Mind Tools clearly teaches that the process of setting goals and helps you choose where you want to go in life.
By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts. You’ll also quickly spot the distractions that would otherwise lure you from your course.
Properly-set goals can be incredibly motivating, and as you get into the habit of setting and achieving goals, you’ll find that your self-confidence builds quickly.
Positive self-esteem is formed as we experience success.
My good friend, Brent Huntington, talks about two types of Goals: Give up and Get up.
Give Up Goals are the goals to stop doing something, stop overeating, quit smoking, stop yelling at the kids, quit using the credit card, and the list goes on.
Get Up Goals are the goals we want to add to our lives, start valuing self, begin treating our spouse the way they deserve, start a business, or begin earning more money.
Today we’re going to talk about Get Up Goals -
Get Up Goals Are a Driving Force
Goal setting techniques are used by successful people everywhere. Goals give you long-term vision and short-term motivation. With your goals, you will acquire the knowledge and help you need to organize your time and resources in order to get the most out of life.
By setting clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievements. When documenting, you’ll see progress in short order. These accomplishments might have previously seemed impossible.
Starting to Set Up ‘Get Up’ Goals
Step One: Dream – dream- Now that you have identified your dreams, and they are set and captured in picture form in general terms, on your dream board, the next step is to indentify, categorize, write.
Step Two: Categorize – identify and write down your Dream Goals. Make a list that gives an overall picture of where you want to be in this life.
Step Three: Baby Steps – break these down into the smaller and smaller goals that you must hit so that you reach your lifetime goals. Broken down into baby steps, for each goal makes it doable -
Step Four: Action – start working to achieve your goals.
To give a broad, balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, write a list of areas that are important to you. Here are the general areas that are important to me, choose areas that are important to you. Set goals in some of these categories or in categories of your own, things that are important to you, we’ll go in greater detail a little later. I like to use my PC because as I add to my list, I don’t have to re-write.
Spirituality/ Attitude – Take some time and for serious introspection. What do you want to be like? Discover what is important to you.
Relationships – Do you want a spouse? What do you want your marriage to look like? Do you want children? What kind of parent do you want to be?
Career – What do you want to do to support yourself financially? It’s true~ do what you love and the money will follow! What do you love?
Financial- What is a comfortable amount of money to live on? Not how much do you think you could make, but how much do you want – remember these are your Dream Goals.
Physical – What state of health and fitness do you want to achieve? Are you hoping to stay fit as you age? What goals do you have to set to achieve that state of health?
Recreation – What do you like to do for fun? Make sure you set goals that are for yourself, for your enjoyment.
Service – You have so much to give to others, how do you dream of helping others?
As you complete your Broad Range of Dream Goals written on paper, you can start to break them down into a do-able form.
Get your paper and pencils out (or your typing fingers in action) and Have a Grand and Productive Day!
Tell me in the comments below about your goal-setting success! I’d love to hear how you’re mastering this skill!
July 14th, 2010 at 4:54 pm
Linda,
What a super idea—set out categories so no area of your life will be missed. It is often easy to focus on one or two goals and forget the rest. Thanks for the reminder to give EACH area of your life careful consideration when establishing your goals.
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July 15th, 2010 at 10:54 am
Hey Linda
What a great way to categorize goals.
Now I know why some goals are easier to achieve than others. I hate those “Give up” goals
Maybe I should think of it as “getting more healthy” than “giving up chocolate”
Peter Fuller MBA recently posted..Support my entry to the Famousbloggers ComLuv contest
November 9th, 2010 at 10:13 pm
Linda,
Great post on goals! I really like the categorization method also. It is a great way to keep balance in achieving our goals.
Christopher Poulsen recently posted..Welcome to Your Online Wellness Home
November 10th, 2010 at 5:51 am
Hey Christopher!
Long time no see! How are you?! How is school and everything else? I can’t wait to see your blog! I just resurected this post because I don’t have one ready for my tribe call today~ I’m almost embarrassed that you happened over here on this one!
Take care!
Linda
November 11th, 2010 at 10:06 am
I mean don’t get me wrong, the information is true no matter when I wrote it!
Linda G. Cox recently posted..When Generations Collide
November 10th, 2010 at 11:33 am
Linda
Love the way you have categorised the goals, too many goals are give up goals instead of get up goals. I am doing my list of areas I want to write goals for now. Oh there are so many area I will have to trim it a bit or I will never get done.
Thanks
Belinda
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November 10th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Belinda~
You are not kidding!! There is just plain too much to do!! Speaking of which, I better get to work!
Linda
November 10th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
Linda I love the idea of calling goals – give up and get up. I had been advised years back when I had a “give up” goal (not referred to like that but one where I was moving away from something) to put it in the positive.
I have often done my goals like you suggest but my difficulty has always been ending up with a daunting list and then not doing anything or very little!
Baby steps is definitely good advice.
Great tips Linda.
Sue
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November 11th, 2010 at 8:37 am
Sue~
Thank you for saying so! Your comment prompted me to send this post to the creator of the names, “give up and get up” ~ Brent is an awesome motivator! He motivates and inspires everyone in our community. One of these days he’ll get online and get out there! He’ll be my claim to fame!!
Linda
November 13th, 2010 at 2:30 am
Hi Linda,
Categorizing each life’s goal is a great idea, I’ve never thought of doing that, and the baby steps are definitely necessary, as you said, it makes them more doable.
Thanks for sharing this great motivational material.
In Health and Harmony
Toni
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November 13th, 2010 at 7:46 am
You’re welcome Toni! It is so fun networking wth you! I know we all can use the refresher on goal setting!
November 13th, 2010 at 3:53 am
Hi Linda great article on goal setting.
When I turned 30 I decided I was tired of being over weight. Years before that I wanted to loose weight but I felt overloaded everytime I decided to start.
I broke things down to small baby steps.. First I just got up early. Then after a few weeks of doing that I started stretching and doing pushups and situps.
After a few more weeks I added walking, then after a few more weeks I started jogging, then after that I started mountain biking at this point 30 miles 4 days a week.
Long story short it has taken me 5 years to go from 225 to 180. Some people said it too long, however I have no problems keeping the weight off and I can literally run 5 miles a day 7 days a week without blinking an eye.
Now something that I never thought I could do for the first 27 years of my life or so, seems so simple I wish I started back in my 20′s.
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November 13th, 2010 at 7:39 am
Larry~
Good to see you, it’s been a long time! Thank you for sharing your story! It’s wonderful to live a healthy, active life! I agree, it’s much better to take the time and create a lifestyle!
Linda
November 15th, 2010 at 2:23 am
Linda, I still have so much to learn on the goal setting front. I have them all in my head, but writing them down is always one of those things I am going to do tomorrow! Your article has inspired me to finally write everything down. I love the way you have created these different categories. That should ensure a good balance in life.
Louise
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November 15th, 2010 at 5:22 am
Louise~
Yes this goal setting post compliments your most recent one about social media strategy!
To our success!
Linda
November 15th, 2010 at 2:42 am
Linda
You brought up several good points here. And I like the phrase you used…properly-set goals. Many people set goals that are either too vague or unrealistic for them. Therefore, you will not be motivated for long. And setting up your goals in steps keeps you from feeling overwhelmed as well. Thanks for the great information!
Carol
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November 15th, 2010 at 5:21 am
Carol~
Thanks for saying so! I understand about setting unrealistic goals, I’ve been guilty of that one myself!
Linda