Your Persona in Setting and Achieving Goals for 2019

There are three types of people when it comes to goal-setting. You might find a clue to which type of goal setter you are by how goal-setting makes you feel.

1. You are excited about setting new goals… but you become distracted and discouraged as the months go by.
2. Your stomach knots up into a dismal little lump of cold gravy when you try to set a goal. You put it off till later.
3. You have iron self-discipline. You set goals, and although it’s not easy for you to keep walking the straight and narrow towards them, reminding yourself of the benefits you will reap, if you stay true to your path, helps you achieve them.

Since you are reading this blog, chances are you fall somewhere within categories one and two like most people.

But here’s a thought that might bring a sigh of relief no matter what goal-setting type you are:

Goal-setting ought to be fun.

So why isn’t it? Why is it, at best, a chore, and at its worst, wishful thinking—the sort that leaves you feeling defeated in short order?

That comes because of a misconception: That your goal is the end-point of your journey. Very often, what we view as “goals” are actually steps you need to take in order to reach a goal. If you separate your journey into steps, mini-goals and end goals, or destinations, each big goal feels smaller, more manageable and more attainable.

Steps can become goals themselves. Achieving these mini-goals along the way are just as satisfying as achieving your main business goal for 2019.

Here’s an important point to remember:

Steps and mini-goals are also by their nature more immediate—which leaves you less likely to procrastinate and put off starting your journey. Taking it one step at a time will make goal setting feel more rewarding as you complete each step.

But whether or not you prefer to think of goals as steps (or vice versa), the important factor to realize is that the goals we set for ourselves often tend to be black and white.

Human beings are not.

We are fluid beings adrift in the universe, tossed and tipped by many outside factors over which we have very little control. That is why “black-and-white” thinking rarely pays off.

Spend a few minutes thinking about your goal-setting experiences. Based on past goals and their outcome, and also on what you know about yourself, which goal-setting type are you?