A clearly defined goal. Correct goal setting, or How to conquer everything

Start big, achieve even more, and never look back. We must always go beyond. (Arnold Schwarzenegger)

This article is a continuation of the article “How to set goals correctly and achieve them. Why you need to be able to set goals”, where we looked at the main reasons why people do not achieve their goals and what proper goal setting means.

In order to independently and CORRECTLY set goals for yourself and, accordingly, achieve them, I will tell you 10 rules (or you can call them secrets, tricks) for achieving your goal.
Even if you use at least some of them, you will significantly change the difference between “your BEFORE” and “your AFTER”.

Correct goal setting includes 10 rules:

1. Break your life down into component areas.

Career, business, family, communication, self-development and others that you have.

Determine which of these areas are most relevant and valuable.

Here is a great opportunity to see what your personal life is filled with...

2. Identify the areas of your life that provide the most meaning to you

If you find it difficult to determine at first which area provides the greatest value, think about what you will always find time for, no matter how busy and tired you are.

For example, even if you return tired from work, you will always find the time and energy to chat with your child or sit him on your lap (if the child’s age, of course, allows it).

3. Create yourself two time diagrams:

The first is what you have time for and what you spend it on.

The second is what you would like to devote more time to, what you would like to spend less time on. This is a diagram of the ideal use of your time.

Compare these two diagrams.

You will get the answer to what is taking up your time now and what you should change in your life to get closer to the second diagram.

4. Dream! Yes yes, Dream!

Think about what you are striving for, what you want to achieve, what will make your life truly fulfilling and happy?

I usually have such dreams during internal dialogues with myself: a bunch of options go through my head about what I want to be or what I want to be able to do, and as a result, the most vivid image is chosen.

5. Many of your dreams can become your life goals.

What is the difference between a desire and a goal?

A desire is simply a dream, an idea, a thought.

And the goal has its own criteria and guidelines, by which you can determine how much you have already done and how much you still have left.

Take yourself mentally into the future.

What and how should change in your life?

Set yourself guidelines for goals that you will move towards.

6. Your goals must be specific.

You must clearly understand what you want, so your goals should be as specific as possible.

“Becoming a businessman” is an example of a non-specific goal. Absolutely nothing is clear:

• In what area (what do you want to do)
• Whereby
• What does it mean to you to be a businessman: for some it means opening a company with a multimillion-dollar income, but for others it is enough to cover their living minimum with the help of “buying and selling”...

Maximum specificity:

• When?
• With whom?
• How many?

7. Define your quantitative criteria for achieving goals

A question to check the correctness of defining the criteria: “How will I understand that the goal has been achieved? »

• Not to become strong, but to do 100 push-ups.
• Not to become rich, but to earn 978564.00 money.
• Not to lose weight, but to lose -20 kg of weight.

8. Give your goal a time frame for when it should be achieved.

This will motivate you to achieve it as quickly as possible and put you within a clear time frame.

Are you familiar with the situation when you rewrite some goal from year to year? Do you know why? Because you didn't set a time frame for it!

• Earn 978564.00 money by the end of this year.
• Do 100 push-ups in 1 minute.
• Lose -20 kg of weight in 4 months.

9. Set realistic goals for yourself

Real goals are those goals that you can accept in your mind, that do not make you feel like you and your goal are completely different parts of the world.
For example, the goal of flying into space is not realistic for the average person who has only seen space on TV.
But for a professional pilot who has dreamed of space since childhood, this goal is much more realistic.
Although... Now for “many millions of dollars” you can fly into space without preparation, right from the couch. This significantly increases the reality of this dream for ordinary citizens. All that remains is to find many millions)))

10. Your goals should be ambitious and challenge you!

Only overcoming obstacles makes the goal more valuable to you:

• Force yourself to wake up earlier every morning and go for a run.
• Limit yourself in food in order to be in shape
• Doing 'one more' cold call» to conclude a new deal

So don’t set yourself simple goals that you can achieve without much effort!

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

Thanks for reading this article - I spent a lot of time creating it for you. I will be grateful if you give yours feedback. This blog cannot be complete without information from you. So let's stay in touch!

• Don't forget to leave a comment- your conclusions, thoughts and comments are worth their weight in gold. I read them all, make sure to respond and create new articles based on them.
• Share a link to this article- if what I wrote is useful, interesting or touching for you, please tell your friends and acquaintances about it.
• Join me on Instagram - there you will find situations, thoughts, impressions from my Everyday life, my own ups and downs in the struggle for harmony, as well as many photographs depicting how I try to follow my passions and principles of life.
• Join me on

A dream, a cherished desire, a life goal - at first glance, these are similar concepts. In fact, these words mean completely different things. A dream may be unrealistic, and a desire may be impossible to fulfill. In order for what you dream to come true, you need to move from wishes to goal setting. However, the goal can also remain unachieved if you formulate it incorrectly. Setting goals correctly and achieving them. This logical chain is the path to success.

How to set goals correctly

Goal setting is the process of setting a goal. Many popular science books are devoted to this concept. According to psychologists, a correctly formulated task is a 50% guarantee of its achievement. Many people don’t know how to set goals correctly. Therefore, it is not surprising that trainings where professional psychologists teach the basic principles of goal setting. Unlike desires and dreams, a goal is a definite, clear concept, since it has a specific result behind it. This result is a must see. You must believe in achieving your goal. Only then can it really be achieved.

Formulations: “I want to expand my business”, “I want to increase my income” are examples of desires. To translate them into the category of goals, you need to specifically define what it means for you to expand your business. Open new branches? Expand the range of services? Attract more clients? Increase production volume? How much to increase or expand: by 20% or 2 times? The result you strive for must be measurable.

The result you strive for must be measurable.

It is best to write down a specific goal in your diary. To formulate it, use active verbs such as “do”, “earn”, “achieve”. Do not use the words “must”, “necessary”, “needed”, “should”, as they carry a semantic connotation of coercion and overcoming internal barriers. This is your goal. You want to achieve it, no one is forcing you to do it.

