Goal Setting Kids

Adam Price asked:


Has it ever crossed your mind what personal development is exactly? How can it be defined & then implemented in your life? Personal development is basically the continual improvement of ones self over time, by reading, watching and doing certain actions that causes you to improve. Self-improvement books, seminars, tapes and videos are one of the quickest ways to move yourself up the ladder to personal development success. So what is personal development exactly?

Personal development can be difficult to explain if you do not acknowledge your uniqueness first. Believe it or not, you are different from any person who has ever lived, and from any person who is to come. Genetics will tell you that unless you are part of a set of identical siblings, your DNA is different from any DNA that has existed or will ever exist. This should be enough to tell you that you are special!

So, what makes you special? You have a combination of different factors that lend a definition to the real you: your personality is comprised of many past events and experiences both good and bad, the food you like to eat, your reasoning ability, languages you speak, your culture, likes, dislikes, dreams and ambitions all contribute to your overall personality and demeanour. What then, is personal development, and how does all this relate to personal development?

Personal development includes the improvement of your overall ability in everything you do, part of your improvement also means taking stock of your strengths and weaknesses and knowing yourself very well. First, you are a product of your upbringing. Depending on the external environment when you were in the womb, can make a very big impact on your life after you were born and it affects everything in your life. What is personal development? It is complete recognition of all these aspects of your childhood, and acceptance of the fact that such things cannot be changed. If you have learned to improve in the past from harsh teachings and methods, then it’s up to you to not dwell on the past, but rather work out intelligent ways to move on for the better.

What is personal development as it relates to your childhood? It means letting go of the past, because it cannot be changed; it also means anticipating the future, because you can make it better.

Personal development also has some very deep goal setting steps, and working out exactly what your purpose is and what drives you. What do you want to do in the next five years? What do you want to accomplish in the next ten years? What is personal development? It is identifying what you should prioritize in life, and what dreams you should run after. And what is personal development, further? It is the use of your strengths to meet your goals, and the improvement on your weaknesses so that you can be better as a person.

What exactly is personal development? You can answer this question through many methods. You can have a personal development plan, which you can make on your own, or which your psychiatrist or therapist can assist you with. You can also join personal growth and development classes, where you can know yourself better and find ways to improve your life and reach your goals.

What then, is personal development? Personal development is simply knowing yourself completely, from all your strengths and weaknesses, all your dreams and goals, and using all these to fuel your life and lead you to greater heights. With complete personal development, you can be sure of success not only in your career, but in many other important aspects of your life as well.



Domenic

John Kenworthy asked:


(c) 2008 GainMore Advantage

In this article, we consider the goal-setting process and support for the concept of SMART goals.

Part 1 of this article considered the myth of the Yale study on goal setting and we discussed what a goal is and if it is necessary to have one.

Perhaps it’s not really about knowing your goal but about the goal-setting process. After all, few people who find themselves staring at a computer screen all day answering emails to earn a buck are likely to have decided this as their career goal.

What is goal setting? Inadvertently, or deliberately, people asking us when young “what do you want to be…” have set us on a process of goal-setting. They are asking us to peer in our mind’s eye into the distant future and describe our goal. With little worldly experience, we most likely think of people we admire that through their job demonstrate what is valuable to our young minds.

What would you like to achieve in X years that having achieved it will satisfy your personal values? Would you ask a ten year old that question? No? It’s unlikely that they would understand - but with the massive leaps in education and increasing pressure on children to know a whole lot more than the current generation of mature adults, they may well be asking you that question and be surprised if you can’t answer it. I digress, but we are effectively asking that when we say “what would you like to be…”

Goal-setting is a process by which we choose our intended result, decide what we want to achieve in the longer-term AND determine HOW we are going to attain the goal (i.e., the strategy). Therein lies the problem for many people in regard to goal-setting… the process necessarily includes the strategy to achieve the goal. When relatives with kind intentions ask “what do you want to be…” the strategy they advise to achieve whatever you said, invariably refers back to the need to study hard, be a good child, don’t answer back and above all… “eat your greens!” As you get older, the advice may become more specific and even, more useful. You begin to discover which areas of knowledge and skill you most enjoy and are better equipped to clarify your personal goal as you become increasingly aware of what is important to you. Goal-setting for your career, life and business is strongly advocated and endorsed in hundreds of books and papers and articles. Most emphasise the importance of writing your goals down as part of the goal-setting process.

