Goal Setting Activity

This goal setting activity focuses you on what is important and clarifies your personal goal setting. This goal setting activity uses goal setting forms for setting and achieving goals.

Every year millions of people set goals with the best of intentions, only to make the same goals the following year.

One reason for this is that you can set too many goals.

Over the years of working with elite athletes, business professionals, and students, I have learnt that setting and achieving fewer goals that are important to has a snowball-effect.

As you start to achieve, taking small steps, your confidence and ability to set and achieve goals increases.

Soon, you have mastered a skill that puts you at the top of your field.

This goal setting activity focuses your attention on those goals that are most important to you.

Goal setting activity #1: Clarify your vision

Do you have a vision of what you want to achieve in different areas of your life?

Take out a piece of paper and try to write a paragraph describing the type of person that you want to be in each area of your life.

Try these goal setting activities that activate your right-brain and get your creative juices flowing.

You may notice that as you write you introduce several goals that start to develop in in each area.

These areas may include family, career, financial, health goals, and other areas that are important to you.

Which areas are important to you?

Download a goal setting worksheet and use the goal setting template to rate on the scale provided the areas of your life that are most important to you.

Your Major Life Areas Which areas of your life are important to set goals? Career goal setting Family goal setting Fitness goal setting Setting financial goals Setting personal goals

Goal setting activity #2: Prioritize your goals

This goal setting activity identifies your most important goals.

When you think of the many areas of your life it is likely that you may have a number of goals.

You may find that you have many goals in these different areas – and if you do then that is great.

BUT working on all of your goals at once reduces your focus and effort on each of your goals - it could be counterproductive!

You may become overwhelmed with the number of tasks to complete. Even with the right goal setting strategies you may be spreading yourself too thin - making it difficult to focus on what is important.

This is a common cause of goal setting failure.

Let's take a closer look at your goals and prioritize them so that you can focus your time and effort on those goals that are most important to you.

Make a list of all the goals that you have set - writing goals down in these goal setting templates helps you to construct your goal list.

Now rank each of the goals that you have set.

Use the ABC system, in which Priority A goals are those goals that are most important to you.

Priority B are somewhat important to you.

Priority C goals are goals that are not really important to you.

Note: Some of your top priority goals should be aligned with the most important life area that you have identified in the above goal setting activity - but you can download this goal setting worksheet if you need a recap.

Setting SMART goals Do you set goals but not achieve them? If so, then setting SMART goals may be beneficial for you. SMART goals are goals that are specific, measurable, action-based, realistic, and time-bound. Setting SMART goals puts you way ahead of many others in setting and achieving goals.

You really want to concentrate your attention on goals that are most important to you!

Examine your Priority A goals in more detail.

Again, rank your Priority A goals in terms of importance.

Choose 3 goals that are most important to you.

To maintain balance in your life, try to ensure that you do not focus entirely on one life area at the expense of others.

The 3 goals that you have identified are those that you may want to focus your time and effort on achieving.

They give you the biggest reward if you achieve them because they are most important to you.

I talk more about goal setting tips that you can use to avoid the common errors of goal setting.

Related goal setting articles

Goal Setting Course: Structured Goal Setting Lesson Plans

Goal Setting Theory: Research and Theory of Goal Setting