Changing Your Goals
So you hear you should set some goals, and you do. You go out and set long-term goals, and short-term goals.
But what if you start to have doubts about your goals, what then? Do you adjust your goals, or do you just press forward because your goal is “set”?
You need to be ready to change goals, otherwise they are a hindrance, not a tool to help you. But it needs to be for the right reasons. Wrong reasons include being frustrated, not making progress, or someone telling you it’s a bad idea. The right reasons include a change in your fundamental dreams and desires, unexpected changes in your life, or a new expanded vision of the goal which may need your goal to be expanded or tweaked.
While it’s often useful to be very specific in your goals, the more specific they are, the more likely it may need to be adjusted. If your goal is to “get a promotion to unit supervisor within 2 years”, then what happens it a wonderful job opportunity comes up with another company, which is even better? If you take that job, did you fail your goal? Perhaps your “real goal” should have been to “make a significant improvement in my career”? However that may be to vague, setting your target on “unit supervisor” was valid because it enabled you to focus on very specific activities such as being mentored by someone who has that job.
My attitude is that goals are a tool, and you need to re-evaluate them periodically and see if they need changing.
People change, and fundamental beliefs can change too. Major life changes such as getting married, getting divorced, losing a loved one, having a child, changing jobs, losing your job, discovering a new spiritual belief, having health problems, discovering a brand new opportunity, all can make an existing goal no longer relevant. Simply know that it’s ok to change your goal, and that the important thing is that you have a goal.
In my own life, having my son certainly had a major effect on my goals. More of my goals relate towards what’s best for him, rather than for me. Prior to having my first child I didn’t anticipate how much my feelings and interests might shift.
There’s huge amounts of articles out there on goal setting, for example here: http://www.positivearticles.com/Category/Goal-Setting/86, and you can get into all sorts of techniques. But don’t let that stop you from at least having some basic fundamental idea of whats important to you, even if it’s simple goal such as “get married”, “find a new job”, “get a better house”, “lose weight”, etc.
Have any of you readers had to give up a goal and replace it with a new one? What was the reason for the change, and was it difficult to let go? Has goal setting been helpful to you?
Have a ny of you readers had to give up a goal and replace it with a new one? What was the reason for the change, and was it difficult to let go? Has goal setting been helpful to you?
Yeah i had a goal but that was not possible for my kind of girl so that i had to replace with some other one.
Actually the reason was quite simple. Situation was against from my goal at that time.
Yeah obviousely when you set your mind for something and when you don’t get it. Its difficult but its a life
josephine
http://www.ebookforlawofattraction.com/secretreport.htm
As you said above, we have long term goal and short term goal. For me long term goal is more about condition I want to have in the future.
For example I want to have financial freedom in the future. I will not have a goal such as I want to have house on beach or how many kids I want. because for my first long term goal, I don’t need to change it. it is universal condition. The second long term is not universal. it is influence by environment and can be change sometimes.
I have been working towards achieving my goals and I have found the vehicle to get there and realise that goals are valuable tools just like a good axe is to a lumberjack. However, just like the axe, they need to be sharpened if they are to be totally effective. What are your thoughts?
Good analogy Maryann of goals being a tool, and needing sharpening. This ties back to being open-minded and flexible. There’s been times in my career where I was excited about a particular goal, and working towards it, then out of the blue comes a completely new option. Rather than say “I must stick to my goal”, the new question is “Will this new option serve me better?”, and “Will it better support my life goals?”
What I mean by life goals are the ultimate things you want out of life. Many goals are just a means to an end. Do you want a promotion because it’s personally rewarding and challenging? If so that’s a worthy goal. But you probably have another “life goal” to provide a nice lifestyle for yourself and your family, and setting aside a nest egg for the future. A promotion serves these goals by earning more money. Perhaps you are forced to take on short-term goals you don’t even enjoy in order to move towards a life goal. For example to take a job you dislike because it earns significantly more, or is a pathway to earning more.
Have any of you had to work toward goals you don’t like, keeping the big picture in mind?
[...] Moore has a good article on his blog about changing your goals. The jist of the article is that when life situations invalidate your current goals, consider [...]
I used to be a champion swimmer in high school and college and my dad was always great at encouraging me to write down goals (times primarily) that I wanted to achieve. When I reached the adult world I was kind of shocked at how little people set goals, or shrinked away from them. Love this post and would love to see more people taking on goal setting for everything in life!