Achieving goals that are too simple is not fun. The task must be complex so that you have to overcome difficulties on the way to it; this is the only way to develop. But the goal must be real. Therefore, before formulating it, it is necessary to analyze the current state of affairs and evaluate the available resources and capabilities. It is unlikely to be possible to open 5 new branches at once or increase income 10 times. Achieve smaller goals first. Over time, you will come to what you didn’t even dare to dream about at the beginning of your journey.

Correct goal setting necessarily contains an indication of the time for its achievement. For example, goals to expand the customer base or increase production volume need to be specified in percentage terms (by 30%) and a period (1 year).

If you learn to correctly and specifically formulate goals for yourself, you will be able to clearly and clearly set them for others. The head of the organization must know the basic principles of goal setting. Then he will require his managers to correctly formulate the goals of their work. And this is a guarantee that they will actually complete their tasks.

How to achieve your goals

The methods for achieving goals are:

1. The goal leads to the result. If it is very important to you, then it will be easier to achieve it. Imagine all the benefits of achieving the final result. Anticipate in advance the feelings of joy and success that you will experience at that moment. Then no fears or doubts will interfere with your path to your goal. Psychologists call this technique the visualization method. It helps to actualize all external and internal resources to achieve the goal, attracts necessary ideas, people, funds. For example, think about the benefits you'll get from increasing your income by 50%. You will be able to afford more expensive real estate, a car, vacation, gifts for loved ones. Increase your social status. Which of these benefits do you most desire? Imagine that you have already achieved it. And let this picture motivate you. When you set goals for your employees, help them see the positives in their overall achievements. Salary increases, bonuses, career growth, receiving additional funds in the company budget for corporate events.
2. To go a long way towards achieving a big and important goal, you need to divide it into stages. To do this, the global goal is divided into smaller goals. These, in turn, can also be broken down into smaller tasks. If all this is schematically depicted on paper, you will get a real system of goals and subgoals. Try to formulate each of them clearly, indicating the time frame for achievement, and then this scheme can be easily turned into step by step plan movement towards the main global goal. Such planning will become the basis for drawing up clear instructions for action for your subordinates. For example, the goal of expanding the range of services can be divided into subgoals: study the specifics of new services, purchase the equipment necessary to provide them, select specialists or train your employees, find additional space.
3. Close people can help you achieve your personal goals. And when we're talking about business-related tasks cannot be accomplished without the help of employees and partners. Having broken down the global goal into specific subgoals, think about which of your subordinates can cope with each of them most successfully. But remember, you set the initial goal for yourself, it is important to you, therefore the responsibility for achieving it also lies, first of all, with you. If you do not achieve your goal because one of your employees did not complete the task assigned to him, then the blame for this will lie with you. This means that you overestimated the resources of this employee. Perhaps he needs more time to solve his problem or needs to improve his skills. Or maybe a completely different specialist is needed to achieve this subgoal.
4. Try to assess in advance the obstacles that will arise on the way to achieving your goal. Think about how you can overcome or eliminate them. Not all at once, but gradually, one at a time. Of course, it is not possible to predict all problems. But you will have a plan to eliminate at least some of them.
5. Look for additional resources. New information, new knowledge and skills will help overcome obstacles that at first may seem the greatest. You may have to hire new specialists (marketers, analysts, content managers, business trainers) or your previous employees will need to undergo educational courses, trainings, and seminars.
6. Make a general plan of action for the period of time that you have given yourself to achieve your goal. It will reflect who will solve intermediate tasks and in what time frame, what resources and additional investments will be attracted to overcome obstacles. Based general plan make up more detailed plans for every quarter, month and even week. Of course, you will have to adjust a lot in your plan during execution. After all, on the way to your goal you will gain new knowledge, experience, and circumstances may change. Most likely, during the implementation of the plan, you will see mistakes made during the preparation. So along the way you will need to work on mistakes. You may even have to adjust your goals if you realize that your resources are not yet enough to achieve the initial ones. But it's not scary. Anyway, you will already go part of the way, gain new knowledge and experience that will help you adjust your goals and move on.
7. Periodically analyze your goals, methods of achieving them and resources. This is useful for further rational planning of your path.
8. Weigh the price you will have to pay to achieve your goal. To train employees and purchase equipment you will need financial investments. To monitor the work of a new branch, additional time is needed. You may have to reduce your personal leisure time or spend less time with your family. To complete the training you need to spend strength and energy. And bringing a partner into the business will force you to give up the habit of deciding everything on your own. Assess your willingness to sacrifice it all and step out of your comfort zone.

A goal always leads to action, because if you do nothing, you won’t achieve your goal. And vice versa, in order to start acting, you need to set yourself a goal. There is no better motivation for action.

We do not realize all of our goals - and often the matter is not laziness and weakness, but the inability to correctly formulate tasks and determine priorities. Mann, Ivanov and Ferber published a book by self-improvement consultant Robert Sipe about how to use brain science to increase productivity and focus on the practical implementation of your ideas and desires. “Theories and Practices” publishes a chapter from the book.

Reduce the number of goals

Write down the 5-6 most important goals you want to achieve in the next 90 days. Why exactly so much? The main thing at this stage is to reduce: the duration and number of items on the list. Why? There are five or six goals, because, as we already know, consciousness is not able to effectively cope with excess information. It is easy for him to focus on only a few tasks at a time. Of course, there is a right time and place for what is called dream creation, when you get rid of all the limitations of thinking and time and indulge in bold and crazy thoughts. This exercise is useful for expanding your horizons and the capabilities of your mind, but now we will do something else. Take a calendar and determine the next checkpoint in about 90 days. Ideally this is the end of the quarter, the end of the month is also suitable. If the end point occurs in 80 or 100 days, this is normal; the main thing is to be close to 90. Why is this important? Because for about that long, a person can be very focused on one important goal without hitting the reset button and still see real progress.

