{"id":3800,"date":"2019-12-10T10:00:56","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T15:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/prlab\/?p=3800"},"modified":"2019-12-10T19:21:48","modified_gmt":"2019-12-11T00:21:48","slug":"effective-goal-etting-importance-and-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/prlab\/2019\/12\/10\/effective-goal-etting-importance-and-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Effective Goal Setting: Importance and Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By Anaya Shah, Account Supervisor <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Why is it important to set effective goals?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ever wondered why in football when a player scores, it\u2019s called a \u201cgoal\u201d? It\u2019s because goals facilitate the big win. The first step for creating any plan is setting the goals. The goals set the foundation of the plan. They are the ultimate achievement toward which the strategies and tactics of the plan are directed. Setting effective goals helps to be prepared and make informed decisions regarding the task. In all, setting effective goals not only increases motivation, but allows measuring the progress achieved and it helps align focus and behavior.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Tips on how to set effective professional goals:<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Research:<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The rule of thumb for starting any professional activity is by doing research. Research your company and research your client. Be aware of current trends in the industry before you set any goals.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Priorities: <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Be sure to know the most important aspects of your tasks while setting goals. Understanding what is necessary to achieve helps direct efforts towards exactly that goal.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Obstacles:<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Make a list of the obstacles. This increases preparedness amongst the team. It is easier to set the goals after taking into consideration and understanding the hardships that could be faced.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Team dynamics: <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before setting the goals, understand the team structure clearly. Take into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of individual team members and the team as a whole.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Big picture: <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Create a vision and mission. This can clarify why each task is important and performance can be more effectively and efficiently achieved. Goals should facilitate reaching the organization\u2019s ultimate goal, instead of creating ones that would help only for short periods.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Value based:<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0While setting goals for professional plans, it is important to take into consideration the values of the organization. They should not damage the reputation of the organization.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Deadlines:<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Plan deadlines to achieve a specific amount of success. This helps in evaluating progress on regular intervals and hence can help understand what changes need to be made and what actions need to be continued to reach the goal.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b><i>Tips on how to set effective personal goals:<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Worthy goals:<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Everyone has many aspirations from life; many things they want to achieve. The trick to set effective goals is to prioritize which are most important to achieve. It is vital to understand which goal is most important and all efforts should be effectively targeted toward that.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Realistic goals:<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u201cI want to gain 15 pounds in five days.\u201d v\/s \u201cI want to gain 5 pounds in three months.\u201d The first goal is unrealistic and almost impossible to achieve. Setting this type of goal can result in a major waste of time and effort and hence setting goals that are realistic would be more effective.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Measurable goals: <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI want to save money.\u201d v\/s \u201cI want to save $5000 by the end of this year.\u201d The first goal can\u2019t be measured and hence it\u2019s progress can\u2019t be evaluated; whereas the second goal is measurable and it is easy to evaluate whether it was successfully achieved or not.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Specific goals:<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u201cI want to save money for buying shoes\u201d v\/s \u201cI want to save money to buy black Jimmy Choo shoes by the end of this month.\u201d This first type of goal is vague, with no specifications. The second type of goal has listed specific things that need to be achieved, this helps in planning the exact efforts it will take to achieve it.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Value based goals:<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> When setting personal goals, it is most important to take into consideration your own personal values. This is important as while making efforts to achieve the goals, one should not be morally conflicted.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Evaluation: <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Setting specific deadlines to evaluate goals helps effectively measure the progress achieved. It also helps you understand how much effort is still required to achieve the goal. This helps to revise the strategy and be more realistic in the action plan or the achievability of the goal.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Time management: <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Personal goals are important, but they are not the only important thing in life.There needs to be a balance between personal and professional life and hence it is important to set goals which leave time to achieve progress in other aspects too.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Motivation:<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Since for personal goals, progress does not need to be reported to another person, it is easy to procrastinate. Attaching a positive value for achieving each step toward the goal increases motivation to achieve personal goals.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When talent or potential are being used toward a specific goal, all the energies get channeled to bring optima; results. Goal setting is a step in the direction of where, why and how you will lead.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Anaya Shah, Account Supervisor &nbsp; Why is it important to set effective goals? Ever wondered why in football when a player scores, it\u2019s called a \u201cgoal\u201d? It\u2019s because goals facilitate the big win. The first step for creating any plan is setting the goals. The goals set the foundation of the plan. They are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16807,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/prlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3800"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/prlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/prlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/prlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16807"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/prlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3800"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/prlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3803,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/prlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3800\/revisions\/3803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/prlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/prlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/prlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}