Goal Setting for Personal and Professional Excellence (Part 4)
Step 6: Commit yourself completely.
Key Points
- Sacrifice, discomfort, and setbacks are a part of the process. Do not let them erode your confidence and motivation!
- Find creative and strategic ways to post your goals so that you trip over them every day.
- Share your goals with those who will reinforce your successes and hold you accountable when you're tired or distracted.
| Staying on Track With Your Goals |
|---|
| How will I post or display my goals so that they become a constant reminder of what's important to me (e.g. fridge, front door, computer background)? |
| What am I willing to sacrifice or struggle through in order to accomplish my goals? Check when posted: _____ |
| I will provide a copy of these goals to __________________ from my professional life, and ask for their support. Check when complete: _____ |
| I will provide a copy of these goals to __________________ from my personal life, and ask for their support. Check when complete: _____ |
Step 7: Continually monitor your progress.
Monitoring your progress is important for two reasons:
- You are able to see progress and therefore stay motivated.
- It shows you if something is not working so that you can change it.
Key Points
- Track your goal progress daily and weekly, celebrate the small victories, and identify new strategies to overcoming sticking points.
- Focus on your goal successes weekly to build motivation and confidence.
- Focus on your goal setbacks weekly to adapt and improve.
- Begin performance journaling. Spend a few minutes each day reflecting on the thoughts and actions that helped and hurt your goal progress.
Weekly Performance Assessment
Focus on the journey. At the end of each week, spend some time thinking about the progress of your goals. Record five things that went well, and one thing you want to improve for the next week.
Confidence Builders: Focus on small successes and victories.
- _____________________________________________________
- _____________________________________________________
- _____________________________________________________
- _____________________________________________________
- _____________________________________________________
| Room for Improvement |
|---|
| Improvement Area: |
| Lessons Learned: |
Conclusion
This goal-planning program is like a chain that becomes stronger with each link. Your actions mobilize effort on an immediate and regular basis to strengthen your priority areas, and your affirmations create a powerful attitude for accomplishing these behaviors. As each priority area improves, you move closer to reaching your outcome goal. The chances of success decrease when you set only one type of goal in only one dimension. Try to focus on the five dimensions of strength: family, social, spiritual, emotional, and physical. Tie together and encompass your entire life to get you to where you want to go.
You have created a plan for your first outcome goal by following this workbook and completing the seven-step goal planning process. Develop additional goals using this same method!
U.S. Army, Joint Base Lewis-McChord. (2013, July). Goal setting for personal and professional excellence (pp. 21–26). Retrieved October 8, 2020, from https://www.lewis-mcchord.army.mil