Reduce Stress with Personal Goal Setting

Personal goal setting is a powerful process for time management. It is also an important way to reduce stress in your life.

The process of setting personal goals helps you choose where you want to go in life. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to focus your efforts.

Over time, you’ll also learn which distractions you need to avoid. In day to day activities, this could be television watching, video games and other activities that keep you from focusing on your goals. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy personal pleasures, just don’t let them take up too much of your time.

The benefits of setting goals are numerous:

• They can be extremely motivating.

• Increase in long-term vision.

• Increase in self confidence.

• More time to enjoy life.

• Decrease in stress levels.

Steps to Setting Goals

Before you begin, try to view your life as a big picture. Use these categories to determine what you want to do with your life:

Financial and Career Goals
Do you enjoy what you do?
Do you feel you living up to your potential?
Are you challenged?
Do you make enough money?

Social
Do you have friends that you value?
Do you have interests outside of your career or family?
Do you fulfilled by your life?

Relationships
Do you have a significant other? Do you want one?
Have you achieved your dream in terms of home and family?

Spiritual
Do you know your own personal values?
Are you where you want to be spiritually?

Health
How is your physical health?
What areas would you like to improve?

These are merely guidelines to help you brainstorm goals you want to accomplish.

Once you have determined your lifetime goals, then start to break them down into 25 year, 10 year, 5 year, one year, monthly, weekly and daily plans. These smaller goals will help you create a simple list you can work with everyday.

Remember that these should be YOUR goals, not ones that family, friends or employers want.

As you list your goals, try to use the SMART goal setting techniques - they should be Specific, Measurable,
Attainable, Realistic and Timely.

One such tool that follows the SMART techniques and has many free resources as well as daily inspirational emails is Think TQ.
If you haven’t already set personal goals, do so now. As you make goal setting part of your life, you’ll find your career accelerating, and you’ll wonder how you did without it!