4 Tips to Setting Powerful Personal and Professional Goals

Goal setting is a powerful tool. Setting goals allows you to focus on the important stuff, both personally and professionally, and it provides you with a clear path to follow in order to become the person you want to be. Goal setting allows individuals to grow and further themselves, but more importantly it helps people visualize how far they’ve come, and it can keep them motivated to keep going.

There’s a certain art to setting the right goals. Here are 5 tips to get you started on setting the right goals.

Evaluate and reflect

Before you decide on anything, make sure you have thought deeply about what you want to achieve, by when do you want to achieve it, and by what means. Take some time to evaluate and reflect on your current situation; think about what you like and don’t like. Think about what things you have control over, which of those would you like to change and why.

This reflection exercise will help you start setting goals with a clear vision and intention.

Set goals that motivate you

If you’re setting a goal for yourself, make sure it motivates you. If it’s not an important and valuable goal, you will have a hard time achieving it and taking the necessary steps towards it. Whichever goal you set has to play an important role in the larger picture.

What things are important in your life? Make sure your goals align with that in order to stay motivated and keep working towards your goals. Not all goals are created equal, but they all require time and commitment; if you’re not motivated by them, you won’t give them the time of day nor the put in the necessary effort required to reach them.

Think SMART

Experts say that in order for a goal to be effective and powerful it needs to be SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound.

Be specific so you know which steps you need to take. It needs to be measurable for you to be able to evaluate the degree of your success. Attainable means it has to be a realistic goal; there’s no use in setting high goals that aren’t necessarily achievable… this will only lead to demotivation and frustration. It has to be relevant with the direction you want to give your personal and/or professional life. And it has to be time bound, you need to set a deadline to encourage you to work on it constantly and prevent you from putting things off.

Create an action plan

Once you know what you want to achieve and where you want to go, it’s time that you prioritize goals and create an action plan. Think of which goals you need to work on first, which ones are the most time sensitive, and which ones will be an important stepping stone towards the rest. When creating an action plan, determine how you will hold yourself accountable, include deadlines, and the tools/resources you will need to reach each one of your goals. Write down individual steps and make sure you give yourself a reward for small achievements; it’ll keep you going and motivated.

Pro tip: if you work from home and are having a hard time setting or reaching your professional goals, come visit us! The right environment can help you get in the right state of mind.