Why Set Goals to Help with Self Development?
Making small self improvements every day can have a huge impact on your professional life as much as your home life.
It doesn’t really matter which part of your life you’d like to change the most. Self improvement in one area, nearly always produces positive results in the other.
And that is one of the major benefits of focussing on self development goals. The results allow you to become better on many different areas of your life.
How to set self development goals
The process for setting goals is the same, regardless of the outcome area.
The biggest reason a person fails to complete their goal, is that the target seems to far away.
It’s always best to break down any long term goals, into smaller more manageable goals.
When you set a big goal, it can sometimes seem impossible to accomplish. And so, trying to achieve a big goal can drain your motivation. You might even find that you put off even starting. Us humans are very good at finding excuses. But excuses aren’t going to move you forward.
By having smaller goals, on the way to the big goal, they act like stepping stones on the journey.
If you’re still struggling to find the time, why not try listening to audio books, or podcasts during your commute? Or, how about instead of reading a magazine, read something that helps move you towards your goal?
You can find print, electronic and audio books that can help as well. But, clearly, just buying them is not going to be enough. You’ll probably be surprised to learn, that only 10% of people who buy a self improvement book, actually read it.
It’s as though the other 90% believe, that just by having the information available, it’ll somehow work 🙂
Once you have your goals laid out, you’ll need two things.
- A good reason to achieve that goal
- Something to give you momentum.
Let’s quickly explore some ideas…
Find your why
Your reason for wanting to achieve your goal, is your why. And it’s usually the bit of the equation that gets forgotten about.
If you can find a compelling reason why, you want to achieve your goal, getting there will be so much easier. I go into detail on how to find your why in this article. Also, you could listen to episode 1, of Everyday Confidence Podcast.
Finding momentum
The one thing that create more success than anything else when striving to achieve a goal, is momentum.
And the way to get momentum is to do something towards its attainment, every day. Even if that thing is very small.
Momentum is accumulative. Every little bit helps.
For example, let’s say you want to increase your memory an you only have five minutes to spare. Go to the fridge and pick 10 (or even 5) items. Write them down and put the list in your bag, or pocket.
Now, every time you have a few minutes to spare, you can test yourself.
Also, because you’ve split your big goal into smaller goals, reaching those little goals build momentum as well.
What sort of goals should I set?
If you’re not sure what self development goals you should set, look closely at your life.
Start by asking yourself a few questions like:
- What is it I’d like to be able to do?
- What have I always struggled with, that I’d like to improve?
- What sort of a person do I aspire to be?
Answer these questions and write them all in a personal journal.
So now, you’ve decided what your goal should be, you’ve identified your why and you’ve started to build momentum by doing ‘something’.
All that’s left now, is to do something small towards it’s achievement every day.
As an additional little tip, starting a journal can help you with accountability and be incredibly rewarding.
The only thing remaining now, is to start… Good luck 🙂
