Setting Goals - 3 Key Questions
What is your top goal or dream right now? (can be personal, professional, material, immaterial, internal, external, etc.)
Goals fuel the action we need to take to reach our dreams - get clear on your goals to fuel yourself!!!
3 Questions to Help Set Goals:
These 3 questions that help us set goals we actually plan to achieve
What do you want?
This is where most people start, and where many end with goal setting…this gets you the goal itself. When we identify and write down our goals, humans have an attribute that enables us to unconsciously work towards our goals! To unlock this ability we have to mentally commit to them, and write them down – pen to paper. Multiple studies show those who write down their goals are significantly more likely to achieve them than those who do not write them down.
How bad do you want it?
Thinking through WHY we want the goal helps to set the goal in place mentally. If we say we want something, but don’t have a real reason why we want that goal, the answer to this question is going to be “not very badly” and we are much less likely to reach our goal. However, if we want to own a home so we can take care of our children in it, we are much more likely to reach our goal because obstacles won’t seem as big as our WHY. Identifying why we want things helps us create a compelling future that motivates our behavior.
Are you willing to do whatever it takes to get it?
We are always fighting 2 things when it comes to goal achievement, so we can anticipate these things and prepare for the hard choices when setting our goals:
Entitlement – This is believing that you deserve your goal without having to work…or, more often, we believe we deserve it with LESS work than it requires. When setting goals, think through realistically how much effort will be required to attain it, and prepare your mind and your heart to DO that work instead of wishing it was easier.
Immediate Gratification – This is wanting something RIGHT NOW and not being willing to be patient. Realizing we will face this human desire, when we set goals we need to prepare ourselves to be patient as we put in the work. If it takes 30 solid hours of practice to get the referral call script down so right, am I willing to practice for 30 hours or will I give up after 30 minutes of practice and call it good enough? Prepare for the long haul and don’t give in to impatience.
Using these 3 questions as a guide, set 8 goals right now!
-2 Short Term Work
-2 Long Term Work
-2 Short Term Personal
-2 Long Term Personal
Now that you’ve identified your goals, share the top 2 with others!!
Sharing what you are going to accomplish creates accountability and fuels excitement for you to actually reach your goals.
If you want to take these goals another step and learn to set SMART goals for the most important goals in your life, keep an eye out for our next blog!