Goal Setting – Personal Development Goals (part 5)
March 27, 2009 by: Dave Ozment
This is the fifth installment in my Goal Setting series. In this article we will demonstrate the model set forth in the first episode for Personal Development Goals.
As a recap: You will recall that I am a firm believer in establishing goals across 8 unique facets of my life – Spiritual, Financial, Career, Personal Development, Physical, Family, Social, and Household. I name my approach after a 1998 Tom Wolfe novel, a Man in Full
In all the hustle of our daily lives, sometimes we need to take a time out to do something that refreshes and renews us. Sometimes these are minor and whimsical escapes and at other times they require more planning and forethought. If we build this pursuit our life plan we will be better for it in the end.
While these examples borrow from my own goals, these are genericized for demonstration purposes.
Man in Full – Success personified in this category resembles:
· Enriched by Adventure
· Possessed of Knowledge and Wisdom
· Confident in the face of any Challenge
5 Year Goals – Over this timeframe I will make the following strides towards actualizing my vision
· Read 50 books
· Be Published
· Parachute – literally, jump from a plane!
1 Year Goals – This year I will make the following strides towards success
· Establish an early riser habit
· Read 4 books for the pure joy of it
· Take a speeding read course
1 Month Goals – Monthly activity schedules may resemble
· Complete a Personal Fulfillment book – March, June, September, December
· Gradually wake up earlier and earlier each month
· Identify 100 things to see/do in this lifetime – identify ~8-10 each month
Today – I will do something today that bends my behavior towards my vision
· Wake up early
· Clear personal To-Do file
· Read something
Just as Rome was not built in day and the longest journey begins with a single step, the power in this model is in how it causes us to consider our end product each day. In this way we do not simply arrive at our destination as much as we invent habits and patterns that over time reveal our vision through us.
Photo By: drinksmachine
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10 Benefits of rising early and how to do it
Great Post. I really like the way you break all this goal stuff down. Goal-setting is not just a 5 year plan or a 1 year plan, but it is about the little things we do each and everyday.
Personal Development Blog´s last blog ..Youth Leadership: Our Young People Need Youth Leadership to Grow!
Good post! Some very good, actionable tips there. I liked the way you broke the whole plan into smaller manageable bits. most of the time we try to go from point A to point B in one big leap and get overwhelmed by the enormity of the task.
suddengreen´s last blog ..Five Steps to Building Self Esteem
Good post! In the daily clutter of information, I’ve found it difficult sometimes to pick information and effective approaches that can genuinly help us.
If we are to achieve our goals, it is important to break them down to achievable chunks and to develop the self confidence to take action
Thanks for you clear and to-the-point post. Looking forward to reading more of such posts.
suddengreen´s last blog ..Five Steps to Building Self Esteem
I really like the simple goal outline above as it is easy to fill in and you can always get into more detail later on. It is shocking how few people really bother with a 5 year plan or longer.
The easiest step in goal setting is “goal settling itself” These days it has been made easier by people like you. The toughest part is to sticking to the goal for any length of time. It would be useful if you write how to stick to the goals till completion.
I like how you chunk it down…5 year, 1 year, 1 month, today.
A lot of time people fail to realize that the little things that we do today lead to those long term goals and dreams.
Ian
Ian@ Personal Development´s last blog ..Self Confidence
Thanks Ian, I appreciate it.
You are laying the groundwork for some significant long term success…personally, professionally, and otherwise. Very well put together brother!
Blessings on your day!
Brandon
The Almost Millionaire’s last blog post..Should I buy a franchise?
Thanks TAM, I appreciate that……… now, I just need to execute against these goals, but having them to direct my actions (even if I am behind pace), is important.
Thanks!
Dave
Nice website Dave, I found you by way of the comments you have been leaving on my blog.
One of my goals this year is to establish an early riser routine as well. I have been doing decent with it so far. One way I keep motivated with it is to update my facebook and see if any of my other friends are up. We have developed a tradition of getting up early and given some accountability to ourselves by “checking in” on facebook.
Its tough to find a balance between career family and blogging and I find getting up early while the rest of the family is sleeping offers me the “downtime” that everyone needs.
Benjamin’s last blog post..Borrowing 401k Savings to Refinance Mortgage
Thanks Ben, I appreciate you checking us out over here… I’ve been collecting your stuff in my reader and hopping over to comment every now and again. I’ve already copied a link to your latest article for my next round-up post… I really enjoyed the topic and thinking through how I’d assess the issue for myself…. sorry if I rattled on too long in my comments.
I love your facebook idea. Having accountability partners is a key component and using facebook in that way is pretty clever. I’ll certainly have to look into that.
Hey, thanks again for dropping by. I hope to have you back.
Dave
Dave, great advice. I went through your goal series and find the information and especially the examples to be very helpful. By giving examples you are teaching to a far higher degree. It provides something people can relate to. I too really like the short and to the point posts. Keep up the good work!
Stephen – Rat Race Trap’s last blog post..How to Be Successful by Believing in Your Dream
Thanks Stephen, I appreciate it… there are a few more articiles in the series in the works and I hope you’ll enjoy them too!
I am enjoying your series on goals. Each post is short enough to be read and digested quickly, yet still provides a great starting point for me to brainstorm my own goals. Sometimes, goal oriented posts can get too bogged down and therefore are ineffective at getting the reader’s motor turning about their own situation.
Keep up the good series!
Baker @ ManVsDebt’s last blog post..My Debt-Recon And Current Battle Plans
Thanks Baker, I apprecaite your comment and am glad you’re enjoying the trip.
I agree that some goal articiles seem to collapse under their own weight… at some point it has to translate into action and that’s what I’ve tried to accomplish – alignment and action.
Stay tuned because we have a number of posts in this series still in the pipeline. I hope you’ll stay with is and help to continue the discussion.
I love your blog name… I’ll be checking it out later today!
Thanks,
Dave