Setting Performance Goals and Achieving Them With Purpose

Setting performance goals for ourselves is the easy part, actually focusing and achieving them is the tough part.New Year's resolutions are one example, when asked what your New Year's resolution is, you may say "exercise more often."While it is technically true that you set a performance goal for yourself, without a substantive plan to support HOW you will achieve these goals there is a good chance you will not reach them.Countless studies show how ineffective New Year's resolutions are, could this be a result of setting goals but not considering how they will be achieved?

Let's continue with the New Year's resolution example.Why else might these be so ineffective and why do so few people stick with their resolutions and actually achieve them? Most often there is not any substance behind them.Yes we set a goal, but what is the purpose behind them?

Without a purpose, without a deep rooted reason for achieving a specific goal the chances are good we will not follow through when times get tough...and times always get tough.If 2 people make a resolution to quit smoking, for example, but one person sets the same "goal" every January and the other person has just been diagnosed with Lung Cancer, who would you think is going to achieve their goal?

That was my answer also, and the simple reason is that one person has a purpose for accomplishing the goal and the other does not.Now this is an extreme example, but can you see how important it is to include purpose in your goal setting?

So what is your purpose?This is a question that only you can answer.There may be many of us all with the same goals, but we will each have our own, unique reason for wanting to accomplish these goals and motivations for doing so.Better health, tire of smelling like smoke, people tease you for having yellow fingers, protect the health of a child or another loved one.

So, as you create goals that you want to achieve for yourself spend some time considering your purpose for wanting to achieve those goals.Setting performance goals without a purpose is a time waster and will result in frustration and a sense of anxiety for not having accomplished what you set out to, or in the case of New Year's resolutions...simply wait till next year to try again.

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