Is goal-setting important?

Ask almost anyone about the importance of goal-setting and they will affirm that it is incredibly important. Here is a small selection of verbatim responses to the question “How important is goal-setting?” “The difference between successful people [and people struggling] is the setting of tangible and measurable goals.” “I believe goal setting does work and needs to be written down. ” “If there are no set goals, things either happen, or they don’t.” “With measurable goals you are in action to fulfill them” “… there’s no excuse for failing to progress if you don’t take ownership of your own goals” “Setting yourself some goals is always going to be effective” “I have been setting goals for myself for over 10 years. I believe that the goals enable me to achieve the things that I want” “People who are successful tend to be the same sort that write down goals” So there seems to be consensus that goal-setting is important, yet there is some evidence to support it, yet, as we shall see, from research undertaken for this study, having written the goal down is perhaps not the most important concern. What we will see is that the process of goal-setting is perhaps more important than the goal itself! There is some strong support for the concept of SMART goals. Goals that are Specific and Stretching, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound. There’s a great deal of common sense reasoning that supports the idea of SMART goals - and there’s some excellent robust research.

Why set goals?

Edwin Lock and Gary Latham have undertaken a great deal of leading research about goals and goal-setting and neatly suggest that setting goals implies dissatisfaction with the current condition and a desire to attain an outcome Locke and Latham, 2006.

Why Specific and Stretching?

In Locke and Latham’s 2006 study and previous articles, there is an emphasis on the positive relationship between goal difficulty and performance. Locke and Latham, 1990; Locke and Latham, 2002. That is, the more difficult the goal is to achieve, the higher the level of performance is manifest - allbeit moderated by commitment to the goal. Earlier studies had already identified that specific and difficult goals led to greater performance than easy and/or vague goals Latham and Lee, 1986

Commitment to achieving a goal - Attainable and Realistic

Hollenbeck and Klein, 1987 suggest that an individual’s commitment to a goal (building on Locke’s research and many others) is dependent on a combination of the expectancy that the individual has of achieving success, and the difficulty of achieving the goal. In the commonly used nemonic, SMART goals, this is usually considered as the ‘AR’ of SMART - Attainable and Realistic. Though Hollenbeck and Klein help point out that when we set a goal, it may well seem that the goal is attainable - I can do everything that I need to do to achieve this and am prepared for the cost in time, effort, etc. - and it may well seem to be realistic - Given the resources that I have and the current environment, this goal can be practically achieved.

Measurable and Time-bound?

I don’t think it would be possible to undertake research on something that had no measure nor a time restriction - how would you know that you had achieved success if there was no measure, and if there is no time limit, when would you stop measuring or even not measuring. So these remain ‘common sense’ though a post-modernist might disagree.

So there is support for the concept of SMART goals - now why is it so important that we ‘write’ them down?

There are some who suggest that writing something down increases commitment to the goal but the evidence is anecdotal. For some individuals, the act of writing something down assists clarity through a conscious process because they consider something written to be a personal commitment. Does that mean it is true for everyone? To help answer this, we undertook primary research to mirror the mythical Yale Study. Through a simple questionnaire, respondents were asked if they had set goals for themself on leaving school, college or university, when this was and if they had written it down. They were then asked to estimate their total personal wealth now. The results are quite shocking.

More in Part 3



Sandra

Koz Huseyin asked:


What is the heart of personal development? Have you started hearing about personal development, and it sounds interesting? Has it aroused your curiosity? Is personal development showing you more possibilities?

The heart of personal development is growth. There is a fundamental law in the universe that says either something is growing or if it is not, then it is dying. For many education ends when school finishes, either on the day at school or when they say you have either passed or failed. Then we go forward feeling really good, ok or like a big failure!

