How To Set Your Goals
How To Set Your Goals?
In 1980 General electric company has become the second most valuable company in America, and General Electric (GE) was also one of the largest company in the world. This company used to manufacture a lot of things, from smallest till the largest thing like from light bulb till jet engines, from fridge till train bogies they used to manufacture almost everything, not only this but GE companies also had several TV shows which had a million viewers. General Electric was such a huge company in that era, that it had 220000 employees. This number of employees were more than several U.S. cities population and the reason behind the huge success of General electric company was their way of formulating goal setting. They had such a powerful technique of goal setting. They had set that goal setting technique in 1940 and many other people and companies were replicating that technique because outcome of that goal setting was amazing and unbelievable, because of such an awesome outcome in 1960 general electric company made compulsory for each of their employees to follow that technique, and superiors of that company used to check it 4 times in a year and after checking they used to approve it and this has become the biggest reason for that company’s grand success because it’s a fact that having proper goals in life or in business is the most important aspect of any person’s life and if you follow it seriously and properly then no one can stop you to move ahead in life, it is said that not having goals in life is as dangerous as a ship who is in the middle of river and not knowing the destination nor the direction where to go, by which ship will for sure get sink, the way our body can’t work without soul similarly in order to achieve something intelligent in our lives we must have proper goals in our lives.
Hence today I will share general electric companies goal setting system by following it even you’ll able to set proper goals in your life, in fact, you can complete your goals after taking proper actions on it, so let’s begin with “How To Set Your Goals?”.
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Goal setting system is divided into 5 parts or can say that the system follows the 5 fundamental properties which are named as smart goals. Here smart is nothing but an acronym which represents that 5 properties, where smart first initial or property stands for SPECIFIC
1st Property: Specific
This point clears whether your goals are true specific goals or it’s just a hypothetical goals or just a wish example two friends were discussing about their future dream and goals that how exactly they want their future to be, while discussing the first friend ask the second friend about cars, like what car he wants in his future, which car he would love to buy, so for this second friend replied I want a big expensive sports car, so with this first friend asked ohkkk nice, which sports car you want? So with this second friend replied I want Ferrari, so again first friend asked oh nice which Ferrari, with this second friend said what do you mean by which Ferrari that red one of course, with this first friend, said there are many Ferrari models like Enzo, 458 Italia, Ferrari F40 with this second friend said don’t bore me plz, il buy anyone from these.
In this example the second friend is not specific to his goals, hence as per smart goals technique and principles there are very fewer chances of him buying Ferrari in future, unfortunately most of the people are like this second friend, most of us are not specific about our goals, we just like to talk example, I still remember the time when I went to one network marketing event, same thing even they were teaching over there, like most of the people dream I want this that I will buy car big house mansion etc. but we never specifically think about it like how exactly we will make our dream come true, how we convert our dream goals into reality. People feel by doing a normal job we can do this but if you sit with a calculator and calculate then you will realize and understand that even if you work for 15 years on an average earning of 50 thousand in a month still you will not have 10 million (1 Crore) after 15 years. Then how you can even think that you can buy expensive house and car, hence smart goal first point teaches us to be specific about your goals, do set clear and specific goals, means don’t only think I want to earn a lot of money but think about how much you want to earn, think about a specific amount, that to live a happy life I have to earn 10 lacks in a year by being specific you can make a proper plan, by being specific you will know what all things you have to do to earn 10 lakh in a year by this your chances of achieving goals will increase and improve if you are thinking to go with the flow and one day suddenly life will give you Ferrari and big expensive home then this is nothing but your dream which will never become reality, hence do set a specific goal as per smart goals system.
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Second Property: Measurable
Second thing you must keep in mind while setting up your goal or to achieve your goals is that your goal must be measurable, so that you can measure your goal always, example suppose you want to lose your weight then at first as per the first point you need to be specific like how much weight you want to lose 1 kg two kg or more than that then after being specific go to the second step which says to measure your progress, means check your weight once or twice a week, do measure your weight with this you will understand how close you are towards your 4 kg weight loss, and then take actions accordingly, best thing about measuring your progress, when you measure you will see your success which will help you to achieve your goals by motivating you, hence whatever goal you set first to make it specific and second make it measurable, through which you can know how much closer you are moving towards your goal. If you don’t measure your goal then there will be high chances of you forgetting about that goal, and for sure fail to achieve your goal hence as per smart goal second point after setting specific goal do measure your goal progress.