It’s not for nothing that almost all diets or workout programs last approximately 90 days. A great example is the insanely popular at-home fitness program P90X. "P" stands for "power" and "X" stands for "Xtreme." Essentially just a marketing ploy. But behind the number “90” there are serious scientific justifications. The program is not called P10X, because you won’t achieve much success in 10 days, but it’s not P300X either: no one can stick to the program for that long without a break. Why do you think Wall Street places so much importance on companies' quarterly financial reports?

Because it is in this period of time that significant changes can be introduced without losing focus. In any important endeavor, a period much shorter than 90 days is too short to see real progress, and much longer is too long to clearly see the finish line. Study the next 90 days and write down numbers from 1 to 6 on a piece of paper. You will write down 5-6 most important goals that you want to achieve in 90 days. Now analyze all areas of your life: work, finances, physical health, mental/emotional state, family, community involvement - to ensure your list is comprehensive.

While you're writing down your most important goals for the next 90 days, let's review what makes a goal effective. In the previous chapter, we looked in detail at the five essential characteristics of your goals, and here I will again list them briefly.

1 . What you write down should be meaningful to you. These goals are yours and no one else's, so be sure to record what you really want to achieve.

2. What you write down must be specific and measurable. We're talking about a 90-day program with a clear end date, so general phrases like “increase income,” “lose weight,” or “save money” are inappropriate. Be clear about what exactly you intend to achieve during this period. How much money to earn or save? How many kilograms to lose? How many kilometers to run? What will your sales be (define specific numbers)? Your numbers or details themselves are not important to me, but specificity is necessary. By neglecting this step, you will miss out on most of the opportunities this process gives you.

3. Goals must be of a suitable scale: requiring effort, but at the same time achievable from your point of view. Remember: you have about three months to do everything, and then you’ll have to sound the all-clear. So choose goals of a suitable scale. When performing this exercise, you will have to choose between the options “a goal that is bolder so that you have to strain” and “a goal that is more modest so that you are on the safe side.” The choice depends on your experience and previous successes. If you are used to easily achieving the main thing or you are a little bored, then choose a more daring goal. If you are doing this for the first time, then you should choose a more modest goal.

4 . Even if it is obvious, I will emphasize: goals need to be recorded in writing. You will be doing both yourself and me a disservice if you read all this and do nothing. I didn't say "think about what you want to achieve in the next 90 days", I said "write it down." I assure you that the coordinated work of the eyes, hands and brain raises the selection and design of goals to a whole new level. So, get your goals down with pen and paper, not just in your mind.

5 . You'll be reviewing what you write on a regular basis, so be honest with yourself and create goals that you're excited to achieve. Once you have laid the foundation, we will develop whole plan with the need to be accountable to yourself and the programming elements, so be aware that you will be interacting with these goals.

Enough descriptions - it's time to work! Take a pen and paper and write down your 5-6 most important goals for the next 90-100 days. Give it as much time as you need, and then get back to reading.

Define your key goal

Now you need to determine which of these goals is key for you. You may ask, “What is a key goal?” And that's great, because you've probably never looked at your goals like this before. Your core goal is the one that, when seriously pursued, supports most of your other goals. As you look at your short list, you'll probably notice that there are connections between many of the goals; you might even realize that some are competitive with each other. But I have found that in almost all cases there is one goal that, if pursued persistently, is most likely to achieve the desired results in all areas. I don't want to overcomplicate this. You may already know which of your goals fits this description.

Often, when a person gets to this stage, one of the goals he has written down will jump out at him and seem to shout, “Hey! Make my dreams come true!” If you have already found this goal, simply mark it on the list and only then continue reading. If the key goal is not immediately visible, that's okay too. I myself often had to figure out which of my goals was key and where to direct my main efforts. You want the one that is most likely to help you reach the others.

There are several options. Sometimes achieving a key goal indirectly causes the implementation of others, almost automatically. It happens that a key goal requires the achievement of others as an intermediate stage or an auxiliary tool. And sometimes a core goal can impact your life so much that you gain the strength, confidence, and energy to crush any wall you encounter. Here's an example. Recently I started to figure out what I want to achieve in the remaining 100 days of the year, and I came up with the following:

1 . Personal selling.

2. Personal income.

3. Pay the debt off.

4 . Run 355 km and do 35 strength training sessions.

5 . Meditate at least 50 times.

6. Take 14 days of guilt-free vacation by disconnecting from everything.

These were the most important goals. Please note that they are all specific and measurable. I knew I needed to boil them down to one and get serious about it. Strictly speaking, there is no right answer; none of them were better or worse than the others. Deciding where the major effort would yield the greatest return was entirely up to me. Guess which target I chose? Sales. The number itself wouldn’t tell you anything, but I’ll describe my line of reasoning. By fulfilling the sales plan, I would thereby receive income and ensure repayment of the debt. Achieving my goals would also allow me to find time to take a vacation. What is the connection with training and meditation? I knew that maintaining physical, mental and spiritual health would give me the energy I needed. So all these goals are interconnected.

If the main effort is directed towards a key goal, the subconscious mind actually takes on all these goals and the likelihood of achieving them increases significantly. Do you understand? Your next step is to do this with your goals: determine which one is the key to the others. If you have not yet selected it, then choose slowly. Make sure you are confident in your key goal before moving forward.

Confirm the reason

Now that you have one goal to focus on, it's time to answer the most important question: why? Why is it important for you to achieve it? The answer can be suggested by intuition. Sometimes the stars align in such a way that it dawns on you. You say to yourself: “I don’t need unnecessary reasoning. I’ve never felt such enthusiasm before, I’m eager to fight!” If so, great! Just write down your thoughts as a guide. If insight does not occur, try to stimulate your thinking with these questions:

Why do I want to achieve this?

What will achieving this goal give me?

How will I feel when I make this goal a reality? Self confidence? Delight? Peace? Inspiration? Strength?

How will achieving this goal help me become better or stronger? What do I need to grow in?

What else can I do after getting this result?

There are no wrong answers to the question “why”, and the more you have, the better.

