Goal-Setting Tips: Companion Piece to "Be Specific and Aim High"

In my last post, I mentioned the importance of being specific and aiming high in your goals.  Here are a few more tips that can help you achieve your goals:

• Write your goal down. 
• Give yourself a deadline.
• Do daily affirmations.
• Have a visual goal.

Write your goal down.  Napoleon Hill says the act of writing your goals down "crystalizes your thinking" and creates "an indelible impression in your memory" (152).

Give yourself a deadline.  Hill goes on to say that this step is important to motivation.  A deadline will "set [you] out in the direction of your goal and keep [you] moving toward it" (152).

Do daily affirmations.  According to Barbara Stanny, affirmations are "positive statements expressed if they've already happened" (102).  Work with them, saying them aloud or writing them down, keep them in sight and in mind.  This way you'll internalize them (103).

Have a visual goal.  According to a recent article on ScienceDaily, Rajesh Bagchi and Amar Cheema conducted a study on visualizing goals in abstract contexts.  They found that an easy to visualize goal is a strong motivator.  Cheema says even drawing a graph can help (Virginia Tech).

So, there you go, a few more techniques to help you achieve that specific, high goal of yours.


Cites:

• Hill, Napoleon, and W. Clement Stone. Success through a Positive Mental Attitude. New York: Pocket Books, 1977.  Print.
• Stanny, Barbara. Secrets of Six-Figure Women. New York: HarperBusiness, 2004. Print.
• Virginia Tech. "Easy to visualize goal is powerful motivator to finish a race or a task." ScienceDaily, 17 Aug. 2011. Web. 18 Sept. 2011.

Goals: Be Specific and Aim High

In the book Secrets of Six-Figure Women, author Barbara Stanny believes that the

path to higher earnings is paved with decisions. [And that these decisions go much easier] when you're purposefully headed in a particular direction toward a specific destination.  Every time you act on your decisions, keeping your promise to yourself by honoring your intention, you build self-esteem. Stronger self-esteem only enhances your chances for success.  (93)

Your intentions are powerful, and so is specificity of  destination.  It keeps you moving forward.

Although this book regards women seeking high incomes, it is relevant for many people.  Because, let's face it, most of us would like to make a decent living from our work, and many of us dream of hitting it big.

So, not only do you need to be specific on your monetary goal, you shouldn't fear to aim high.  Why?  For one, according to Napoleon Hill in Success through a Positive Mental Attitude, it is just as easy to aim high as it is to aim low.  Not only that, but the higher your goal, the more concentrated your effort will be to achieve it (152).

I believe that if you set such goals, your mind automatically tries to fill in the gap between your starting point and the finish line.  Specificity focuses you far more than "a lot of  money," and the high goal drives you to work hard and be creative with the tasks and sub-goals necessary to meet your main, high one.  That is key, making mini-goals and working hard at them.  After all, this isn't wish-setting-- it's more active than that.  Wishes may come true by luck or providence, but goals need you.

So, don't be afraid to aim high, and don't be disappointed if you don't reach your goal.  Instead, learn from it and keep at it, and you'll improve your chances for next time.

Cites:

• Hill, Napoleon, and W. Clement Stone. Success through a Positive Mental Attitude. New York: Pocket Books, 1977.  Print.
• Stanny, Barbara. Secrets of Six-Figure Women. New York: HarperBusiness, 2004. Print.