Personal Development Goals

Are you sure you're using goal-setting wisely? You need to know the limits of personal development goals, and work within them. This article will help you use goal-setting in the most effective way.

 

 

So, please don't over estimate what excellent goal-setting can do for you. If at the end of goal-setting, the vision you seek still appears unrealistic, perhaps S-SMART goals, or SMARTER goal setting just aren't the tools you need to be using.

Keep the vision – and use a different kind of process to achieve your personal development goals. Explore the personal development plan page (and the pages that link from it) to find a deeper approach.

Personal Development Goals

If you're reading this section, we hope you've got a general idea of what your personal development goals are. Goal setting can help you break down goals into manageable 'chunks', decide on a plan of action and focus your efforts. 

It's possible that by now you can see a new future taking shape.  By gauging your own self awareness and your readiness to take action in a variety of areas, your personal development aims should line up. Your inner desire and outward actions need to be congruent – talking the same language – then your goals are likely to remain pretty much on track.

There are a variety of personal development tests on this site.  They may well help you too gain some insights into why goals seem distant and unattainable. Or, you could contact Deeper Coaching and make use of that free introductory session.

Personal Development Goal Setting Strategies

By this time you've reached a place where you've got your ideas spread around you, and your future looks great-but there's still work to do.  You need to tackle your broad aims and break them down into manageable tasks.  You will be turning big goals into several smaller goals. 

One of the most effective ways to do this is to draw a time line, which is going to show where you've been, where you are now, and where you hope to be.  What are the smaller goals that you will be able to reach more easily?  Decide where these go on your time line.  Consider the most logical order for your plans.  Certain goals will naturally follow others. 

Next, you need to be certain that your goals are within the realm of possibility.  They must remain in line with the size of the challenge ... and the inner and outer resources you have available. 

What else do you need to attain your goals?  You must organize your information sources, as well as your resources for support and advice. 

And then take your pulse:  You are checking the level of your personal anxiety measured against your level of excitement.  Are you too overwhelmed by anxiety to begin?  Or do you feel a calm assurance that you are ready to take the first steps? 

Many people utilize mnemonics to remind them of the steps of a given plan.  In this case, you will follow the path to your personal development goals by being SSSMARTER.  And you're also going to learn about SMART goals here. 

SSSMART stands for these nine characteristics of excellent goals: 

• Stretching
• Strategic
• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable (or, in some formats, Action-oriented)
• Results-oriented (or, Relevant or Rigorous)
• Time-frame limited
• Exciting, Evaluate
• Resourced, Reevaluate

Stretching

This is the key to personal and professional growth.  Without stretching, there actually is no growth.  You have to reach out if you want to achieve your goals.

We all have comfort zones, or 'Islands of Safety'. This is the familiar territory that we are used to operating in. Imagine being shock-corded to a post driven into the ground: you can move away from the post easily until you reach the limit of the cord and it tries to pull you back.

The real prize? Stretch the cord to achieve one goal ... and your whole circle becomes bigger!

 

Strategic

This refers to the necessity of defining a course of action, and analysing what tools you have available to make your way through this course.

Some things naturally need to be achieved before others; you need to gather resources before you plan to use them.

 

Specific

Talks about exact goals or sub-goals (milestones, interim targets) that you have established.  You are naming the direction in which you will proceed.  For this you need clarity of mind plus motivation, and you also must maintain focus on your progress.

The more specific your targets are the easier it is to tell if you are moving in the right direction. Being specific is partly about creating clear feedback about the results of your actions.

Interim goals, sub-goals, milestones, targets may not be inspiring in themselves, but it is usually energizing to be able to count down the distance between where you are and where you want to be.

 

Measurable

Do your goals immediately suggest a way to measure the distance you have traveled, a way to keep track of your progress? Some accomplishments are tangible – a  personal goal like weight loss, or a professional goal such as a new salary level achieved. Think about these statements ....

