Question-Week ending Sunday 02/02/03:
When setting GOALS, do you take the time to list the benefits you or others will reap from its achievement? Please read our Poll Commentary before taking this poll.
Pre-Poll Commentary:
This week's poll is the third in our series of discussions on our Goal Planning System. In this poll, we will be discussing the importance of listing all the ways you or others will benefit from your goal and why you should analyze your starting point.
Every step in our seven step system for Goal Planning has a critical purpose for its inclusion. After sincerely believing that you can achieve a goal and have committed it to writing, it's now time to list all the benefits you or others will reap from achieving this goal. This step in the process, will either convince you that your goal is worth the effort it will take, or discourage you to choose a more worthy goal to concentrate on.
Let's go back to our example in last week's Post-Poll Commentary of a high school student setting a goal to attend college. Just wanting to do something without compelling reasons, waters down the intensity of a goal. If a student wants to attend college because Mom and Dad are bugging him or her to do so, that is not a compelling enough reason to really get excited about. However, let's add another powerful factor into this equation. We now have a student athlete, possibly a football player who has excelled in the sport from a youngster in Pop Warner. His grandfather, father and older brothers all went to the same big time Football University and he's been hearing about the benefits of attending this university all his life. He could list 100 reasons why he MUST attend that university. Do you think this individual is going to be highly motivated to achieve his goal?
The above example may seem extreme, but you must have compelling reasons to achieve goals. You need a detailed list of benefits you or others will reap by the achievement of your goal. That benefit list, looked at often, will drive you to work hard at your goal and not give up when the going gets tough.
The second part of Step 3 is to analyze your present starting point. If you are a D student and will need to be a B+ student to get into that dream university, you have to realize that as early as possible. You can't wait another moment to figure out your strengths and weaknesses. This is the time to take a personal inventory and keep looking at that benefit list to drive you to change. Even though each step in this Goal Setting System may seem complicated, it is really very simple. It doesn't take a lot of time. It just takes the energy to start the process and the persistence to follow through with each step. Just list and detail those great benefits and watch the energy flow.
Let us know if you list the benefits of achieving the goals you set. This poll will end on Sunday 02/02/03. Watch for the results and summary by Monday morning 02/03/03.
Results:
61% answered they NEVER list the benefits of their goals
28% answered they SOMETIMES list the benefits of goals
11% answered they ALWAYS list the benefits of their goals
Post-Poll Commentary:
In last week's poll, we learned that too few people were writing their goals down. Many believed it wasn't necessary to do so. But as we progress through this Goal Planning System, it will become crystal clear that you need to write stuff down to achieve a goal of substance. By the results of our weekly polls, we are learning about the major cracks in goal achievement. If we don't think about and list all the benefits of our goal, will there be enough compelling reasons to fight hard to overcome the obstacles ahead?
We all need reasons to do things or we would never leave our bed or get out of our pajamas each day. The more reasons the better. That's why if you are serious about achieving a goal of substance, you need to think about and list all the benefits you or others will reap. Reading your list of benefits often will energize you and keep focused on achieving your goal.
Also as we progress through our Goal Planning System, you will learn why so few people have a PLAN at all for achieving goals. They just don't think about a SYSTEM. They do what comes natural and unfortunately natural is the path of least resistance.
Learning and practicing the skills of Goal Achievement can make a tremendous difference in your life. It's a skill that you probably won't be taught in school even if you earned a doctorate degree. But you can learn it here for free if you just BELIEVE enough in "THE SYSTEM."