4 Key Factors For Effective Goal Setting To Acquire Success!


By Ange Fonce

 
I thought you might find some inspiration from this story I found on line and share with you a story about the executive and the fisherman.  

See once upon a time there was an overstressed CEO of a big company... he decided that he just needed a vacation to get away from it all and he choose to go on a fishing trip to relax... so he researched and he finally found what he thought to be a slow paced fishing village and once he got there he decided... 

"Oh this is perfect."  

It was real slow paced... the locals are very friendly and he had the good fortune of finding a very good fishing guide.

He and the guide would get up early every morning and they would go fishing... each day they would talk about things and they developed quite a friendly relationship sharing stories back and forth.

A few days into his trip and a lot of fish caught the CEO had a suggestion for the fisherman... he said... 

"Have you ever thought about getting some more boats... hiring out some more fishing guides?”

And he continued... 

"You would be catching a lot more fish and as a matter of fact maybe you could get fishing vessels and catch a whole bunch of more fish and create a fish processing plant here on the island and develop a business to where you could sell fish internationally all over the globe... you would have a world wide corporation that you could manage."

And the local fisherman thought about what he had said for a minute and he asked... 

"Well what good would that do me?"

The CEO replied... 

"Well... eventually your company would get so big that it would be noticed by an even bigger company and you could sell your shares to that bigger company and you could retire."

And the local fisherman asked... 

"Well what would I do then?"

The CEO says... 

"Well... you could be like me."

So the local fisherman says... 

"So you mean that I could work that hard and finally sell my company so that I could finally come here to where I am right now and go fishing every day?"  

Continuing the Fisherman said... 

"Well I have already got that...  why would I want to do all of that other stress filled work?"

Remember to make your goal choices because it is what you want... not because of what somebody else wants for you or because of their beliefs or them telling you to do or not do something.  

It is your life... you make your own choices and accept full responsibility for your choices... actions and outcomes... you do need to take care in choosing your goals... otherwise you may end up going down the wrong path to a dead end and not achieve the result you truly desired... many goals are set when we are young... when we are long on ambition yet possibly short on wisdom.  

Now many thousands of years ago King Solomon who was said to be the wisest man who ever lived said this...  

"Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wisdom.  And with all you are learning, grow in understanding."  

So get wisdom and understanding and from those two things everything else will flow to you... now the question to ask yourself is...  

Will your goal really bring happiness... fulfilment and success?

And the goals you set for yourself have a significant influence on your performance and this is as true for Dynamic Life Development Systems as it is for any other meaningful task. 

So long as your are committed to the goal and you have the requisite ability to attain it and you do not have conflicting goals... there is a positive linear relationship between goal difficulty and task performance.

So when you are...

A... Committed.

B... Able. 

C... Unconflicted

You owe it to yourself to aim really high... I am not suggesting that these conditions are easily met... two out of three is good and meeting all three can be a high bar and as noted below at times aiming too high is counter productive... particularly when you perceive a difficult goal as threatening. 

The key is aiming just high enough.





Goals And Performance


How do your goals affect your performance?

1... High goals lead to greater effort and persistence than do moderately difficult... easy or vague goals. 

2... Goals direct attention... effort and action toward relevant actions at the expense of non relevant actions. 

3... Because performance is a function of both ability and motivation... goal effects also depend upon having the requisite task knowledge and skills. 

4... Goals may simply motivate one to use ones existing ability may automatically pull stored task relevant knowledge into awareness and may motivate people to search for new knowledge.





Effective Goals


There are 4 factors that influence your goals effectiveness... the key moderators of goal setting are... 

1... You lack feedback which people need in order to track their progress. 

2... Your commitment to the goal which is enhanced by self efficacy... defined as "task specific confidence" and viewing the goal as important. 

3... How you handle task complexity to the extent that task knowledge is harder to acquire on complex tasks. 