It is much more powerful to say:

• 'I'll lose 10% of my body weight'
  • rather than 'I want to lose weight'
  
  
• 'I'll decrease my recovery time after a circuit by 10% in two weeks'
  • rather than, 'I'll improve my recovery time'
  
  
• 'I'm going to write down twenty things I'm grateful for at the end of each day'
  • rather than, 'I'm going to be more grateful'

 

Action-Oriented.

I've stressed the need to be clear about what you will do in order to achieve the personal development goals you set yourself.

Action-oriented goals are written in a way that suggests what you will do to achieve them.

 

Reasoned

This means that your goals are logically related to you and your plans. They just Make Sense! They are relevant to you as a thinking, reasoning being! This might seem too simple for words – but think about the times you've distracted yourself by saying:

“Before I get to work on my personal development plans ... I'll just tidy the yard” ... or something similar!

Tidying the yard has no relevance to those plans! Stick to the logic of your strategy, or sabotaging voices of your resistance might take over.

 

Realistic

This is just as important, because you cannot set personal development goals beyond your capabilities.  You cannot achieve things that are beyond your control.

If you get to this stage and you have doubts, you may need to break down the goals into still smaller chunks, check your strategy, get the resources you need first – or just check whether you have some emotional baggage holding you back.

 

Time-limited

Sets a limit by which you believe you will have achieved your goal; it's your deadline.

The deadline doesn't have to limit any efforts beyond the given date, but it will set a time when you clear your mind and focus on what you've achieved within a specified time-frame. 

And for tangible tasks, you need to establish tangible ending dates.  Then, you can regroup and begin the next phase of your progress. 

 

Evaluate where you stand.  Are you remaining Excited?  This is the key to motivation in defining and actualy using your personal development goals.

 

Resourced, Reevaluate.  You need to remain well resourced in order to complete your plan.  And you have to reevaluate your progress periodically and decide whether you are still heading in the direction that you need to be. Are the goals still relevant? Does your strategy need some attention?

Alternatively, are you “Fiddling while Rome Burns”?

It can be very tempting (another way you might distract yourself) to keep checking. Endlessly worrying or wondering about how you're doing before you've really taken substantial action might all be ways of sabotaging yourself.

So once you've created your SMARTER personal development goals, remain focused, commit to your action plans, and only evaluate when you have made a real commitment to your plan – then you will have something meaningful to evaluate.

SMART Personal Development Goals

Let's also look at SMART Personal Development Goals, which are often more tightly focused, especially when related to a workplace environment. 

The strategic and specific components of your plan may be linked to the process of identifying CIP measures-continuous improvement processes.  It's a learning process, and it also answers the question of WHO and WHAT.  At this point, perhaps you establish a percentage change as your goal.

Measurable looks at how successfully the goals define key performance indicators (kpis). Kpis enable you to measure progress. It asks you to think about HOW you are measuring your achievement. 

Attainable is about being realistic within the limits imposed by the quality of the resources at your disposal: quality of staff, time, equipment, money and so on.

Results-Oriented, Relevant, and Rigorous align your goals with continuous improvement processes so that you keep moving forward.  Relevance especially is concerned with clarity about WHY a course of action remains justified. 

Time Bound give you a preset time-frame.  This defines your target date.  This is the WHEN part of the equation. Good for maintaining focus, discipline and accountability.

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Where to next?

On this site:

Find out how to discover your life's purpose and create goals that are in tune with your deepest values at personal goal setting.

Off this site:

Here are three very useful personal development goals resources. They describe a range of situations - and the 'moods' are very different.

Stephen Covey takes a very sober - but practical and clearly focused - approach to his discussion of personal goals. His advice might be summarised as: "Start small, develop your willpower, learn to succeed, move on to greater things!"

Wayne Hartzell takes a broad look at the subject in the the context of financial, business, career and relationship personal development goals on his personal goal setting site.

Cody McKibben has his own, racy, upbeat approach, saying: "My favorite positive affirmation is that there is NOTHING you cannot DO, or BE, or HAVE! I like to repeat that to myself daily. But one must do some dedicated goal-setting, and a lot of goal-getting to get there!"

Finally ...

Ask questions, subscribe to my personal development coaching newsletter, get free downloads on the contact deeper coaching page.

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