Where for so many people, and for so long, this used to be the norm, personal development is changing that. Education does not need to end when formal schooling ends. You don’t have to be doomed either with the corporate ladder or a laboring job.

Personal development is not about knowledge, though some people in personal development keep it as such. Personal development is about giving you the skills you need to meet a specific objective.

The first step on the journey through personal development begins with goal setting. Setting goals is so crucial as it helps you get clear on what you exactly want in life. This is important, as without knowing what you want, no personal development course can help you. You must know what you want, and utilize deeper understanding and more advanced courses of personal development to achieve what you want.

The journey of personal development is a long one with no end. As all people are different, yet the same - no personal development course can make a one size fits all type of course. Your journey is your journey, and though you may need to goal set at this time, another may need to tackle limiting beliefs. Likewise if you need to break limiting beliefs first, another may need to start on goal setting.

This makes goal setting an ever more important reason to learn how to set goals first. Without knowing how to set goals, then you can’t know what you need to get there. Without a goal setting strategy, and personal development, you may not be able to find that limiting belief, and ultimately pluck it out. Personal development courses, books, and seminars can help with all of this.

More wealth, more health, more success and happiness are some of the benefits of taking the personal development path. You can grow to become a better human being or at least the person you always wanted to be.

For some the courses, the books and seminars are not enough to meet there needs. Life coaches are people who help on a more personal level to find the answers you seek. Whereas a course or personal development book may not answer all your questions, the life coach in most cases can.

Whatever your needs, a life coach, a product, a personal development book or seminar exists that can truly change your life. When you can know what you want, and how to find that information, and carefully, and persistently apply it, you will achieve.

There exists a better world. A world that has the better version of you. The bridge to get there is personal development through personal growth. Personal development is getting bigger, and it benefits you with more products and coaches that may just help you cut the time to get there.



Clifford

David Dutch asked:


There is confusion at times over the term Personal Development, a term that has different meanings depending on who you listen to and which particular ‘Guru’ is in vogue.

Of course from the moment we are born the majority of people try to improve themselves, getting higher grades at school and college, getting a degree, getting a good job, getting promotion,looking for some sort of power traing etc, but is this true personal development that helps you achieve your goals?

You may ask just what is personal development training and is it complicated?

It is very much a mental thing, trying to be the best person you can be is one of the power driving forces to help you achieve goals. You look at other people, some of them as role models, and try to integrate some of their personality into your own. But this is just not practical and is the reason many people feel a sense of failure when they try personal development traing courses and goal setting tools. They can read personal development books attend personal development seminars but they will never be like their role models.

The reality of your life today is a reflection of the sum of your thoughts until this day.

So if your current situation is the result of all the thoughts that you have, and you have on average 50,000 personal thoughts a day, some people have one thought 50,000 times! Can we escape from the treadmill of our lives and create a better tomorrow and enjot personal development growth?

Can we enhance our quality of life; realize our personal dreams, aspirations and smart goals if all of our thoughts to date have been based on the lack of results we have experienced in our lives? Since childhood most of us have been held in check by parents, relatives, teachers and peer groups, their best intentions to save us from disappointment have been geared toward telling us not to expect too much we will only be disappointed.

No wonder self styled professional ‘Gurus’ earn vast fortunesestablishing seminars, telling us what we should be doing to improve our lot, without really coaching us how to do it, well that is in the next power lesson which costs an extra $x,000 and helps keep them rich and us poor. Thirsting for the next secret advertised will not get you that personal power found in self improvement .

Whilst it is true to say that whatever level of personal development you are at you do need a framework in order to know if improvement has actually occurred, what you do not need is the latest ‘Whizz bang super-dooper piece of software that will power you to smart goal achievement’.

They tell you that they know something you do not and that is why you feel frustrated at your lack of personal development you will feel compelled to pull out more and more of your hard earned money to discover the secret, when there is no secret anyway.

Just as a building need a strong framework so do you to keep on track? Well you need some sort of smart goal or benchmark to aim for because you need to define the end-point, you need plans and strategies to measure and assess your progress toward the end, and you need milestones set out so that you can reward yourself for making progress on the way. In every journey you need some sort of feedback to know just where you are and are you on track.