4... Your situational constraints like role overload... excess work without the necessary resources to accomplish a task... moderates the goal effects... goals that improve performance are most effective when overload was low... yet challenging to raise standards.

So effective goals will generate feedback on your progress... heighten your sense of commitment... relate to complex tasks and be supported by the resources you need to accomplish those task.




Other Factors


Three additional points that affect acquiring your goals...

1... Sometimes specific difficult goals do not lead to better performance by simply urging people to do their best.

When tackling a new complex task and focusing on a performance outcome may cause you to prioritize the goal and lose sight of the bigger picture as to why we set the goal in the first place... in these cases it may be preferable to identify learning goals which put the emphasis on acquiring the skills needed to achieve a given task.

2... Assigning hard goals may not be effective when people view those goals as threatening.

When you see a difficult goal as a "challenge"  you focus on the possibility of success and the utility of effort... yet it is also possible to see a difficult goal as a "threat" which shifts your focus to the possibility of failure and undermines our performance. 

As always your own mindset is a critical factor.

3... Goal progress and goal importance can be strong predictors of feelings of success and well being.

Now in my experience as a Personal Development Consultant... those people "who perceived their goals as difficult to obtain" reported these positive feelings. 

In the right circumstances... stretch goals just feel good... so goals can encourage you to work harder and longer and when they are difficult to achieve they push you even more. 

Goals compel you to prioritize and avoid wasting time and energy on irrelevant tasks... suggesting that they help you triage and distinguish between relevant and irrelevant tasks by attaching importance to the former and devaluing the latter. 

Goals obviously are not a panacea and you are unlikely to achieve them if you lack the necessary knowledge and skills and even when those qualities are not in abundance... goals help you make the most of what you have while spurring you to learn more and enhance your skills.



Escalation Of Commitment


One final topic related to goal setting that I will touch on briefly. 

Focus on "vicious cycles"... the dynamics that reinforce your commitment to self sabotaging behaviour because you mistakenly assume that when things are going badly and getting worse you will stop and choose another path... we often do not stop and think about how our own behaviour and actions can influence our own outcomes as to whether we will be successful or not.

And there is great value in understanding how these dynamics are applied by ourselves to support effective goal setting and reinforce your commitment to success. 

When you get stuck in escalation of self sabotage... your  behaviour becomes focused on your decision making process and your need to justify your past choices to others. 

The outcome of an goal investment is rarely free from external scrutiny and judgement from others and as such your decision making process may escalate commitment to your original goal investment to avoid admitting to others that the venture was a failure or that your decision was flawed. 

Such admissions might cause others to doubt your competence and people tend to punish decision makers for inconsistency... when a decision maker switches from their originally endorsed course of action... observers may take it as a sign of weakness or lack of confidence... then you may choose to escalate commitment to a goal that is not working to avoid appearing inconsistent.

To be clear... you become so focused on situations where "objective evidence" indicates that continuing with an such a goal investment is unwise and yet an as an individual you choose to invest further in spite of this.

If a goal you are working on is not going well... be prepared to stop and re evaluate your goal process and make changes.

We are not born with a goal program that gives us success in life... it is a process you learn... develop and constantly refine.

There is a system for effective goal setting and once you understand the process and put it into "action"... your success soon appears!

Thank you and may you enjoy a Prosperous and Dynamic day!

Yours Sincerely




Intellectual Badass... noun

1... A person with a penchant for Science... creativity... books... writing... communication... fitness... women... sexing... sexuality... human relationships... psychology... physiology and any other area involving heavy use of the Intellect.

2... A bright kick arse person and glamorously Intelligent!

3... Ange is an Author... Speaker and Dynamic Peak Performance Personal Development Consultant... and Humanistic Counselling Psychologist and Sexologist... who works with those men and women who desire to personally develop themselves and their relationships to become Dynamic Lifers... creators of their own life and wealth! 


To Speak to Ange and arrange a consultation  CLICK HERE





"Transformation happens when people fall in love with a different version of themselves and their future!"



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