Goal Setting is Your Key to Success

I loved being inspired. Earlier today, I was doing a review for a future blog post and stumbled upon Ben Yoskovitz's blog. He spoke about writing goals and how they are vital to your success. I like that. I always have a list of goals in my head but very seldom do I make them specific, write them down, set a target date, and hold myself accountable. In fact, I often find myself doing things which can lead to failure.

Ben took personal goal setting one step further and started a "Post-Thanksgiving Goal Writing Project". This is cool because it forces you to tell your blog readers about what you plan to do. Public disclosure makes it much more difficult to skip out on your commitment.

So, here it goes.

With you as my witness, I set a goal to lose 10 pounds by January 1st. I'm not obese or anything... but I have noticed that my pants are starting to get a little tight. To make matters worse, we've just finished a long Thanksgiving weekend. And with all the holiday parties coming up next month... it could get ugly by the first of the year. We don't want that, so it's time to set a goal and start slimming down a bit. Thanks to Ben for the kick in the butt!

As of this morning, I weighed in at 190lbs. I'm 6ft tall, so that puts me on the upper limit of the healthy weight chart. Shedding a few pounds definately won't hurt me any. I'll keep you posted on how it goes and I encourage you to set your own Post-Thanksgiving Goals. If you don't have a blog, feel free to join in by posting your goal as a comment to this post. Go ahead, try it! New Year resolutions are highly over-rated, so get started today.

Not sure where to start? Here are a few goal setting tips from The GoalGuy's website:

1. Write It Down- Goals are specific, measurable, and time-bounded. Write your goals so that they reflect all three components.

2. List Your Personal Benefits- Identify exactly "Why" you want to achieve this goal. List all the ways you will you benefit personally.

3. Analyze Your Current Position- Success is information dependent. You need integrity in your information. Identify exactly your specific strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities as it relates to achieving this goal.

4. Identify Obstacles and Risks- List everything that could possibly prevent you from achieving this goal.

5. Identify Investments and Sacrifices- List everything, including time, money, and sacrifices that you can anticipate.

6. Knowledge Requirements- Identify what additional knowledge you need to acquire or have access to.

7. Support Team- List the people, groups, and organizations you may need help from as well as the specific role each one plays.

8. Develop Your Plan- List in chronological order each activity and their corresponding target dates for completion. Use all the information gathered in previous steps to develop your plan.

9. Set a Deadline- Determine on what date you will achieve this goal.

10. Reward and Celebrate- Identify your reward for the achievement of this goal. You deserve it!

Filed in: CWS, post-thanksgiving goal writing project, goal setting