Visualize your goals

To focus and tune your mind, you need to visualize your goals. So far, all your actions have been related to making plans. Most people don't even get to this stage of thinking about their goals, so you're already ahead. But there is still a lot you can do to speed up the process. Your subconscious is billions of times more powerful than your conscious mind. It thinks and works differently in many ways. As we have already said, one important key to the subconscious is to understand that it operates with images. The conscious mind controls coherent, linear thoughts, one after another (which even sound like sentences in your mind), and the subconscious, in fact, just sees pictures and persistently strives for them.

Take advantage of this: give your brain something to look at! Give him images to work with. Sometimes I have clients store images in a notebook or folder. Sometimes - create a dream board and hang it in your workplace so that you can see all the images at once. Many of my clients place pictures of their goals on cards along with affirmations. There are many ways to visualize your goals. Experiment and choose what suits you best.

Create supporting rituals

You won't have to sing hymns or sacrifice a lamb. To create a ritual, you consciously build certain automatic patterns of behavior that become tied to your goals. This is not just a technique I made up. Here are three books that convincingly proved its benefits to me:

The first two books helped me understand the science behind habits, and the third helped me create a step-by-step program that is now bringing great benefits to me and my clients. Do you know that most of your thoughts have become habits? Dr. Deepak Chopra claims that more than 99% of the thoughts we have today are repetitions of yesterday, and 99% of tomorrow will be repetitions of today. Actions are determined by thoughts, and many of them - at work, in relation to health, finances - are carried out out of habit. They are brought to the point of automation. Think about what you do in the morning from the moment you wake up until you go to work: how often is one morning similar to another? You put your feet on the floor, stand up unsteadily, brush your teeth, take a shower, drink coffee, get dressed, have breakfast (maybe), drink coffee again, check email, drink coffee again, wake up the kids, make them breakfast, drink coffee again and leave.

Track your morning activities for a few days, and you might be surprised at how similar each day is to the next. So you already have automatic behavior patterns; I advise you to carry them out consciously for a while, and then replace them with new ones. There are two periods during the day when this will need to be done.

The first is as soon as you wake up in the morning. The first hour - or rather, the first few minutes - is a very good time to program your brain for success. At this time, it moves from sleep to wakefulness, and its waves are configured in such a way that your subconscious mind is extremely receptive to the “thought seeds” that you sow. Have you noticed how the first minutes after waking up can set the tone for the whole day? Have you ever gotten up on the wrong foot? Pay attention and you will begin to see practical connections between starting your morning effectively and your results throughout the day.

Most people miss this opportunity: in the morning we either get nervous for various reasons, or move in a fog, not fully understanding what is happening. And many successful people purposefully use the beginning of the day to prime their minds and focus on their dreams and goals.

The second period when you need to program yourself is the last few minutes of your day. They are important for many of the same reasons as the first hour of wakefulness: it is a transitional phase for the brain. During last hour Before going to bed, find the opportunity to once again repeat your goals and some affirmations in the form of images, and then express gratitude for all the good things that happened during the day.

A goal differs from a dream in that it has not only an image, but also real ways to achieve it. Without the means and concrete actions that make approaching the goal possible, one can only dream and fantasize.

A goal is an ideal, mental anticipation of the result of a person’s actions and the ways to achieve it using certain means.

In other words, a goal is a possible, imaginable future event or state of something, the implementation of which is desirable for a person (personal image of the future). At the same time, means and means are always consistent with the goal. possible ways necessary to achieve it.

Otherwise, this desired future will only be a spell of the elements (lack of possible means) or fruitless dreams (lack of ways to achieve it). Thus, a goal is always something for which specific human actions are carried out. No actions, no goals. And vice versa.

How to set goals correctly

The fulfillment of our desires and the realization of our dreams largely depends on how correctly we set our goals. Rules for setting goals help turn our aspirations and desires into reality. Therefore, in this article we will consider in detail the question “How to set goals correctly?”, and we will understand how to translate your desires and dreams into the category of real and clear goals that can be achieved.

1. Rely only on your own strengths

Before you set a goal, make it clear to yourself that all responsibility for its implementation falls entirely on your shoulders. To avoid the temptation to blame someone else for your failures, set goals that you can achieve without outside help. This goal-setting rule will save you in the future (if you don’t achieve something) from making the wrong conclusions when working on mistakes.

2. Formulate your goals correctly

Firstly, goals, like ideas, must be written down on paper (notebook, diary, diary). A goal written down in detail has a much greater chance of being realized. If you believe that you can keep them in your head without formulating goals on paper, then do not flatter yourself about achieving them. Such goals can safely be classified as dreams. Dreams and desires wander chaotically in our heads, they are chaotic, disorderly and completely unclear to us.

The efficiency of such dream goals is extremely small; in reality, they are achieved very, very rarely. Even with words, we often cannot describe what we really want. Therefore, formulating a goal must necessarily take place with a pencil in hand. The saying is true: “What is written with a pen cannot be cut down with an axe.”

Setting and formulating a goal using writing includes active work our subconscious, a formulated goal gives confidence and makes every next step meaningful.

Caught by a man goldfish. And she says to him: “Let me go, I will fulfill any of your wishes.” Well, he thought and thought about how to fit everything into one desire and said: “I want to have everything!” “Okay,” the fish answers, “you HAD everything.”

Secondly, correct goal setting and formulation imply that the goal must carry a positive charge. Therefore, it is better to formulate it using the rules of affirmations - talk about what you want, and not about what you don’t want. The correct goal is “to be rich”, “to be sober”, “to be slim”. The wrong goal is “to avoid poverty,” “not to drink,” “to get rid of excess weight.” If nothing positive comes to mind and something like “I don’t want this, I don’t want that” is constantly spinning around, try asking correctly: “This is what I don’t want. Then what do I want instead?

Also, following this rule of setting a goal, when formulating it, it is better not to use words that create resistance and reduce the effectiveness of the goal - “necessary”, “needed”, “should”, “must”. These words are the antipodes of the word “want”. How can you want, using blocking words to motivate? Therefore, replace “must” with “want”, “should” with “can”, “should” with “will do”.