Would you set off on a long unfamiliar journey without first looking at a map for guidance.Even then you would set milestones on the route to measure how far you had covered and how far you had to go. There I have saved you thousands in seminar fees.

Well there is one secret to successful personal development, smart goal setting, motivation call it what you will let me tell you what it is….?



Cory

Success88 asked:


If you have tried all Personal Development Programs and still not improved or changed for the betterment in life and is about to give up completely, this article is for you. Personal Development is the most sought after industry on earth today as every one is trying some how or other to improve themselves using various Personal Development Tools.

But why is it so difficult to improve your self and what is the benefit of improving yourself?

As you are aware our subconscious minds are far more powerful and has immense potential than anyone could ever imagine. As per scientists we humans use only 10% of our full potential. The other 90% is dormant in our subconscious minds and awaiting a chance to be awakened one day. Actually humans are 90% a sleep and only 10% awake. Just imagine what you would be able accomplish if you were to awaken the 90% of subconscious mind that is fast a sleep and is a sleeping giant. Our conscious mind is only the tip of the ice berg where as the actual ice berg is our subconscious mind.

The subconscious mind is like an infant, it does not know wrong from right or good from bad. It just follow your orders at all times without judging or questioning your intention behind the order. It has no knowledge to know the truth from imagination. That is why you get goose bumps when you watch  horror movie. The subconscious thinks that the film is happening for real. This is the very reason why visualizations work very well in personal development.

The subconscious mind is most vulnerable between the ages of 2-7 years during childhood. This is where we pick up all the Limiting Beliefs from our parents and family circles. Most of the time our parents and family members are not aware about how our subconscious mind works and will input all the unnecessary beliefs and suggestions that would limits our ability and capabilities in later life. They do it through pure ignorance and they do not mean any harm to you, but these beliefs are the basic stumbling blocks that stops you from achieving greatness in later life. Beliefs such as “you are not good enough”, “you are not worthy”, “you are not smart enough” and so forth. There are thousands of these beliefs stored in your subconscious when you are grown up. These beliefs determine what you achieve or not achieve in your adult life.

This is why most of the so called Powerful Personal Development Tools do not work. Most of these Personal Development Tools do nothing about these embedded limiting beliefs in your subconscious mind. They deal with the tip of the ice berg and not the ice berg itself.

Now you may wonder, what is The Most Powerful Personal Development Technique available to you now?

The Most Powerful Tool is to be present to life at each moment. Not to live in the past or future. When we are thinking about the past or dreaming about the future, we are giving our power away to memories and emotions. Whatever the situation is, you only can act in this moment. You cannot change the past or act in the future. Just act in the moment and it is our true power. When we are not thinking about the past or future or not living in our memories we are above all limiting beliefs that were embedded in our subconscious mind by parents or society. All sages in the world have spoken about the power of the present moment. The moment will give us all the wisdom to settle whatever problem we are having at that moment. But most of us do not hear this message as we are busy living in the past or future. This message comes as a flash and is what we call Intuition.

Even though some gurus say that, being in the moment can be done without any tool, take it from me, it is easy said than done. I have tried to do so, but unless you have about 70,000 hours or so meditation experiences it is near to impossible.

Any tool that will help you to be in the moment without any distractions will be the Most Powerful Personal Development Tool on Earth. So what do you suppose this tool would be?

Scientific research has proved it to be Brainwave Training or Brainwave Entrainment. This is the latest cutting edge technology that lowers your brainwaves to alpha and below, and improves your personal power without any hard work on your part. The lower the brainwaves the more you are relaxed and stress free. You have nothing to do, no need to visualize, no need to chant mantras, no need for affirmations, no need for tapping or energy healing techniques. The brainwave entrainment does all this work for you and most importantly it helps you to be in each moment and relax with life without unnecessarily living in past memories or future dreams.

Out of the numerous brainwave entrainment products out there, the most effective is the Brain Evolution System. This product is using the Latest Patent Pending Cutting Edge Technology known as 3P-DEAP, which is why it is so effective than the other products.