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3rd Property: Achievable
This point teaches us to set goals which are achievable and actionable, which is possible in reality to achieve by taking actions, because many times people set very unrealistic goals for themselves, and achieving those goals becomes nearly impossible for them, example, suppose if I say that I want to become a millionaire hence I will work a lot will put my 110 percent will work day and night and will become millionaire within a week, then setting such goal is really very stupid, because becoming a millionaire is possible I accept this fact but becoming a millionaire within a week is not possible in the real world unless and until you are not very much lucky or won’t do any illegal thing, hence do set a goal which you can divide and can fulfill and can achieve it by taking proper actions towards it, as per first example, if you want to lose 15 kg weight then don’t think that I will follow strict diet and will do exercise and will for sure lose max weight within two days, instead make that thing realistic and actionable, like I will lose 1 kg weight within a week how I will do it? I will exercise daily will follow a proper diet, clear your actions and then achieve your goals, this will be the best way.
To conclude this point, smart goals third point ask you to ask yourself three things to set your goals, first the goal you are setting for yourself is it realistic? As per earlier example losing 1 kg weight within a week is a realistic goal you can do it by taking proper actions. The second question is control of completing that goal is in your hand or not? Yes you can control your eating and physical activity and can lose 1 kg within a week third question do you have all things which is required to achieve that goal, is it available with you because you can need them example do you have proper diet food available with you, do you have running shoes, or gym near you things which is needed to achieve your weight loss goal do you have things available related to it, if all three question answer is positive then your goal is achievable and you are following a smart goal 3rd point.
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4th Property: Relevant
This point asks you whatever actions you are taking is it taking you near your goals or not? Whatever you are doing or whichever plan you are making is it helping you to reach near your goal is it relevant or not? Because many a times what happens whenever we set a goal at start we knew what exactly we have to do but due to different life distractions work and responsibilities we stay busy in those works which shows us as if we are working towards our goals and moving near our target but in reality many times our work is not at all relevant to our goals, which usually don’t take us near our goals, hence after setting goals you must first do those work or should make those work your priority which takes you near your goal achievement, and to make this possible or to set your priorities you can do use two techniques, first technique is known as efforts vs value, if you can see the graph on the screen, there are 4 parts in that graph, ideally you have to try to finish that part work first which moves you ahead towards your goal, which takes your fewer efforts and gives you maximum output, everything giving less effort and getting max output will not be possible but at start you should try to do it. The second point under technique two is you should give priority to those work which takes more efforts but it is also valuable for your goals, you should give 3rd priority to those work which takes low effort and gives low value or output and last work you can avoid till the end this is the first technique.
Second technique will help you to select best short goals which are our earlier and best 80/20 principle this is also known as a Pareto principle. Here you need to find out 20 percent actions which give you 80 percent results to move closer towards achieving your goals, and after figuring out then try to complete those work asap.
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5th Property: Timeline
Last smart goal ‘T’ stands for the timeline. This goal asks you how much time you will take to complete your goal, even better have you kept any deadline to complete your goal yes or no? example I still remember how I used to get assignment in school and colleges, even after getting 1 month to complete our school college assignments still we used to finish it just before the deadline or just on the day of submission, with this example I am not saying how much lazy we are but I am saying when we get deadline we complete our work before deadline, hence it is important for us to set deadline in order to complete our goals, many people never complete their life goals because they don’t get deadline similar to school and colleges because we don’t have anyone to give us punishment if we don’t complete our goal work or target, hence if you want to achieve something huge in life seriously then you need to become your own teacher, and have to give deadline to your own self, if you don’t finish work on time then had to punish yourself, understand that completing deadline is the most important point in order to achieve any goal, hence as per 5th point of smart goal do set your goal deadline.
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These are the 5 tips to set your goals. Thank you.