The correct goal is “I want to relax and will go on vacation”, “I can and know how to earn money and will earn a lot of money.” Wrong goal - “I need to relax and go on vacation”, “In order to pay off the debt I must earn money.” It is also best to formulate a goal in terms of a result rather than a process: that is, “do this” rather than “work better.”

3. Break big goals into subgoals

Any big goal seems overwhelming until you begin to divide it into parts. For example, the desire to buy real estate abroad seems at first glance impossible. But if you move towards your goal in systematic steps, dividing it into stages, it will be easier to achieve it.

You can first set a goal to earn 3 thousand rubles a day, then 5 thousand, etc. Step by step (goal by goal) you will reach a level where you can think about buying real estate. Setting complex (global) goals and objectives, breaking them down into smaller ones, has an excellent motivational effect. Having achieved one, albeit insignificant, goal, you will feel satisfaction and the desire to move on. Reaching near goals, you gain strength and confidence to reach distant ones.

The way of thinking will gradually change. Understand, it is unrealistic to earn 20 thousand a month, and then in a few weeks increase your income to 500 thousand. Big money loves the prepared.

4. Specification of the goal

Often the reason why a set goal is not achieved is its lack of specificity, namely:

• Lack of clearly formulated specific results. What does it mean – “I want to learn Chinese” – to learn a couple of hundred words, or does it mean to learn to communicate fluently in this language, or perhaps “to learn Chinese” means to learn all 80 thousand characters and read the text without a dictionary?
• There is no way to measure this result. When setting goals and objectives, it is important to consider the further ability to measure the result. For example, if you want to reset excess weight, then you should know how much weight you want to lose, five, ten or maybe thirty kilograms.
• Lack of clearly defined deadlines. Here are two examples of goal setting: the first is “I want to increase the traffic to my website to a thousand unique visitors per day,” the second is “I want to increase the traffic to my website to a thousand unique visitors per day in three months.” The first option, without clearly defined deadlines, looks more like a desire than a goal. Well, a person wants to increase traffic to his resource, so what? He can come to this only in five years. The second option is a different matter - there is a set deadline that will stimulate and encourage in every possible way. Surely the deadline was determined reasonably, and not taken out of thin air, and therefore you will have to forget about laziness and work productively.

More, more specifics!

5. Goal adjustment

Be flexible! Just because you've set a goal doesn't mean you can't make adjustments as necessary. Anything can happen, circumstances may arise that can slow down or speed up the achievement of the goal, so you need to be prepared to adjust the goal. Remember that inertia in aspirations has never made anyone either successful or happy. Life changes, and you must have time to change with it!

6. Attractiveness of the goal

The goal and the consequences that its achievement will lead to should attract you! choose goals that attract, inspire and inspire you, otherwise “the game is not worth the candle.”

7. Believe that your goal is achievable

After formulating and setting a specific goal, you need to penetrate it and consolidate it in the subconscious. It happens that while consciously striving to achieve a goal, we are subconsciously not ready to achieve it. You can desire a goal, but deep down in your soul you don’t believe in its feasibility, you don’t believe in your abilities, or you simply consider yourself unworthy.

It is not enough to correctly formulate a goal, you need to charge it with the energy of confidence - this the most important condition readiness to achieve the set goal. All successful people, from television stars (Oprah Winfrey, Larry King...) and outstanding athletes (Michael Jordan, Fedor Emelianenko...), ending with politicians (Mitt Romney, Silvio Berlusconi, Arnold Schwarzenegger...) and businessmen (Richard Branson,...) have achieved what they have thanks to the ability to correctly formulate and set goals.

8. Adjustment of goals and objectives

If you have already defined your main life goals, this does not mean that you cannot partially change them over time. Adjustments to goals and objectives can take place at every stage of your life path. Flexibility in our time is the most important quality that allows us to adapt to changing conditions. It must be remembered that rigid views have never led anyone to success or happiness. You must change along with the world around you.

At least once a year, every person determined to succeed should devote time to such an activity as goal adjustment. For example, you can do this every birthday because it is the moment when you grow one year older and realize that you are wiser. Dedicate this day to analyzing the fruits that you managed to collect over the previous year.

Focus on your victories and don't forget to praise yourself for them. At the same time, you should not lose sight of your defeats. Draw the most correct conclusions and think about what you have to work on in the coming period. Be sure to evaluate the list of goals that was compiled a year ago. Carefully analyze each of the assigned tasks. Think about what exactly you did during the year to implement it.

Assess how far you have come in your pursuits. Ask yourself whether a specific goal has the same meaning for you as it did a year ago. Perhaps today this task will seem insignificant to you or, in some ways, even naive. In such a situation, you can safely cross it out.

Once you've gone through all your goals, start creating a new list. You can modify old tasks, focusing on the requirements of the present moment. If you have new thoughts about your goals, be sure to record them. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that new tasks do not contradict the old ones that are still relevant. We must remember that our capabilities must be assessed adequately. Try to set achievable goals for yourself, since unrealistic tasks that are almost impossible to achieve at this stage will become the subject of your disappointment in a year.

If your life has changed significantly over Last year, adjusting tasks is almost mandatory for you. There is no need to set too strict time limits for yourself. You don't have to wait a year to adjust your goals. By forming new life priorities, you will have the opportunity to understand and accept all the changes that have happened in your life.

Most likely, you have many goals. Try to write them down briefly and clearly on a piece of paper. Most likely, you won’t be able to do this quickly the first time, and the results of such work may surprise you. It wouldn’t hurt to compare the old and new lists in order to realize what you’ve given up and where you’re going.

Remember that you have the opportunity to change both the goals themselves and the methods for achieving them. For example, a past strategy for achieving a certain goal may seem like universal stupidity to you at the moment. Make changes in your life, otherwise there is a risk that you will remain in the same place for a long time.

It seems that we feel the difference between a dream and a goal... But how can we concretize our vague dreams and desires so that they become an achievable goal? How to remove fears? How do you know what the first step is to take?

Nowadays there are quite a lot of methods and trainings to achieve the goal. But anyone who has started to realize their dream knows that it is not at all easy. Let's turn to psychologists for a hint: what techniques do they use to successfully achieve their goals?

