Effective Goal Setting

Hi everyone!

If you’re like me, ideas pop into your head all day every day. What if I did this? or I want to write that or I have to make those! As a creative professional with 15 years of experience in the art, design and marketing world, I can tell you that an artist’s brain NEVER stops working, visualizing, creating. It can get pretty overwhelming at times. In particular, I have a tendency to attach a goal to every idea. What usually ends up happening is, I get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of it all, stop and then do none of it.

I recently watched a video where the speaker suggested limiting the number of goals we endeavor. I know it seems counterintuitive but setting too many goals, or too many similar goals, or too many goals with the same timeline can overwhelm you and derail your progress. Every goal is not immediate. It’s unrealistic to move on every goal at once and expect each to receive the proper amount of attention.

By curating your goals, you can filter the ones that are a burning desire from those that are important but can wait.

Second, let’s understand how to implement effective goal setting because make no mistake there is a difference between effective goal setting and scribbling down a list of stuff you want to do in life. Effective goal setting is the process of identifying something that you want to accomplish and establishing measurable actions and timeframes. My version of effective goal setting looks something like this, in this order:

1. The inception of the idea (this is the end-result or finished product)
2. Writing out the goal itself
3. Listing each action item required to accomplish the goal
4. Scheduling a timeline for each action item
5. Tracking results to measure goal achievement

Get my goal-setting worksheet for FREE to begin writing your action plan now.

Can you imagine repeating all these steps for more than one or two goals at a time?! I’m sleepy just thinking about it. I don’t mean to insinuate you should not form long-term goals—and perhaps this post should be called effective short-term goal setting—I believe each goal should live in its proper space in time. Don’t consume yourself with long-term goals today. They should not be included in your current action plan. Long-term goals should be written down and kept visible until activated but nothing more than that—unless your current plan is directly in service of that long-term goal.

I now subscribe to the idea that I will limit my goals from one to two at a time and physically write out the effective goal-setting plan above. Intentionally limiting your goals allows you to focus from beginning to end and rewards you with a sense of accomplishment—ultimately motivating you to stay consistent.