Do you think goals work?

[susan silva]

It is the beginning of the year.  The time people think about making goals.  Do you think creating goals  is helpful or a waste of time?  Is it different for your personal life vs your work life? 

[gee4]

I think we have discussed this before on several occasions.

Personally I believe it depends on the individual and how much support you are getting.  For example if you are setting goals in work, how much influence do you have over your goals?  Is there anyone standing in your way?

If you are setting career goals, how can you do that if faced with redundancy?  Do you regroup and start again?

As regards personal goals, well best laid plans n all.....you can never plan everything exactly how you want it to go, life just isn't like that.

http://www.deskdemon.com/dnet/index.php?topic=10203.0

[msmarieh]

I don't think it is worthwhile to set goals unless you are going to have a procedure in place for following up on them. Just saying "I want to lose weight" or "I want to stop smoking" isn't enough. You've got to have some method of circling back regularly throughout the year to remind yourself of the goal, and ensure you are making regular progress.

Things don't usually happen 100% at a time. They happen 1% at a time. So if half the year has gone by and you have done nothing, it's not likely you'll magically do something on the very last day to make it happen.

That said, I almost always set goals, and I add a reminder on my calendar (usually quarterly, sometimes monthly depending on the goal) to evaluate my progress regularly and remind me of my efforts.

I set goals that are within my control. In particular I try to evaluate every year what areas I feel need improving or strengthening and then take steps to address those areas.

[susan silva]

Gee, that is one of my standard New Year questions! I am sure there is another goal oriented question the year before that one.  I like to think it gets people thinking.  Who knows if it does or not.  :-) Next year I will think of a new way to phrase it... I think!  Who knows! 

Here is my answer.  This year I changing the way I do goals up a bit, I have always had them in my mind.  But I admit I don't usually write them down and track them.  It is like what Marie said, I had goals but no plan. This year I AM going to actually write them down and for the long  term ones, check up on them every so often.  Make some mini goals within the big ones to help step towards that goal.   My big one right now is to break through a losing weight plateau. But that is for another post another day!