I use the well-known common formula: “A goal is a dream inserted into a time frame.” The main thing is to allow yourself to dream about what seems daring and unattainable. Break it down into time intervals and stages. And - perform each stage.

Visualization is very important. This is the most basic thing. If you imagine clearly, what exactly you achieve, then the vector of movement towards the goal will already be set.

Moreover, I am not a supporter of focusing on detailed elaboration of target visualization. It seems to me that it is more important to have a vivid, deep emotional “imprint” of your goal. And then it is necessary to break its achievement into stages, otherwise the final goal may be perceived as unattainable.

And be sure to set a time frame for achieving it. Otherwise, not limited by any time, you will achieve it and achieve it for the rest of your life. And this means - not to achieve. Or achieve what you want when it is no longer relevant.

Another point - you need to be realistic and understand that in any situation and position there are both pros and cons. This is the law of life. You need to think in advance what disadvantages may await you after you achieve what you want, so as not to be disappointed after achieving your goal.

Setting goals is an essential condition of human life. Often a person who does not have a goal loses the meaning of life. You can say this: how many people, so many goals.

But in society you can meet people who have no purpose, no meaning in their lives. Therefore, such people seek the meaning of their existence in destructive forms of behavior - drug use, alcohol, gambling.

When we talk about goal setting, in my opinion, it is advisable to consider it through the structure of the activity. The works of the famous Russian scientist A.N. Leontiev describe the theory of activity, which I will present below. So, how to set a goal and achieve it? Before answering this question, let's look at the structure of the activity.

In the structure of activity, the following characteristics are distinguished: motive, goal, subject, structure and means. Motive- this is what motivates us. For example, to increase your status, that is, your position in society.

Target- This perfect result, which we strive for. The goal may, for example, be a person’s desire to increase the productivity of the organization due to his status.

Actions. This is a completely independent conscious goal of a person. If we are talking about increasing one’s status, then the following actions may include: organizing and planning the working day and free time, overcoming fear in communication, fulfilling functional responsibilities and so on.

Operation in the structure of activity there is a way of carrying out an action. For example, this could be studying foreign languages that will improve a person’s status.

By means activities are those tools that a person uses when performing certain actions and operations. The means of activity may be obtaining an elite higher education, advanced training courses, recommendations from colleagues.

Returning to the question round table“How to set goals and achieve them,” the following recommendations can be given:

1. Decide what you want and who you want to be.
   Know and don’t be afraid to set goals for yourself.
2. Identify resources, opportunities, conditions, means,
   that you have to achieve your goal.
3. Think about what you need to do to achieve what you want.
   What actions do you need to take?
4. When faced with difficulties, analyze them.
   Think about what needs to be done and changed to achieve the Goal.
   But don't give up under any circumstances.
5. Take action.

I would say that there are strategic goals, and there are short-term goals.

Strategic goal- this is, rather, not a specific result, but the direction in which I am moving. For example (relatively speaking), we come to the station and choose a train to any city, but at the same time we may not go all the way - we can get off at any station of our choice and change direction.

Strategic goals largely depend on our spiritual values ​​and our professional choices. Such goals are more related to the meaning of life. Let's say at a certain stage I decide to devote myself to my family and move in this direction. Then the desire to develop in the profession comes, and I devote more time to my business.

Goals for the near future- these are more specific steps related to planning my life for a day, month, year. I set these goals for myself, taking into account my interests, and the interests of the people around me, and my material capabilities, and the meta-opportunities of my location and other places.

And, of course, when setting specific goals for myself, I think not only about the possibilities, but also about the limitations. If I see what's mine financial situation does not allow me to attend any expensive seminar now, most likely, I will postpone this venture and find another source of knowledge. That is, I try to set realistic goals for myself.

Flexibility in goal setting is the key to health, moreover. By setting ourselves difficult to achieve goals in advance, we doom ourselves to exhaustion. nervous system. Hence our dead ends, disappointments in ourselves and people, deep experiences.

On the other hand, if we always set goals based solely on convenience and comfort, using only those methods that we master perfectly, then such an approach will not develop us much personally. Therefore, when choosing goals, I also allow reasonable risks. Mostly it concerns my interests, my dreams.

The practice of psychoanalysis shows that the main thing is not to set a goal, but to understand whether it is really yours, whether you really want this and not something else.

And if you want, what prevents you from achieving this goal.

After all, we are often guided by completely different motives, and whatever the rational plans and methods of achieving goals, they may be ineffective until a person understands what is really stopping him and how to deal with it in each specific case.

I once borrowed the formula for moving towards achieving goals that are born from my dreams and interests, and are realized thanks to my certain activity, from my excellent teacher, psychologist Irina Vitalievna Streltsova. I still use this formula to this day.

Formula: D=f(p*v), Where

D - human activity, some action, movement;

f is a certain function, that is, what exactly needs to be done;

P is the value of the goal that a person sets for himself;

V is the probability of its (goal) implementation.

As you know, water does not flow under a lying stone. The above formula shows what the very activity that will help achieve the desired (goal) is born from. If we take into account all the parameters of this formula, then many “pipe” dreams will first turn into goals and then come true.

A phrase from the film "The Magicians", where a young man in love saves his bride and receives instructions from friends who teach him how to walk through walls, perfectly illustrates this formula, and it goes like this:

See the goal, believe in yourself and not notice obstacles.

In my article, I dwell in detail on the importance of having the mindset to achieve your plan (goal).

How to set goals correctly is a very good question. Keyword it says “correct”. Usually, when they talk about this, they mean goal setting technologies, that is, SMART, visualization, etc. But this is far from the main thing.

The most important thing is to set a goal that is important for the soul, our true Self, and not for the false Ego. Because the goals that we set from the false Ego, when achieved, turn out to be soap bubbles that do not bring happiness.

How to distinguish the goal from the true “I”, and not from the false Ego?

