It is the beginning of the year and everyone or almost every person on the globe, is abuzz with their New year resolutions which is actually a good thing. At the end of every year, when the majority take stock of the events and evaluate results from previous resolutions, the discovery is the need for same resolution for next year because little or nothing was achieved. The reason for this is not far-fetched from making new resolves and following through with old habits or patterns that aren’t productive.
To see outstanding growth and improved performance in almost every aspect of life, whether professional or personal, you need to employ simple universally proven strategies on the average like goal setting, planning and actions to actualise goals. Researches like Edwin A. Locke’s, established a positive relationship between goals and performance. SMART, one of the goal setting criteria is a major part of personal- development you should employ to guide you in goal setting. Goals must be SMART- specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time based for you to see positive results.
Let me break this down,
Okay, we all want to see something grand happen to us in the area of business and finances, a remarkable growth, we want to consistently develop for the evolving needs of customers to be met or improve in product and service offerings etc. You probably may have everything working well but need effective time management to get the best out of the day. Whatever your need, put it down in writing as a goal to be achieved. You do not want to waste time in ‘if wishes were horses’ so you must check to see if this goal you have written down will take you from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’, if achieving this goal will be of added value to you or if your goal relevant.
The next thing you want to do, since you know you need put a resolve together in making this goal definite. Know exactly your specific need. An example of a specific goal is increasing your client base and to make this measurably specific, you target getting 100 new customers for your business. This is a perfect example of a specific goal. Do not make it seem ambiguous.
You will want to go further by putting a good plan into place, a plan of action. Make sure goals you set are actionable like the example given. You know you must take action for your goal of 100 new clients to be attainable. For this example, you must draw an action map using advertisements tools or referral bonus strategies. Whatever your goal, it must have a route to get there and that too must be strategic and documented within the planning phase. Be certain this goal is one that can be achieved. The resources or competencies should be readily available. Creating the right atmosphere is equally as important.
Since we now have a specific, measurable and relevant goal, the next and very important step is to make it time bound. Every good plan must have a timeline. A start date and an expected end date. You are working towards getting 100 new clients within a frame of 3 months is a good way of presenting a goal. With a well thought out plan and a relevant measuring method, you can calculate how much progress you have made and compare with the expectation as drawn on your action map.
I hope you found this post useful. Make sure your 2019 goals are SMART so you get great results at the end of it all. Questions and contributions are welcome in the comment section below. Please subscribe to our newsletter to get more helpful tips.
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