I’ve been told that in order to be effective, goals must be written. The message was delivered as if writing goal makes them come true. Nothing could be further from the truth. What is needed is commitment. Writing goals is useful to establish clarity, to be specific about your goals in terms of actions and timeframes.
If you are unwilling to write down your goals, you most likely have no commitment to them. It takes discipline to clearly define goals, but it takes even more to commit.
Recently I established a goal to get at least 30 minutes of exercise every day during February. I made this goal after getting absolutely no exercise for the prior two weeks. I didn’t write down this goal because it was simple and very clear in my mind.
I did commit to the goal and having done so I immediately felt obligated to get my exercise. There were many days when I had to force myself, and that it the power of commitment to a goal.
I did well with my goal, but I was not a complete success. I made 15 straight days and then I missed one. But I did not quit on my goal at that point. I re-committed to see how many days I could meet my goal. The modification essentially gave me a new goal, and avoided the problem of quitting at the point of failure.
At the conclusion of February, I had gotten my 30 minutes of exercise on about 20 days. Another 6 days I got about 20 minutes, and there were a few days I got none.
I look back on this and I feel it was a success. I feel better because of the exercise. Now I need to set a new goal.
The first few days of March, I had no goal in place and I did nothing. Once again, this proved to me the power of goal setting.
I’ve been very busy the last few days, but I still could have gotten 20 or 30 minutes of exercise. I didn’t, because I lacked the extra motivation of an established goal.
In order to succeed in business or marketing, it is important to have goals. Without establishing a commitment, it is likely that you will do much less work than you wanted and you will fall short of your objective.
Much more can be accomplished when you focus your effort and commit.
Tags: Fitness, Goal Setting