The goal is set not because something is missing for happiness, but because it expands happiness even more. When thinking about a goal and achieving it, the soul rejoices, even if the false Ego experiences fears associated with achieving this goal.

Goals from the false Ego always proceed from the fact that now happiness is not enough, and if something new appears in life (the result of the goal), then there will be more happiness. It won't, it's a trap :))

Further. Eat good way testing the goal - write “I want...”, then cross out “I want” and write “I’m afraid” on top and read what happened. Surprisingly, reality manifests itself - fears that may not be realized, but block the achievement of the goal. And working with these fears allows you to remove the blocks that prevent you from realizing your goal.

If the goal is correct and the fears have been worked out, then everything is simple - be sure to have these goals written down, plans for achieving them (also written down) and pay attention to these plans every day. And also close all the “emergency doors” so that there is no temptation to leave through them.

And also - from experience - you should not talk about your goals to people who may envy you. Their negative energy can really hinder your success.

4 most important parameters:

1. Checking the goal for the “mine is not mine” criterion.
If the task at hand is really necessary for me, interesting and important, it will be easy and joyful for me to invest in its achievement. Motivation will be internal. I won't need any "kicks" from outside. If I set a goal from the words “must” or “must”, its implementation will be complicated. You need to change the goal or look for bonuses in the existing one.

2. The goal should not be scary.
Let it be exciting, but not scary. Don't set the bar too high. When we know in advance that we most likely will not get what we want, there will be no motivation to achieve it. This applies to execution time, essence, and force majeure.

3. Praise and reward yourself not only for achievements ultimate goal. It is necessary to notice all the small steps that bring us closer to what we want.

4. Give yourself the right to make mistakes.
Error is one more step. Perhaps it was made a little in the wrong direction as planned. If I accept only an ideal result, it will be difficult and scary for me to approach new and complex tasks.

Time management teaches how to set goals and achieve them. Thanks to the quality of solving the assigned tasks, we achieve or fail to achieve our goals.

So, divide a sheet of paper into four parts and distribute tasks by degree of “importance” and “urgency”. You will end up with a list of four items:

1) tasks are important and urgent;

2) tasks are important, but NOT urgent;

3) tasks are NOT important, but urgent;

4) tasks are NOT important and NOT urgent.

You need to start things by solving important and urgent tasks, without deviating from the goal. And if there is time left, do things that are not important or urgent.

LAZINESS and PROCRASTINATION can overcome the mindset of rational behavior. Therefore, to achieve a goal you need WILL, PERSISTENCE and MOTIVATION.

In order not to burn out along the way to the goal, you need to maintain your resources and motivation to achieve the goal:

• thank yourself
• praise for what has been done
• “reward” yourself, for example, by going to the cinema with friends.

You can write down in detail what will happen when the goal is achieved, and re-read this list every day. You will definitely want to finish important things as soon as possible in order to realize what you have planned!

I wish us all purposeful activity!

From "Alice in Wonderland" by L. Carroll:
Alice asks the Rabbit: “Where are you running?”
Rabbit: "I don't know."
Alice: “If you don’t have a goal, you will definitely come SOMEWHERE.”

And we need “Where?” and when"? And how important is our goal to us?

It’s just wonderful if you have formulated your goal for work, and every word and wording as a whole resonates and motivates. Now I offer you a tool that will help you deepen your understanding of the goal and the steps to concretely bring it to life. To do this you will need a form ( see photo below), a pen and, of course, time.

First, try to find maximum amount answers to the question: “Why do you need this?”
You need to think purposefully and write down each question from bottom to top. When you feel like you've exhausted everything possible options, rest and move on to the vector down section.

Example. The goal is: “I want to be brief.” Why do you need this? To:

• respect yourself more;
• be an example to your children;
• effectively manage your team;
• stand out from the mainstream;
• to be heard;
• be a successful negotiator.

By the way, there is another option for working with this purpose.
This is a chain of questions and answers arising from the previous version. Why do you need this? To:

• respect yourself more.
  Why do you need to respect yourself more? To:
• achieve results faster.
  Why do you need to achieve results faster? To:
• progress successfully up the career ladder.

Now is the time to think and answer the question: “Why don’t I have this?”
Write everything from top to bottom possible reasons, because of which you still don’t have what you want:

• there was no opportunity to develop this skill;
• there were no good examples;
• there were not enough public appearances;
• there was no dedicated time for awareness and training.

There may be a different number of answers, the most important thing is to be honest with yourself and collect them to the maximum.

Now look with a fresh look on the work done and read what you wrote again.
Only after this are you ready to understand the deep meaning of this instrument.

1. Vector up or answers to the question “Why do I need this?” show what can become your real motivation. Now that you know exactly why, are you ready to work further, make efforts, and sweat for the sake of these ultimate goals? If yes, then your answers are truly sincere and your motivation is high.
2. Vector down or answers to the question “Why don’t I have this?” - this is a real action plan. If you know exactly what you haven’t done so far, it’s time to get to work. Now you know exactly what to do!

How to set goals correctly and achieve them - interesting topic, for me it all starts with the desire to develop and help those who are looking as much as possible. And then everything goes by itself.

I noticed this interesting pattern: the more I help those in need, the simpler and easier it is to solve my questions and problems. And through this the achievement of set goals occurs.

Correct goal setting depends on what a person is guided by, whether the goal really coincides with his true desires - or whether this goal is based solely on fears, stereotypes and the desire to prove something to someone.

Setting a goal and achieving it is not the most difficult thing. As you know, thoughts are material, and for a long time there have been quite effective techniques that work well and quickly in the area of ​​achieving goals and realizing what you want.

Indeed, in this area, the more important questions are not how to achieve or set a goal,

• and how ready a person is for this goal,
• whether he matches it or not,
• how harmoniously and environmentally it coincides with the surrounding world,
• and whether a person is finally ready to take responsibility for his actions.

How often do people at the beginning of their journey ask themselves the question - do I really need this?
What's next - now you've achieved it?..

And the question is certainly appropriate: are you moving TO or FROM?

