The Power of Goal Setting: What Makes a Tangible And Achievable Goal?

Alrighty, quite a few folks have come to me asking more about my method for uncovering what you want, be it in family, career, or overall life.

I discovered the power goal setting during my junior year in college just after meeting my college mentor (a consultant and life coach herself) and changing my major for the 5th (and final) time. I was set on a new degree track, but I didn’t necessarily know what I wanted to do. I only knew 4 other majors I didn’t want, which at the time, I didn’t think made me any closer to knowing what I wanted. However, I soon discovered that I had 4 contrasting experiences to draw from and the question was what am I pulled toward that I enjoy about what I am pursuing now and how is it different than the last?

My college mentor, who became my first boss out of college, and coincidentally gave me visions of my dream job, introduced me to the art of setting goals. She challenged me to set 10 long and short-term goals for myself. I’ll admit right here and now that I only did it because I was in awe of what she had created for herself. I wanted it!

So, accepted the challenge. Raising my favorite pen from the holder and pulling out a crisp new bright blue spiral notebook as I plopped down smack dab in the middle of my bed, I was ready for making my dreams a reality. Yes! This was it, my ticket. All I had to do was write down what I wanted, by when, and the universe would be mine! Right? Well… sort of. I sat for over an hour thinking about my goals, then thinking about what goals even are and if certain ideas could be counted as goals or were they something else entirely? Do I write down what I want? How do I know what I want? Oh yeah, and was I even doing this right? I ended up with 2 goals listed on the page after my first day. I was less than impressed with myself, but verrrry curious as to why I could envision such lofty dreams for myself and yet I had such a hard time developing it into a goal to actually make it happen. Where was the disconnect?

Unsuccessful in my first attempt at 10 goals, I decided I needed practice writing goals, so I assigned myself the task of writing goals each day, even if some were the same as yesterday. So day two rolled around and I managed 5 goals on the page before I was exhausted by the process and still entirely confused by how an always-thinker like myself was stumped. I was doing better this time around and even managed to muster up a few bogus dates that I planned on achieving my goals by.I realized I had to shoot for goals that I felt strongly about. I had to have feeling and emotion behind them. And heck, they really have to be things you want for yourself, not just what you think you should be, do, or have.

My goals were:

1. Meet 5 new people at school to hang out with

2. Learn to wakeboard

3. Make a friend with a boat

4. Get straight A’s

5. Be a coach

I shared my five goals with my mentor, including the challenge I experienced in reaching this point and left the goals sitting dormant in my fresh new notebook for over 2 months until the day I returned to the notebook to find I’d forgotten the goals… or had I? In that two month period, I had completed 4 of the 5 goals I’d set for myself. But how? I wondered. I only wrote them down and tossed them to the side.

The key factor in my success, though it didn’t seem huge at the time, lay in taking my thought process from dreams to reality. The very thing that I found so difficult to do in writing down a goal, was the exact exercise I needed to move toward the goal… moving from the abstract ethers, to the tangible present. I also learned that I didn’t have to do much past defining that goal. The rest happened quite naturally (naturally enough that I seemingly forgot my goals and still achieved them) Why does this work? Because you’ve now planted the seed and declared what you want to experience.

Think of it this way: You buy a car that you swear you haven’t seen anywhere in your town and once you buy it and begin driving it down the road, you notice about 5 others… or 20. Why? Because you weren’t cued into or interested in the car before, it wasn’t part of your experience, but now… Now you have the car and you have opened a new level of awareness for this car type.

Goal setting is the difference between people who complete things, and those who do not. How are we to know where we’re going if we do not plan for it? Remember to: Plan for your success, and adapt to challenges. I also created goals that were actually attainable in the timeframe I created for myself. I knew I could probably make 5 new friends in 2 months taking classes full-time at the University, but I probably won’t be a Certified Life Coach in that amount of time, so that goal needs a longer time frame. So keep it measurable and realistic, too!

To Your Wildest Dreams,
Lacy Kirkland, CPC