People are getting serious about setting goals, and they want guidance. More and more articles are cropping up on the topic, and business leaders are once again planning goal setting retreats for their teams. Those who have never formally created these types of success targets are lining up to learn how to achieve more than before.
This is not something that is shiny or new to Generation Y. Professionals of all ages, across industry lines, are taking a look at how to set and achieve goals.
However, goal setting is not really trendy. It is something done formally or informally as part of regular planning for many in the business world. For those who use goal setting as a success tool, the process achieving is part of their soul, not something that is coming into fashion.
My own experience with setting goals and actively working to achieve them has been productive. I doubt I could have had a growth oriented career in business or run my own business for several years without a goal centered focus. While I do not always reach all the goals I set, I have advanced my career step by step. Credit for my success is linked to the pursuit of my clear and written goals.
Throughout my career I have read a lot about goals. Sometime I encountered good advice, other times it was not as powerful. When I set a goal, it makes it easier for me to make the hard choices that always seem to crop up. If I have to decide on an action, it is simple to ask myself if the decision moves me closer to my goal, or farther from the target.
This is not about riches or fame, but instead a way of getting focused in a noisy and crazy world. My goals are the bumpers in the gutters that keep the ball moving toward the pins without falling off the side (think of taking a kid bowling and using the bumpers to keep their ball from falling off the side).
Anyone who attended goal setting workshops in the 1980s or 1990s has probably heard the the famous (and fake) story about the 1953 graduating class at Yale University, and how the 3% who had clear written goals were more successful than the other 97% of their class.... combined!!! While the story was told by many famous speakers (Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, etc...) it has no factual basis.
Some have tried to cite this false story as a reason to pooh-pooh the use of goals. But a fake story, even one that was over-told, does not undermine the power that many find in working toward a defined destination.
I started my speaking career teaching goal setting sessions. I was not yet seasoned as a speaker, but people seemed to like the classes and it encouraged my career as a professional speaker, although I had branched out to other topics.
My business coaching clients have always been exposed to my encouragement to embrace the practice of goal setting and I am again starting to teach this topic to audiences. I have re-tooled my most popular talk, "Your Goals and Your Soul" for 2013 and beyond.
Pay attention to blogs, periodicals, keynotes, seminar sessions, training classes, etc.... as the topic of goal setting is coming on strong for the next few years. Invest your time to listen to what business writers and speakers are saying about ways to work toward goals, and achieve more in your career and life. Do not shy away from the idea of having goals.
Few things are as satisfying in your career as crossing off an attained goal that you have been pursuing over time. Reaching a goal takes time, but the success is sweet!
Have A Great Day
thom singer
Great post, Thom! I will always be passionate about goal setting because I have seen it work so many times. I can't talk about goal setting without mentioning my favorite quote from Paul J. Meyer: "If you are not making the progress you would like to make and are capable of making, it is simply because your goals are not clearly defined."
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