Maximize Your Potential with Goal Setting

by Elliott Roberts

If you are unhappy with your current level of productivity at work or your effectiveness as a parent or household manager, allow me to suggest to you that tracking your achievements will turn your life around. Without goals and priorities, you may make it through each day and even make a little progress here and there.

But you will not be well rounded and most effective in all areas of your life until you take the time to think about what is important to you, write it down, then cross it off and recognize it once it has been accomplished. This simple self help method is called “goal setting.”

To address goal setting for a wider audience, let’s address the misconception that setting goals is just for your career.

This is unfortunate because at home, where we play the roles of spouse, parent, and household manager, organization and achievement are key to all other successes. To those folks I recommend to use the term “life list” instead. When it is time to put pen to paper, if you prefer, scribble “LIFE LIST” at the top of yours. Maybe even put some doodles around it. Whatever makes you excited to continue.

Your goal setting starts with brainstorming. Carve out a quiet time and place to contemplate what is important to you and what you want to achieve in your life today, as well as in the distant future. Open your mind to include your wildest dreams, regardless of cost or plausibility at the moment. From this page, draw your goals, dreams and desires and start to prioritize them.

It is time to make your lists now, so grab a pen and paper and make some headings.

In the short term you might want to clean out the garage. In the long term you may want to buy a business. Then expand your headings to include anything else so that every goal resulting from your brainstorming has a place to sit, such as “5 year goals” , “Lifetime goals”, “wildest wishes”, etc.

Achieving the goals and recognizing them is motivating. Before you know it, even your far fetched goals will be getting crossed off your list, your quality of life will be improved and you’ll be motivated to set more goals.

About the Author:

The Author, Elliott Roberts, is a writer at Becomng, a Personal Development blog that covers issues from health to web applications. Find additional Goal Setting articles here.