of goals each year. I’d make sure they were SMART (Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic and Timely), but by the middle of the year I’d have only made progress on a few of them. It took me a few years to realize what I’m sharing with you now. I wasn’t having trouble completing the goals because they were too hard, or because they were too broad. It was a challenge because I had too many of them. I had multiple goals set for every section of my life and added up, 12-15 goals was just way too many to accomplish.So follow Michael’s advice:
#1 - Keep them few in number. Productivity studies show that you really can’t focus on more than 5–7 items at any one time. And don’t try to cheat by including sections with several goals under each section. This is a recipe for losing focus and accomplishing very little. Instead, focus on a handful of goals that you can repeat almost from memory.
Goal setting is crucial for success and measurement of momentum, and if you’re having trouble with your goals, read his primer. You’ll walk away encouraged and excited to get started!