You need not believe a word I say without trying the product. You have nothing to lose as the first stage of Brainwave Evolution is completely FREE and will have lasting effects on your life within the first 5-6 days of using. So try it for FREE and write to me.



Simon

Ron Subs asked:


Effective personal development is the key to finding true self-reliance and control. From communicating with others at work, dealing with situations at home, and even mastering money, personal development is the greatest way to achieve satisfaction in your life. Regardless of your specific goal, whether it be seeking higher education or simply how to better mange your expenses for a brighter future, your personal development plan will help you discover exactly who you are in life and what you want out of your life. Discovering one’s true self and learning how to use your natural talents and personal drives to accomplish your goal is a key component of any personal development plan.

The first step to personal development is accountability. You must first be held responsible for all your actions or inactions. You must step up and finally admit what it is that is holding you back from developing into the person you want to become. For those seeking better money management, admit your splurges, learn how to control or if possible, eliminate some of them altogether, and then you can accomplish a greater sense of satisfaction at the end of the month, instead of spending time on the phone, making arrangements with creditors because you’ve overspent your budget. Accountability is one of the toughest steps to an effective personal development plan. It requires that you be very honest with who you are and what you have been over the past years. It may be hard to thoroughly examine yourself in the necessary way, but once you have decided on your course of action, you will find it easier to address your situation and make the needed changes.

The second step to effective personal development is establishing a list of goals. You must figure out exactly where you want to be in life and when exactly do you plan to have it accomplished. The goal setting is the easiest part of personal development. It helps define what you want, where you will get it from, and when you plan to have it. You will already have found that you have created an introductory set of goals when you first started on your personal development strategy. Here is where you will go over your personal goals, eliminate the ones that will not help you meet your end goal, and keep the ones that will help you discover true personal satisfaction. After you have your goals, figure out which ones are short-term goals, or one to five year goals, and which are long term, five to ten year goals. This will aid in the creation of the specific patterns and habits you will have to alter to meet your goals.

The third step to personal development is choosing your course of action. This is the part where you actually strive to obtain your goals. This is the most difficult part of personal development. To satisfy your short-term goals, develop personal habits. For a financial goal, develop a savings pattern. For other goals, like perhaps trying to curse less or attend church more, develop habits that will aid in this goal. Develop a reward and punishment system for each goal. For long term goals, the approach is similar. Develop personal habits and patterns that will aid in the satisfaction of these goals as well. Most importantly, though, be patient and understand success will not come overnight and it will take time, practice, and dedication before you find yourself exactly where you plan to be.

Although personal development is one of the most sought after development plans, it is very stressful. Lifestyles and personal habits will need to be changed or eliminated. However in the end, you will find the greatest satisfaction in knowing you yourself, have accomplished exactly what you set out to do. That is a tremendous feeling and one well worth the effort.



Claude

Michael McGrath asked:


his practical personal development guide to success for all those who have tried before yet failed. It doesn’t matter where you are now in your your own personal development or or where you wish to go. It matters very little how far reaching your personal development goal is or how hard it appears to be to attain. No matter what you want to achieve rest assured that some else has achieved something similar beginning somewhere close to where you are. If they did it so can you!

If you follow the 6 personal development steps set out before you, you will be achieving your personal development goals very soon.

Step 1.

The first personal development step is essential! You must be clear about what you want! When you begin to set personal development goals ensure you have a very definite arrival point. Some people when they want to better their lives look around for the path of least resistance. They have no real idea of what they want from life but just know they want to improve it. They therefore look at many different things and try many different personal development approaches without every really devoting themselves to one objective and never achieving success. There is no personal development!

If you live in New York and wish to visit San Diego you do not begin by looking at the most convenient and easiest route before you decide your destination! You just decide you want to go to San Diego!

It is the same with any personal development goal. No matter how hard or unreasonable your desire may seem you must always follow your heart! Have a clear definition of what success means to you. Set you personal development goal now by deciding exactly what it is you want from life!

Step 2.

