Goal Setting and Goal Pursuit

I have always been really bad at setting long-term goals. When I was in school, I made endless timetables, color-coded and labeled with different inks. I got so lost in beautifying these timetables I could never follow them.

In adult life, we are always setting and pursuing goals. From something as innocuous as making dinner today to something more long-term and complex like one day I will become the expert on a particular subject in my field. They are both goals that require a certain series of actions; you may start by assessing your resources, making a plan for acquiring resources currently unavailable, then pursuing your goal through your method of action and in the end through the result, getting your feedback of having achieved it. That is by and large the journey we go through when pursuing goals.

Simpler for making dinner than becoming an expert at cooking. Setting long-term goals doesn’t only mean sustaining your actions longer. You may also have to keep reminding yourself why this goal is important to you, over time your reasons might change and your approach will evolve. Along the way, you will find some techniques work better for you than others. For instance, something I discovered that helps me when I am faced with a seemingly overwhelming task; I break it down to its smallest components like- switching on my laptop, opening the google search page, etc.

In the end, whether you achieve your ideal goals or not, I recommend looking back and congratulating yourself on having made the journey. Because just the act of setting and recording goals can give us joy and contentment. This was proven by Emily Van Sonnenberg (2011). In her case study, Emily found that individuals who kept a detailed record of their daily goals and planned their tasks accordingly were more productive, less bored, and showed signs of higher self-contentment than others.

That being said there will always be individual differences, if you have a method that works for you without writing your goals that’s wonderful. If you however don’t have a method and want to learn more consider the course on goal pursuit here on the Sages ICL platform.

https://www.sagesleadershipacademy.com/courses/goal-setting/