Revisit those goals

Posted by Doug on September 25, 2008

I don’t know how many seminars or workshops I’ve been to that touched on the importance of setting goals for yourself, personally, professionally, or financially.  And I have done that, many, many times.  But I can probably count on one hand the number of times that I’ve followed the second bit of advice that typically follows the advice to set goals–the advice to revisit and review those goals from time to time.

Setting goals for yourself in any area of life is a great way to focus your efforts and your attention on the things that matter the most to you.  Actually revisiting those goals after the passage of time is the way you measure how effective you have been, and it can either be a sobering wake-up call or a huge encouragement.  Either way, it’s well worth reminding yourself to do it.

I keep a personal wiki on my computer to organize my Web bookmarks, keep track of projects I’m working on, and to provide a little “sandbox” for me to explore and think through ideas I have.  And yes, I also have used it to record and organize goals I have set for myself in several areas of my life.  Recently, during a period of time in which I was experiencing a bit of discouragement about a project I was working on, I decided to take a look at some goals I had set for myself at the beginning of the calendar year, and realized that I had achieved, or was close to achieving more than 75% of them, nine months into the year.  I was stunned, delighted, and very encouraged.

With that in mind, let me suggest that you:

1. Take some time near the end of the calendar year (or fiscal year, or school year, or whatever interval makes the most sense for you) to set down some goals for yourself in the key areas of your life:
   • Physical (exercise and fitness, diet, sleep, general health)
   • Emotional and relational (marriage or dating, kids, friendships, mental health)
   • Professional (professional or career development, projects)
   • Mental (reading, continuing education, mastery of skills in a job, trade or hobby)
   • Spiritual (fill in your own specifics here–for me it’s the development of my faith in God)
2. Keep your goals in a place or in a form that you can get to easily.  A document on your computer, a list on your PDA, handwritten on a sheet of paper in your wallet or purse–all that matters is that you can get your hands on those goals easily.
3. Mark your calendar (or set your calendar’s alarms) to remind yourself to go read through your goals again at appropriate intervals, say, every three or four months, and certainly before the end of the year, when you will revise your goals and set new ones.  Schedule some time for this.  When the day comes, DO IT.  Make the time.  If you can afford it, take a whole day off and get away somewhere for a “personal retreat” to evaluate your progress on this year’s goals, and to set goals for next year.  If you can’t take a whole day off or travel, even half a day at a coffee shop, away from your office, is helpful.  (Don’t forget to turn off your phone for a while.)

If you find that you’ve accomplished more than you expected, great!  This might mean that you need to set your sights a little higher next time, but progress is good, and you should be encouraged by it.  If you clearly haven’t done too well in meeting your goals, don’t feel bad about lowering your sights a little bit–goals need to be reachable.  But it also may simply be an indication that you’re not staying focused, or that you need to re-order some things in your life.  That’s okay, too–we all need to do that from time to time.

The bottom line is that while setting goals is great, and can stimulate you to do bigger and better things, revisiting and evaluating your progress is just as important.  Whatever you learn in that process, good or bad, can help you do better in the future.

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