Yesterday I wrote about the first steps we need to take to achieve our aims: clarify our outcomes and ensure we raise our commitment to the necessary level. This is what I  see as  the pre-vision and vision stage.

The next phase is to create our goals. In goal formation it’s important:

  1. we define the outcomes of our strategic goals
  2. identify the relationship between goals in different areas of our life so as to better identify inconsistencies and
  3. come up with monthly, weekly and daily routines that will either bring us closer to achieving our aims or will remove some barriers to them.

In this phase, it is important we identify behaviour that is S.M.A.R.T.E.R:

  • S: specific. The goal and behaviour must be written in sensory specific language.
  • M: measurable
  • A: active i.e. within my control and responsibilty
  • R: realistic. Our goals should be such that just stretch our abilities. If they are set too low, we’ll get bored; if set too high, we invite frustration.
  • T: Timely i.e. we set a deadline for achieving them.
  • E: ecological i.e. in harmony with our other goals
  • R: rewarded. As we’ll see, the reward stage is of critical importance.

This aspect of goal setting is what Ben Tiggelaar (author of Can Do!) calls the intent. There is also the other component to goal setting: identifying the likely conditions and situations that are likely to cause us problems. For example: if we have a problem with disciplined EOD execution, having an online feed and watching a ‘5′ minute chart is likely to lead us astray.

Finally we need to expose our goals to a reality check. In the pre-vision, vision and goal phase, how realistic have we been? For example, do we really believe we can grow from US$10K to US$300K in 30 days without risk of ruin? Or is this just wishful thinking?

Once we have the Goal setting phase complete,we can turn to making concrete plans to achieve our goals. I’ll deal with this tomorrow.

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