Effective Goal Setting — you’ll see my quote there on that poster. The goals I set for myself had better be goals over which I have control. Any other goals are only wishful thinking. I like a fellow who said to me, “What kind of goals are you going to set for yourself when you go fishing?”

You need goals that are measurable. You need goals that have a definite time period for completion. What are you going to say? “By the time I come home tonight, I will have caught five fish?”

That’s wishful thinking. You don’t have any control over whether you’re going to catch five fish or not. I want to encourage you to start thinking about your goals as being those things over which you have control.

So, instead of saying, “I’m going to catch five fish,” have your goals be your behaviors. “I’m going to get up so that I can be at the lake at such and such a time.” “I’m going to have these baits that I’m going to try.” “I’m first going to try these baits, then I’m going to try these baits.”

What are the behaviors that will give you the best chance to get your wishful thinking goal done. Your goals are actually your behaviors. To set goals on things over which you don’t have control is only like making wishes.

So you say, “But, then I might meet all my goals?”  What’s wrong with that? If your goals are your behaviors, my hope is you will meet all your goals, because they are the components you have control over.

I think, sometimes, goal setting gets a silly wrap, and it’s viewed as less than positive by many people because it is viewed as only an exercise in wishful thinking.  It can be so much more.

Categories: Competitive Style, Concentration, Goal Orientation, Influence

Tags: competitive