Personal Goal Setting
Think For Yourself

When you see the words - Personal Goal Setting - does that mean anything to you?

Most people set their goals based on what other people say are good goals. We look to others to tell us what a good goal or goals ought to be. People even ask others if their goals sound right or are worthy.

Don't do that.

That is one of the big tricks to life. Going after the goals that you set for yourself. My list includes things like health improvement, money, education, fun, happiness, free time, freedom, getting organized cheaply and using systems to get things done. Your list will contain different things.

I just cannot stress this enough, you have to set goals that are yours and yours alone. You cannot just do what someone else thinks is a good idea. You may even want to avoid telling anyone your goals so you do not get any negative comments from others. There is nothing so debilitating as spending time and energy determining your goals and then having someone scoff at your ideas. Better to keep your ideas to yourself unless you are lucky enough to have a real good person in your life who does not ridicule your thoughts.

Now, you can study the goals that other people set and see if you would like to go after similar goals, but you need to spend plenty of time to decide for yourself.

Going after your goals will be too difficult if you are doing things that you do not want to do. That is the mindset I am trying to get across and what I consciously am working toward.

I do not want to spend all my time working toward goals and dreams that are not even mine.

Maybe you can relate. Maybe your parents had goals for you and your life is now based around what they wanted you to do.

Maybe a teacher, or a clergyman, or a coach, or a neighbor or a friend told you something long ago and that is what you are doing now.

In my case, my civil engineering career is based on one very short chapter in one book that I paged through in my high school counselors office when I was a senior in high school. The book said that engineers have a fairly high starting salary and that they do not need to have more than a bachelors degree to get that. It said that if you are good at math and science you will be a good engineer.

That is how I decided and that is what I do today.

But now I see how that is all wrong in the approach to life.

I do not spend all my spare time writing about civil engineering. I do not think about civil engineering after work. I do not join civil engineering clubs, groups or organizations. I can hardly even stand to be at my desk for 8 hours. I do not really even like civil engineers.

I enjoy this. Writing articles. Thinking about how organizing helps anyone and everyone. Encouraging you to think that your life matters.

That to me is what personal goal setting is all about.

Your life is the most important thing to you. You need, no, you must spend as much time as possible thinking about your own life, your own goals, your own dreams. That must be your motivation.

When I am searching on-line for guidance I tend to search for goal setting sites that give me a different view. I am constantly updating and expanding my view and seeing what is possible.

Here are some great resources to get you started thinking about personal goal setting:

Personal Goal Setting for Busy People

Smart Goals for Success

Another aspect of personal goal setting is using audio and video sounds and images to meditate to, relax with and get inspired by. The repetition of hearing or seeing something over and over implants those ideas in your mind. This is why you can hear a song a couple of times and then easily remember the words and why you can not think of that song for decades and then instantly recall it when the music starts.

Here is a really interesting resource specializing in doing just that. The site is called:

Bright Images

This site will help you discover powerful self improvement programs guaranteed to give you a new attitude, provide you with increased motivation and new visions of you reaching your success. Build confidence in meeting challenges and turn problems into opportunities. Visit the Bright Images Self Help Center for helpful Tips, Tools and Resources to assist you in reaching all of your personal self improvement goals.

You also need to find the motivation to do all these things. I talk about some of the motivation I used in my article, Live like you Were Dying.

Here is a website that specializes in motivation. Check it out:

Motivation for Dreamers

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