Goal Setting: The Real Professionals' Habit

Written by: Richard Okunola

In 1960, President J.F. Kennedy of the United States called together scientists, head of airlines and engineers and gave them an assignment; land an American on the moon in the next ten years. Nobody had done it before. How they would do it nobody knew. All they had was a goal and a promise of all they would need. They beat their target by one year and landed someone in the moon by 1969.

Professional Colleagues

A Goal is a dream with a deadline... If you fell yesterday, stand up and keep moving today

Have you dared to set a goal? How to achieve it is not the problem. The way God designed life is for you to decide what you want.  Many people do not set goals because they do not know how they are going to get provision and some are afraid of not being able to achieve such goals. But that is not the way it works. The style is to decide "what" you want and then God will supply the "how" to get it.

I want us to go into practical dimensions of planning.

The major part to planning is to write your goals and thoughts down (I know of several people who are afraid of writing down their goals). We must cultivate the habit of writing. When we pray, meditate and plan we must ensure we have a pen and writing material readily available.  At this time, ideas will flow but if they are not written down they fly. We use the pen and writing material to capture, put them down and turn them into reality in our lives. We must cultivate the writing habit. It is too crucial and important. "The shortest pencil is better than the longest memory."

Three (3) Major Things Planning Helps Us Do
- Planning helps us define our direction. There are always so many options opened but when you sit down to plan, you are able to define accurately where you want to go.
- Planning increases our personal efficiency by cultivating principles and habits that move us towards greatness on a daily basis. It helps us identify our strengths and weakness. When we sit down to analyze how far we have come, suddenly we realize there are some other things we are yet to work on. In planning, I have realized that one needs to deal with one’s weakness.
- Planning helps us build self-confidence. When we begin to achieve our goals, it envelops our self-image and self-esteem. This gives us the confidence to confront bigger issues; it moves us forward.

One other characteristic of  planning is that it is continuous. When we make plans, we need to ensure they are flexible. It is not like a neurotic surgeon that the plan must be fulfilled to the letter.

Benefits of Goals setting

1. Goals improve our self-image because we have a sense of accomplishment on a daily basis. Every day I write the things I want to accomplish during the day. I mark them as the day goes by. It gives me tremendous fulfillment to know that I have spent my time on something worthwhile during the day. By the time one adds much accomplishment on a daily basis for 365 days, one would have made tremendous progress in life.

2. Goals make one aware of one’s strength.

3. Goals make one aware of one’s weakness.

4. Past victories motivate for present success.

5. Written goals help to visualize and actualize success. That is the best way to recapture it. It is the first step towards actualizing our dream.

6. Goals force us to set priorities. Usually, the thing one wants to accomplish is more than time will permit, so we have to prioritize. Some of us spend time on things that we think are urgent but are not important. They do not give us any serious movement in life. We usually spend our time on such things but when we sit to plan we identify the things that are most crucial to our success in life.

7. Goals make us responsible for our own success. The starting point for success is taking personal responsibility.

Before one sets goals, one needs  to write down personal affirmations.

I call mine – "My Success Creed"

A friend called hers -- "My Future"

In this, I wrote down everything I want to become in life. It is placed next to my bed; I see it every day. It encompasses every area of my life. It is important that you write it and read it to yourself almost every day (if not everyday). You can save it as an article on your notepad/tablet/phone. When you write your personal affirmation, do not write it in future tense. Do not say, “I will become” say, “I am.” 

A number of questions that can help you in writing your personal affirmation statements includes:

• How can I achieve peace of mind?
• What sort of work will I do?
• How will my wife/husband look like?
• How much do I want to earn?
• What car brand do I want?
• What quality of knowledge do I want to acquire?
• What result can I achieve in this semester/exam?
• Can I win a scholarship to study abroad?
• Where will I be in 5 years time?

After writing your personal affirmation, it is important to analyze where you are right now (i.e your current position) because it is difficult to accurately decide where you are going if you cannot analyze where you are. For me, a normal routine is what I call personal realization project which I  carry out once in a month. There I write in a dairy(usually my notepad), ‘Where I am coming from’, ‘Where I am now’, ‘Where I am going.’ A number of questions will help to determine the answers to these questions and they are:

• Is my present situation satisfactory or unsatisfactory?
• What makes my present situation unsatisfactory or satisfactory?
• How can I change my present situation?
• Do I live a balanced life?
• Am I straightforward and honest with myself?

Dimensions To Goals

1)       Short Range Goals: include daily, weekly, and yearly goals.

2)       Medium Range Goals: five-year goals.

3)       Long Range Goals: ten years and above.

Educational goals are the most important for Professionals.

Are you setting goals for your children? Will you quit reading literary junk? When will you stop reading things that do not contribute to your destiny? Do you have a daily time for study? Are you going to achieve great wisdom?  Do you know all there is to know about your work?  Will you share your knowledge with others? Can you force yourself to become a student? Do you possess educational balance in your life?

What you will find out is that as you write all this goals down, you change even on paper before you stand up to do anything. You experience a powerful internal change and this will provoke an external change of equal degree in your life. - Richard Okunola