How of Goal Setting Part 3: Advanced Goal-Setting Techniques

Looking to really leverage your goals?  I’ll share with you what two of the most widely-known personal and professional experts are saying about goal-setting.

It’s the Law

David Riklan, founder of the number one site on the internet for Self Improvement www.selfimprovement.com summarized the 10 laws that most self improvement experts teach.  Setting goals and developing a plan are two of the 10 laws that he shares that are critical to your success.  Taking responsibility and action are two other laws that relate to this part of goal setting as well. However, its learning how to integrate these laws on a daily basis is what will catapult your success.

Case study

During a recent on-line course I took called Millionaire Prep School www.millionaireprepschool.com that featured 10 millionaires sharing their secrets, I heard Jack Daly. His dedication to goals was incredible.  Since he was 13 years old he has set goals.  He wrote down his goals at age 13 for what he wanted for his life at age 30 in four important blocks of his life: financially, professionally, and educationally and family.  Jack spends a significant amount of time to really plan out his life.  By breaking down his goals, every day he knows exactly what he needs to accomplished.  This process allows him to be extremely focused. Jack’s 4 ingredients for successful goal areas:

1. When you put goals in writing, they will come true
2. Have a written plan for how to achieve these goals
3. Implement a system of accountability
4. Implement a system of measurement

Like many of us, I’ve done the first two ingredients very well.  But the other two ingredients – accountability and measurement systems – are critical to really advancing your goals.  Here’s what Jack does.  At the beginning of the year, he writes out both his personal and professional goals with a detailed action plan of typically 5 pages. He sends his action plan to 5 people close to him.  He gets together for lunch with these key people 4-5 times a year to review his goals with them. These 5 people keep him accountable.  He tracks and measures his goals by keeping a daily log.  Each month he summarizes his goals using key metrics with trending analysis.  Each quarter he sends out his goal report to the 5 people I mentioned above. He is now 69 and has been doing this since 13.  Can you even imagine how many goals he’s achieved in his life with this system?  Wow!

After hearing his goal-planning system, I was inspired to formalize mine.  I went back to both my personal and professional goals to measure how I was doing 6 months into the year. I’m using a red-yellow-green light system. I highlighted each goals as either red = not on track; yellow = making progress; green = on track or completed. I then listed all the accomplishments under each goal. This is a great visual for me to see in a snapshot how I’m doing.  After that I shared my personal goals with my accountability partner and reviewed where I was at.  I’ve had an accountability partner for years, but our relationship has been more informal.  We both decided on the importance of goal sharing and are creating a formal process to keep us both informed and accountable. I did the same with my business partner.  After reviewing the goals, we determined our key focus for the rest of the year. 

Implementing a measurement and tracking system for your goals is process that is both empowering and enlightening. I realized that having formal tracking systems to measure and hold me accountable will help me achieve the measureable results for both my work and life that I strive for. If you don’t have your own system and want to purchase a proven system, here is one by Vic Johnson that allows you to become a World-Class Goal Achiever: http://www.goals-2-go.com/goals2008/goals2008.htm

The next part of my how of goal setting blog series will be about the quality and quantity of your goals. Stay tuned.

Janae Bower of Finding IT – Inspirational speaker, award-winning author, training consultant

p.s. If you haven’t already, don’t forget to take advantage of my free gift to you around developing your personal mission, vision and values at www.findingIT.com.

Tags: accountability, accountability partner, David Riklan, FindingIT.com, Goal planning system, guidetohomebasedbusiness.com, Jack Daly, measurement, Millionare Prep School, Planning & Goal-Setting, self improvement, selfgrowth.com, Vic Johnson, vision