Tips for goal setting for 2013

Ok so the New Year has passed and you’ve been thinking about setting some goals. You’ve put off starting anything new or setting anything concrete since October last year as you figured there’s no use; a new year is just around the corner. It’s now February and you’ve still done nothing. Sound familiar?

Successful sporting teams and businesses have one major thing in common, they have goals. At the beginning of every season or financial year they sit down, evaluate the past and set goals for the future. Why should this be any different for individuals?

In Rowdy McLeans book “Play a Bigger Game” he talks about setting goals and suggests that goals need to be specific and measurable. Exactly what is it you want to achieve and how do you know when you get there? For example there is no use in setting a goal to be “First Choice” in a particular field if you don’t know how to determine if you achieved it. In 2008 at Corporate Challenge we set a goal to be first choice in corporate events by the year 2013. This was to be measured by achieving 750 events in one calendar year, every year from that point forward we knew what we were aiming for. To the credit of our team who worked hard, we achieved this goal by the end of 2010. Did 750 events mean we were first choice? To us at that time it did, and that’s the key to goals, they are your goals and you set them as you wish. As long as they are specific and measurable; interpretation by others doesn’t matter because they are your goals.