Every journey commences with a destination in mind. So it has
been for ages. Any task, however brief, requires an objective like the
experiments in the science laboratory. Whether rock climbing or sailing the
ocean, a target serves the purpose and provides something to look forward to.
Just imagine the shooters and archers at the Olympics with no mark to aim!

Essential goal setting for professional and personal goals

 

Like a map or ladder, goals motivate and show the way through
the jungle, shopping trips, or the software universe. Research confirms the
need for a plan that we hold so necessary to any enterprise. Perhaps the
business and sales world requires more elaborate goal setting in terms of
targets, but goals generally apply anywhere.

“A Theory of Goal Setting & Task Performance” by Locke and Latham in 1990 emphasizes goal setting for better
performance. Further, they stress the five factors of Clarity, Challenge,
Commitment, Feedback, and Task Complexity on the way to achieving success. 

 

Vision and Mission

Individuals and institutions are similar. Conventionally, Vision refers to long-term goals like setting up a factory that may take a decade. Mission refers to the short-term goals like earning money needed over five years. A properly planned Mission and vision combination should set the individual, professional, or family group scaling great heights.

 

The need to write down the plan

Though writing seems to have almost vanished now, it seems evident that such serious plans of action that commenced with contemplation should be put down in words. Write it in a diary or type it all out in pretty formats in private space on the computer with illustrations and quotations.

Keep a copy safe in the cloud or Google Drive, according to convenience. Refer to it now and then whenever the need arises to refresh the memory and make further notes or changes. Consider the widespread use of recorded goals in educational intuitions and workplaces across the globe. Further, psychology and psychiatry use them in with patients.

 

Personal goals

 

It may be a desire to lose weight or find a new partner. Are you
pursuing a new and exciting hobby like aquarium fish keeping or reviving a
dormant sex life? Personal goals, too, need planning and preferably written
ones or at least recorded in some form of media. Joining a program, reading a
book, buying a gift, attending a webinar, and the budgets needed could be
planned actions to achieve the personal goal.

 

●     Improving public speaking skills

●     Playing a musical instrument

●     Researching a topic

●     Fitness goals

●     Financial goals

 

Do plans and goals always succeed?

 

Certainly not! When predators hunt prey in the forest, they fail
most of the time. The problem is how to judge success and failure.

What is the yardstick? Shall we say that a percentage of success has been achieved and 75% should be good enough?

 

Some barriers to success

 

If the plan has not been so successful, it makes sense to
examine why. Was it a health problem that stood in the way? If transport
problems occurred with no services available in remote areas, are you to blame?
Similarly, acts of God could mess up many plans. Negative social attitudes and
stigma could create problems concerning certain activities.

 

Promote peaceful sleep with a rigorous plan of action

 

We seem to be equating good goal setting with success, and that
is quite true. Lucky are those successful careers and personal lives that have
conquered all the obstacles and reached the top. They are confident and possess
commitment and drive. Having received the blessings of society, they wish to
repay the elders and the leaders. Make a mark on the social fabric to be
remembered by posterity.

 

Awards and recognitions are indicators of success at whatever level,
like in school innocence or glittering professional worlds. Completing mega
projects or improving educational and technical skills would have the documents
to prove it.

 

Excellence is the hallmark that brings success, and that is
achieved only with careful planning and goal setting down to the minor details.
Like an annual plan of study has monthly and even weekly segments, the end will witness the cumulative assessment of targets fulfilled. You need to achieve
specific standards in the chosen field, engineering or networking, art or
photography.

 

Along with earning to make a living in a routine job, some
higher power guides human destiny. Shall we call it spirituality? It would help
if you communed with that universal spirit that abides in all things. Find a
way and realize your dreams.

 

The changing circumstances of 21st-century life

 

Professionally speaking and in education too, the technological
software infrastructure has now become predominant. Media jobs or accountants, teachers and writers, graphic designers, and personal assistants often work entirely online. And may reside in a far, far away country. Can you imagine working with somebody you have never met or seen? A virtual lifestyle sums up the state of our present-day existence. Real worlds sometimes appear virtual too.

 

How to improve your life and career

 

Jobs that carry responsibility and pay well are what everybody
wants. Aiming for promotions that may require further training or academic
degrees are ways to get serious about life. Changing jobs and careers can be
stressful but may lead to better lifestyles after the transition period.

 

The ability and the courage to take risks are fundamental to existence.
Each day we are exposed to some dangers like in traffic. It would be best if
you often sacrificed something in the hopes of a better future life. That is
what migrants are doing all the time. But it is a rough transition with many
barriers along the way.

 

Draw the success line!

 

Avoid excessive risks that the gamblers might take at the card table. Changing careers or migrating carries risks, just like trading shares online. Why not settle for the safe and steady path that does not include a sensational lifestyle but assures of the basic needs of life? Billions seem to be content with the average lifestyle.

 

Start with the SMART approach and brainstorm. Goals need to be specific and measurable, attainable and relevant, time-based too. Write them down. Be positive and precise. Cover the basics of life like career and financial matters, education and family too. Need to plan to improve yourself and the family, society, and the world.