Hello Silicon Valley,

I hope you enjoyed my article ‘Silicon Valley:  2010 The Year of Resiliency (Part 1)’.  If you haven’t read it, please click on the link .  If you have problems with the link, please go to ’Articles’ and scroll down to the appropriate one. Reviewing the article will serve as a foundation for this one.

I believe we often make things more complicated than they need to be.  Therefore, I will be keeping this simple. Goal-setting is divided into three parts.  Part A is Goal Identification.  Make a firm decision on what you want to work on.                                                         

Part B is Goal Requirements:  i) be specific - break down the goal into smaller parts (ie. who, what, where, when and how).  Depending on the situation, you may not need to respond to all 5 queries.  

                                        ii) be concrete - make the goal tangible by writing down the above answers as a declaration by using the first person thus ‘owning’ it, using the present tense (as if you have already achieved your goal), and placing your written goal where you can see it every day.

                                      iii) make it measurable -  This refers to how often you plan to monitor your actions.  It will serve as a tool to accurately evaluate of your progress.

Now, let’s run through an example to help illustrate these steps.  Say you have picked the area of career -let’s say you have always wanted to challenge yourself with a new project ie. becoming a member of the Personnel Commitee but made excuses not to follow through.  Next, you get specific by answering these queries.  

• Who?  I  (as in ‘you’).
• What?  Taking on a new project. 
• Where?  On the Personnal Committee. 
• When?  Beginning next month. 
• How?  Putting my name forward as an interested member.  

Now, you move onto writing down the declaration, thus combining your responses. 

Ie. “I am taking on a Personnel Committee project starting in March by putting my name forward as an interested party.”   Add the measurement piece now.  For example: “I am reviewing my progress by the end of the first week of March.” 

In summary, this is your goal:  “I am taking on a Personnel  Committe project in March by putting my name forward as an interested party. Then, I am reviewing my progress by the end of the first week of March.” 

Part C is knowing there will be peaks and valleys.  Hang-in there through the ‘downs’.  Know that this is a normal and vital part of reaching your goal.  It is vital because it makes you more resilient for overcoming future challenges. If you reach your goal, great.  Continue to consolidate your gains or set a new goal.  If you do not achieve your goal, no self-judgements!  Simply look at what you can do different for next time.

Another way to look at it

Goal-setting takes practice.  Start out simple.  You can always add more details as you gain proficiency.

I’d love to answer any questions you may have or read your comments.

Here’s to sucessfully achieving your 2010 goals.

Anita

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 21st, 2010 at 7:10 am and is filed under Life Coaching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.