Thought 48 (d): The Process of Setting Goals

Goal setting is to be taken as a serious business. It appears easy - but not really. Goals are not mere hopes or wishes. Wishes do not have sufficient energy associated with them to be productive. Goals are commitments. You are going to commit your resources for their achievement. This commitment can be meaningful to you, provided you are able to visualize a corresponding benefit. The benefit must be absolutely clear to you. It is this benefit that continues to motivate action and effort, until you achieve the goals.

Writing down your goals brings clarity to them. You generally have a vague idea at the back of our mind, what goals you wish to pursue. But if they stay in your mind only, they keep changing. They do not take much meaning or seriousness, until you put them down on paper. Writing also makes them take a final and clear shape, as opposed to having them vaguely at the back of your mind. You can never plan firm actions and commitments in a constantly changing situation.

Goals have to be, not only specific but they should be positive. When they are not positive, you need to pay a lot of attention to avoid behavior like "not eating", "not getting angry on children", "not wanting to continue in the present job", etc, which can increase your anxiety and cause stress to you. Vagueness or confusion in goals does not allow you to assess correctly whether you reached them and if so, when did you reach them exactly, to enable you to immediately divert your limited resources to activities waiting in the queue for want of them. For instance, "I want to be a better father", "I want to acquire more wealth", "I want to improve my health" etc, are all vague and not specific.

Another important aspect in goal setting is that the accomplishment of a goal should be under your control. For instance, if you want a better consideration from your boss, it may prove difficult to control his behavior.

Set the goals in a balanced manner. Do not rob one area to enrich another. For instance, if you want to complete a graduate course in 10 months, you may have to undergo considerable stress in achieving your goal, affecting your health and happiness.

The next thought is about “Long term vs short term goals”