Narrow the personal development goal down. Get specific. Deciding that you are going to visit San Diego is all well and good but the city is extremely large. Where in San Diego do you want to go? Be specific in your goals. For example, wanting to lose weight is a reasonable and achievable goal but it is too vague. Set a target for your weight loss. Do you want to lose 5 pounds, 10 or even 20 pounds? To achieve any kind of personal development you must be specific!

Step 3.

Write your personal development goal down. Make in concrete by putting it on paper. Place it somewhere where you can see it everyday. It makes the goal real and acts as a reminder of what you are working towards. This is why company’s have their mission statement in giant letters where every employee can see it! Create your mission statement and on it place your goal.

Step 4.

Create a personal development plan. Look for ways that will help you achieve this goal. How did others achieve similar results? Did they learn lessons from experience which you can also learn without having to experience the learning as they did? Use the personal development journeys of others. How did other people do it? Learn from their mistakes and use them for your own learning. Someone else may have failed hundreds of times in their personal development before they learned to do it right. You don’t have to be the same. Just follow the final plan they used to succeed!

Step 5.

Once you have a personal development plan break it down into smaller more easily achievable goals. Each day should not pass without you being a little closer to achieving your goal. No matter how the small the steps are just take them and ensure you are taking them in the right direction!

Step 6.

Create a mental picture of success. Picture yourself enjoying the personal development achievement of having already acquired your goal. Feel all the positive emotions that come with this success. Review this mental picture first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

Personal development step 6 is often overlooked yet it is one of the most important of the personal development steps. By visualizing your goal attainment you are programming your mind with the blueprint of success. This will keep you motivated in times of self-doubt or frustration.

Follow these 6 simple steps and personal development and success are guaranteed!



Catherine

Abhishek Agarwal asked:


In today’s world, there are a lot of pressures that students have to face. Some pressures come from parents while some come from peers. However, on further analysis, it is easy to conclude that the students themselves are responsible for most of their pressures. These kind of internal pressures work well for certain students, while it has a negative effect on others. A student’s behavior and approach towards goal setting can help determine how the student handles these different pressures.

One cannot generalize a student’s behavioral approach towards goal setting. This is due to the varying personalities of each student. For the same reason, children get different grades. A general view on student behavior in setting goals can be arrived at depending on the type of students being observed. However, one should never forget that no student could fall into any one type of classification. A lot of students today do not like stereotyping and hence try to avoid being classified.

1) The Achiever- Here the student’s approach towards goal setting is rather extreme. This is due to the fact that the student does not consider the option of failure and such an event should not occur in his or her existence. Very often the student sets goals that seem next to impossible to others. Most of the time these goals are achieved. At other times, the student almost achieves it, but for such a student ‘almost’ is never enough.

There are many advantages as well as disadvantages of having such an attitude. Although it pushes to student to improve performance each time, when met with failure, the student might not be able to take it. Failure can lead to problems of low self-esteem in the student.

2) The slacker- There are a few students who consider life as one big holiday. Such students have a slightly vague approach towards goal setting, making it seem as if, perhaps, they do not have any goals to set at all. However, everybody has some goal that they set. Even a slacker will have something in mind as he or she goes about his or her daily activities.

One observable fact about such students is that they set goals that are more short term than long term. This implies that the student is living life one day at a time. Certain students find this kind of approach more productive as it lets them focus on what is at hand and they look move towards and achieve immediate goals.

Usually such students do not focus their attention on academics and their goals are usually not in relation to academics. A lot of people cannot understand the kind of goals that such students set. It is, however, wrong to come to any hasty judgment about them, as many of these students have turned out to be some of the most successful people the world has seen.

3) The Average- The above two classifications were the two extremes of student approach towards goal setting. Between these two extremes is the middle ground. Today, majority of the students fall under this category called the ‘average.’

These kinds of students focus their goals more on graduation than achievement. Such students find school an establishment that must be tolerated. Their goals are aimed at passing subjects rather than acing at them. Such an approach is ambiguous, as it neither leads to success nor to failure. There are, however, many people who do not find this appealing, as there is no apparent fun in it.



Marcia