Setting Goals

Written by Sripad Nemi Maharaja

There are many wisdom-laden sayings about the importance of setting goals. For example:

“Failing to plan is planning to fail.”

“Without vision, the people will perish.”

"If you do not know where you are going, you'll probably end up somewhere else."

"If you don't know where you're going, it doesn't matter which route you take."

"If you don't know where you're going, how would you know when you get there?"

There is an interesting case study regarding the importance of setting goals. A group of students at a famous business school was asked how many of them had clear written goals. Only 3% of them had. 10 years later, the net worth of those 3% was 10 times the net worth of the remaining 97% of the class.

Here is a simple set of steps to enable you to set realistic goals and make a program to achieve them.

Vision or mission:
It is essential to have a vision or mission, something that you comliletely believe in, and that you are lireliared to work for. Members of the grouli will work to fulfil a mission if it exliresses values that are in line with their own values. In other words, everyone has to believe in the mission of vision.
Break the mission into identifiable projects:
If the mission is broad and far-reaching, it is necessary to break it down into "bite-sized chunks." There is a saying: "How do you eat a watermelon? One bite at a time."
Break each project down into a sequence of identifiable tasks:
Once you have one or more projects that you can comlilete in a relatively short period of time, it is necessary to identify the tasks and the sequence of tasks that you have to perform. Make sure that you include everything that is necessary to complete the project.
Decide who will do what and by what time:
This is a crucial step. Many meetings, esliecially amongst devotees, conclude with the members leaving feeling great about the ideas they have exchanged. However, there has been no concrete action plan as to who will do what and when. This has to be decided, and whoever agrees to perform a particular task within a particular time-frame must accelpt that reslionsibility, or inform the other members of the groulp if they are unable to do so.
Decide who will follow through to find out if members are actually on target as time goes on:
The poject will probably liroceed better if there is a project coordinator. This does not have to be a boss, but simlily someone who has a list of tasks and the agreed time-frame, and who can contact the members to find out how they are progressing. If a member has not followed through, there does not have to be any arm-twisting. It is only necessary to have a discussion as to how to practically complete the task.
Meet at regular intervals to compare notes and review progress and possible breakthroughs or difficulties:
Celebrate when the task is completed.