Setting a goal, checking for environmental friendliness and truthfulness, working through to the smallest details (after all, as you know, there are no small things, and if you don’t think about it, it will somehow happen anyway), the question is whether you will like it, just a little effort , well, an important component is time.

In order for the road to be passed, you MUST walk along it. Step by step, even through “I don’t want”, even when there is no strength at all.

Go and at the same time think about what and how to change in order to optimize this process if possible. Somewhere on foot, somewhere on a cart. And somewhere you can already drive a high-speed sports car.

Go, even when you're scared.
Go when you're lazy.
Walk when there are no fellow travelers nearby.

Rest on time. But don’t turn your vacation into an eternal stop.

Notice when you have lost your way and turned into the roadside reeds. Get out of the thickets back onto the road.

If you have chosen a path that no one has chosen yet, acquire tools that will help you cut this path. In some places you’ll just have to trample down the grass with your feet, but in other places you need a mining drill to make a tunnel in the rock.

So go ahead. Until you reach your goal.

And when you get there, don’t forget to rejoice :)

And don’t lose optimism along the way, enjoy the process. Otherwise, why was this whole campaign necessary? :)

Good luck to you and interesting roads on the way to a worthy goal!

A goal is a mental representation of a fulfilled desire.

Therefore, the most important thing is initial stage- this is the ability to clearly identify the desired goal, formulate it, the ability to separate the main from the secondary, the ability to visualize the goal. (It will be a good idea if you write down what you are aiming for.)

Many people are afraid of goals that are too global and require enormous and lengthy efforts to achieve. The need to take many actions often forces a person to give up on a goal because he does not believe in his own capabilities.

And the point here is not only that a person underestimates his strength. It’s just difficult for our psyche to imagine all the difficult stages on the way to achieving a goal at the same time. Therefore, in order to facilitate the visualization of the goal, as well as its implementation, it is necessary to break down the entire voluminous process of completing the task into stages.

Limit each stage to a certain period. Follow your goal gradually, take breaks to rest, and proceed to the next stage only after completing the previous one. Stay firm in your decisions, don’t give up what you started midway.

Remember that on the path to realizing what you want, you should not wait for outside help, you need to rely only on yourself, since there is no guarantee that the other person will not let you down. Confidence will give you strength, use self-hypnosis formulas: “I can”, “I want”, “I will achieve”. Don’t even come close to such thoughts, for example: “I don’t have enough strength”, “the game isn’t worth the candle.”

“But the grapes are green,” said the fox from Krylov’s fable, because she could not get them.

This is how many people refuse to achieve goals for which they lack the strength, knowledge, skills, time, and motivation.

My job as a (non-medical) psychotherapist is to help my clients choose their goals correctly, find ways to achieve them and know what to do if obstacles arise.

There are many different ways to set a goal correctly.

If you were taught as a child to finish things you started, then there is hope for results in life. Everything is simple here: from the ages of 3 to 6 years, your parents should help you do what you do best and bring the actions to the end. Another technique that you need to learn from your parents is not to leave things for later.

So, if you are lucky with your parents, then you will immediately succeed in life, and by the age of 30 you will become good specialist in your area.

And another one a good thing, which we can learn from smart parents and in a good school - work on mistakes. Then progress will be faster, and you won’t have to constantly step on the same rake.

What to do if you are unlucky with smart parents? From the age of 18, you can learn anything yourself (perhaps except ballet) and develop the resources that you will need in life.

As for parents, at a certain stage of my life I realized that most parents do not take care of their own children. It’s good that children don’t remember much from childhood.

As for me, I had to do different things in life, and everything always worked out. Since I don’t put off until later what I can do now, I always end up getting more than I planned. For me as a doctor, psychologist, psychotherapist, teacher and coach, it is important that all my clients develop. Therefore, the vector of the future must always be present in any activity.

There should be many goals, but, in any case, not just one. Often the result of one goal is suicide.

Goals need to be structured into tasks and implemented.

Today I read the thought of one of my clients in her old letter that even if you realized late what you need to do, you must definitely do it. The result will be in any case.

Previously, in any job I worked as if I were working for myself. I got tired of it, started working for myself, and the results became much better. In any of my programs, I pay attention to understanding what you want and what needs to be done for it. Over the past 20 years, I have conducted special trainings on this topic: Personal and creative development, Training for building a professional career.

And the last thing today: the main thing is not to be afraid of anything - everything will work out. And if not immediately, then a little later.

Colleagues noted important points in achieving the goal:

Competent formulation of the goal, using the SMART rule, formulation in a positive way without the particle “not”;

Using tools to help determine the truth and value of the goal;

Dividing goals into short-term, medium-term and long-term;

Using a reward system when achieving a goal.

I would like to add a couple more points in working towards achieving the goal:

1. Set goals for each area of ​​our life, identifying a leading goal, the achievement of which will favorably influence the achievement of others. Very often, in practice, a different picture is observed - a person sets one goal, which concerns only one area, for example, work, actively and successfully moves towards it, but other areas suffer along the way (family, friends, recreation). Therefore, it is important to set goals for each area of ​​your life.
2. Periodically return to your goals. Formulating a goal once is not enough; it is important to return to it - sometimes write it down, sometimes pronounce it, sometimes visualize it. And what you can do every day is to ask yourself the question every day: “What did I do today to achieve my goal?”

In achieving your goals, enjoy not only the result,
but also from the process, not forgetting to just LIVE!

There is always a goal in every person's life. Even if it is not realized :))

A goal is a guideline that helps us fulfill our desires.

Therefore, the most important thing is to feel your desires, because the fulfillment of desires is the main task of the goal. When, when setting a goal, a person is guided by the desires of others, he does not have the energy/strength to achieve this goal, and even having made extreme efforts and finally reaching the finish line, such a winner will not experience joy: (((Or maybe, even on the contrary, he will feel pain from disappointment that I wasted my energy on unnecessary things.

Laziness often protects us from such false goals. So don’t rush to blame yourself or your neighbor for the fact that “laziness was born before you/me,” clarify what’s going on with your desires. Does the goal have a sufficient reason to achieve it...