In my last post, I talked about the importance of goal commitment when setting goals for yourself and/or those you lead. Today, I want to discuss the law of diminishing returns and how it relates to goal setting. I have honestly thought about a dozen different things that I want to focus on for the New Year, have you? The law of diminishing returns tells us that the more goals we set, the less likely we are to achieve them. One goal distracts from another, leaving us less likely to accomplish anything. From a personal perspective, one way to avoid
Research has shown that goal setting, if done correctly, is one of the most supported motivational techniques (Jex & Britt 2008). Setting goals can help you maximize success for yourself and/or the people that you lead. We’ve all heard of the acronym “SMART” that guides good goal setting: Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Time bound I certainly advocate for following these guidelines with any resolution or goal you set. But there are three things that I want to focus on over the next few weeks that have been shown to be important components of goal setting that are not emphasized as
Action Planning and Goal Setting are key tools for career success. Stephen Covey’s “Circle of Concern vs Circle of Influence” principle is a great way to start the process. In short, we need to focus on our circle of influence (the things in life and career we can control). Source: INSITEMIND One way we can do this is by setting goals and creating an action plan. Goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bound. Source: Minute Movement Check out the Point Blog for more Goal Setting ideas: Goal Setting Articles from the Point Blog Develop an Action
There’s some great methods out there for setting goals: Are Your Goals Comfortable, Delusional or Somewhere in Between? A Holistic Goal Setting Method A Simple Goal Setting Method And based on how a method’s strengths and weaknesses relate to your own personality and preferences, you can find a method out there that is right for you. But don’t do it if you don’t: Have a plan to act Plan to act Goal attainment doesn’t happen through osmosis. It happens through a process I like to look at this way: MISSION/PURPOSE -> GOALS -> ACTION PLANS -> TASKS -> BEHAVIORS Breaking
We’ve been talking about methods for goal setting here at The Point Blog to set us all up for a successful 2017. The last “method” I want to share really isn’t a method, but great food for thought for considering goals and setting them. It comes from Michael Hyatt who has most recently put out a course to help people prepare for 2017 called 5 Days to Your Best Year Ever. As a guest on the Smart Passive Income Podcast with Pat Flynn, he discussed the limitations and possibilities of making 2017 the best year yet. In thinking about these