Into Goal Setting

Since my last post I have been reviewing everything I have learned about goals and goal setting since becoming a Life Coach. The program that I use has specific steps to follow when setting and tracking goals. Tracking goals is one of the essential componets of the process of achieving your goals.

In the 1940's and 50's, when goal setting first became popular, there wasn't a lot of studies done to back up the goal setting process. In fact, most of what was written was just someone's opinion of what they thought to be good ideas when setting goals. Dr. Shad Helmstetter, along with many others, have since done studies and now know what makes a goal a goal, how to set and track a goal and the principles that make a good goal. As I lay out the format that I use, if it seems contradictory to what you have heard before about goal setting, please keep an open mind and see if what you read here doesn't make sense before tossing it out because it isn't the way you've been taught to set goals.

One of the most basic myths believed about setting goals is that a goal should be written in stone, set in concrete... NEVER TO BE CHANGED. Not true! A goal is a guide, it can and does change along the way due to unforseen circumstances. However, we should allow for those life-bumps, because they do indeed come, as we journey along our path to the goal set before us. At different times in our life there will be things that come up unexpectantly that will hinder our process and that's okay...that's life happening to us and around us. We've all heard the saying that "Life is what happens while you're making other plans." Planning and setting goals is a part of life, not life itself. To set and achieve one's goal is very fulfilling, a feat to be celebrated but not to the extent that it robs us of the joys and spontanious times that will present themselves to us.

Well, I feel better now, because I did purpose in my mind, at the last writing on this blog, to write in more detail about setting goals. I'm not sure why I feel better or even if it is a good thing that I feel better, but that's the nature of the mindset about setting goals....a mindset that I personally intend to change within myself, a mindset that I'm okay whether I'm setting a goal, tracking a goal or achieving a goal and I hope you join me in this journey.