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If you desire to achieve anything substantial in life, you must set smart personal goals. Then, of course, you must go out and achieve them.

It doesn’t matter who you are or what you want to do; effective and smart goal setting is essential if you want to perform your best. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking to clean your house, learn a new instrument, get in better shape, or win an MMA tournament.

And no matter what your goals are, we have an incredibly powerful goal setting method for you in this article. We’re going to teach you this method as quickly and effectively as possible.

In this article we will:

  • Discuss why smart goal setting is so important for personal success.
  • Briefly teach you about Edwin Locke’s Goal Setting Theory. As you will see, this is a proven theory and method you can use to accomplish your goals.
  • Tell you exactly how to put Goal Setting Theory into practice to create and conquer any of your personal goals.

This is going to be some very powerful stuff.

Are you ready?

Why Set Personal Goals?

If you have any desire for personal achievement, smartly designed personal goals are absolute game changers!

Sure, you can cruise through life not setting clear definable goals, or by setting general goals with no time frame. You may even eventually achieve these goals. But if you do, we can guarantee that it will be much slower and less effective than if you had a real goal setting method.

So you’re competing at something, or if you’re trying to get work done significantly more efficiently, or if you’re just trying to be the best you possibly can be at something, you must set personal goals. Plain and simple!

Well laid out goals, as we will discuss, will do the following for you:

  • Significantly increase your motivation: An achievable but challenging and clearly defined goal will significantly increase your motivation to succeed.
  • Make you learn more: Simply put, when you’re challenged, you learn a lot more about what you’ve been challenged to do. This is because you are put on the spot and you’re forced to use all of the resources and mental energy you have in order to succeed. This makes all the difference in the world!
  • Keep you focused: When you set a challenging goal that you take seriously, you become much more focused on the task at hand. Many people fail to achieve goals because they make them, then they only take them semi-seriously at best. If you clearly lay out your goals, you will be able to look at the list every time you feel that you’re losing focus. The mental benefit of this is huge for many people because it helps them stay focused.
  • Make you feel more alive: Proper goal setting gives you a purpose and a reason to live your life with more vigor! The feeling of vitality because you’ve been challenged is absolutely incredible. Many people shy away from a challenge but they don’t realize exactly how fun and rewarding it is while they’re in the process of overcoming a challenge that they have the ability to overcome.
  • Dramatically improve your chance of success: If you aren’t setting goals, you aren’t 100% serious about what you’re setting out to do. Plain and simple. The combination of all of the above reasons dramatically improves your chance of success.

A Brief Background of Goal Setting Theory

Now that we’ve discussed why setting personal goals is so huge, we can now discuss Goal Setting Theory.

The Goal Setting Theory was developed by psychologist Dr. Edwin Locke in the 1960s.

Edwin Locke primarily studied human motivation. In his research, he determined that people must set very relevant, challenging goals in order to reach their maximum potential.

In fact, he noted that as long as goals were relevant, attainable, and non-conflicting with other goals, the level of challenge of the goal was positively correlated to increased task performance.

His research led him to develop Goal Setting Theory. Goal Setting Theory is perhaps the most respected theory of motivation in all of industrial psychology. In case you didn’t know, industrial psychology is the subfield of psychology focused on improving people’s output in the workplace.

So we now know that Goal Setting Theory is widely considered to be powerful and effective. But how do we set these goals using this theory and method? We’re glad you asked.

How to Use the Goal Setting Theory For Smart Goal Setting

More than just a theory, the Goal Setting Theory does an excellent job of laying the framework for smart goal setting.

According to the Goal Setting Theory, your goals must have all of the following elements amongst them:

  • Clear: Your goals must be clearly defined and easily measured.
  • Challenging: Your goals must challenge you. However, they should not be so challenging that you cannot possibly achieve them. Edwin Locke and his colleagues noted that the level of challenge of the goal was directly correlated to the achievement, as long as the goals were achievable and non-conflicting.
  • Committed: You must absolutely be committed to the goals that you are setting. No exceptions!
  • Feedback: You must be able to get feedback on your goals. You can either get feedback from an accountability partner or during your own self-reflection. For instance, once a week you can self-reflect to see what you have accomplished thus far, and how to improve as necessary.
  • Considering of Complexity: Complexity of the goal must be considered. A complex goal will require a lot of time to accomplish, and it must be accomplished properly. Therefore, it may be best to break it down into separate goals. See the next section for an example.

Get the idea? We will show you an example below.

Example of Creating Goals With the Goal Setting Theory

Here’s a recent example of using the goal setting theory to create well-made goals.

A friend of ours, John, has been writing a blog. For the last six months, he has been blogging in his spare time after working 40 hours a week.

He has seen success with his blogging and has drawn a respectable audience for a short time.

However, he hasn’t been making as much money as he would like from his blog. Last month he made $120 a month, and before that, he made $105. Unhappy with his progress, John set out to make $500 the next month.

So here’s how he laid his goals for the month, using the principles of the Goal Setting Theory.

  • Clear: John set out to make $500 in a month. This is a clearly defined goal.
  • Challenging: The goal of $500 a month was challenging, considering John’s last earning was $120. But it was not out of the realm of possibility.
  • Committed: John was 100% committed to his goal of making $500 in one month in addition to his normal monthly income.
  • Feedback: John used one of us as an accountability partner. He a lso self reflected at the end of every week to determine whether or not he was getting there on time.
  • Considering of Complexity: John laid out his goal in steps. His overall goal was to make $500 for the month. He laid out smaller goals such as getting a Patreon, getting a Paypal, finding affiliate marketers, and so forth. All of these goals added up to the #1 goal of earning $500 for the month.

So as you can see here, John used the Goal Setting Theory very well.

This set John’s mindset in the right direction immediately. John realized that he had to get on the ball if he wanted to accomplish his goal. He immediately started Paypal and Patreon accounts, which were two things he was previously procrastinating on.

He found more affiliate marketers that pushed out products that he could personally recommend.

He also drove up his traffic by posting more blog posts and by promoting on social media.

And on top of this, John started an email list so he could keep subscribers on his site for the long term. Prior to this, John never considered an email list.

So we know what you’re asking. Did John succeed?

He missed his mark — but just barely. He made $472.53 that month!

But guess what, John is $472.53 richer than he was the month before. And had he not set the goal, he would probably have only made a couple hundred at most.

The goal setting provided huge motivation. John even reported that he felt more alive and determined than he had in a long time.

And this month, John is on track to earn $1000. He aims to make $1500 next month. His six-month goal is $3000 a month.

It’s very lofty, sure, but could you imagine where he’d be if he never set these goals?

Your Final Step: Develop an Accountability Partner

Now that you’ve set the goals that you desire, you should share them with an accountability partner to maximize your results. This will significantly increase your motivation and ultimately your success if done properly.

If you liked this article, be sure to check out our article on developing an accountability partner here. This article discusses exactly how to find an accountability partner, including what traits to look for, how to find the right type of partner, and how to develop your relationship.

We very highly recommend reading it.

Conclusion

We hope you learned a lot from this article.

If you liked this article, be sure to check out our books. We have several great books on self-improvement, motivation, destroying procrastination, meditation, and so on.

Publishing Pulse is a small publishing company oriented at education, self-improvement, and entertainment. We recommend that you follow us on Twitter at @pulsepublishing.

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