Sunday, May 3, 2009

How To Write Goals That Instill Confidence and Get Big Results

By Ed Perry

When it comes to losing weight, moving up the ladder at work, or any other achievement that you may aspire to in life, there is nothing more crucial than learning how to write goals that will boost your confidence. If you set your goals wrong, you will deflate your confidence with failure. To avoid this, make sure your goals are both realistically attainable and very specific.

The biggest blow to your confidence comes when you realize you have failed to reach a goal you put out great efforts to achieve. This is what happens when you set goals that are not realistically attainable.

For instance, imagine you write down that you are going to lose twenty inches off your waist before the big party in two weeks. Obviously, this is not going to happen and when the party rolls around you are going to feel anything but confident, right?

A realistic alternative may be to say you want to lose six pounds in that time frame. This is something that could actually happen, and in fact you could lose a few extra pounds and surpass the goal.

One tip is to learn how to write goals that are realistic but still hold your mental eye on something larger. So, for our example here, you could write down that you want to lose eight pounds in one month but hold the hope in your head that you could actually lose ten.

If you only meet the goal you have written down you are a success. If you meet the goal you mentally focused on for that month you have extra reason to celebrate!

So, how do you track your progress and measure success in the end? The second trick is to make sure your goals are as specific as possible.

Think back to our earlier example of losing six pounds by the end of the year. A generalized goal may be that you want to look beautiful on New Year's Eve. There is very little here by which to measure progress.

To get specific, you can amend this goal to say you want to lose six pounds and fit into a specific dress for New Year's Eve. As long as the dress size is realistic, you can now measure progress by trying on the dress occasionally and you will know exactly when you meet the goal.

Resist the temptation to sit down and toss out your goals quickly. Learning how to write goals successfully requires some thought to what you really want in life. Get real with yourself! Then you can set multiple specific, realistic goals which will eventually boost your confidence and take you where you really want to be.

About the Author:

No comments:

Post a Comment