« Developing Your Analytical Skills To Further Your Career | Home | What’s Your Focus - Long Or Short-Term Goals? Part 2 »

What’s Your Focus - Long Or Short-Term Goals? Part 1

It’s been a long time since someone asked me to help them set and achieve a goal. This was something I did quite regularly for my students while I was an undergrad teaching assistant at college. I’m happy to say that several students did achieve success due to my assistance - at least, that’s what they told me afterwards, sometimes as many as 4 or 5 years later.

But as with many skills in life, if you ignore them, they get rusty. When you fall into a rut, you often tend to forget what you know, what you are capable of. It’s easy to forget your goals, especially if they are written on a sheet of paper tucked inside of an envelope, or hiding in a private box or drawer. It’s the reason why less personal triggers, such as affirmations, need to be physically visible to you on an every day basis.

For example, even if your private goals are hiding somewhere where only you can find them, taping a list of affirmations to a bedroom or bathroom mirror reminds of you those goals. They remind you very tangibly that you have set goals, and that you need to review them regularly.

While you can choose a location other than a mirror, the affirmation list has to be in a place that you absolutely will see day in and day out. Not having such a list visible means that, as time progresses, you’ll forget about both your affirmations and your private goals. And if and when you get into a rut, your goal-setting skills will temporarily disappear from your grey matter.

To get out of such ruts takes a great deal of effort. At least initially, until you re-adapt to your original sphere of existence, your previous frame of mind. Then it once again gets easy.

Restablishing your mindset requires commiting to new project. (I always refer readers to Steve Pavlina’s weblog, as it is a source of inspiration for myself and many other people.)

Start small if you have to, but boldness often is the way to go. In fact, on a number of personal finance websites, the writers/ webmasters have completely revealed their finances (or lack of them) and publicly stated their goals. Those who have, and who are regularly updating their websites, appear to be making gains. Nothing like being public about such matters to motivate you into change.

You don’t necessarily have to be so public, but the key is to focus on the outcome of your goal(s), not what it is you don’t have. You also need to determine if you are setting short-term or long-term goals. More importantly, don’t mix different-term goals together. This simply causes confusion when you spend time meditating upon your goals.

Part 2 of this article will provide a concrete example.

Tags: richmanpoorman, rich man poor man, goal-setting, self-improvement