The end of the first quarter is already here and you probably have your business objectives identified and set for the year, but what about your personal development goals? All too often we tend to forget about creating and setting objectives for us to continuously improve. If we do not look for ways to develop ourselves, then who will?
With your business objectives in place, now is the perfect time to focus on developing your personal development goals to ensure your growth. Developing yourself helps you achieve those business objectives too. Whether through leadership development, technical development or some other type of skill development, it is important to work on yourself. In this fast paced world, we could find ourselves irrelevant and no one looking for our outdated knowledge, skills and abilities.
When developing your personal development goals make sure you:
- Create SMART goals
- Write them down
Your personal development goals need to be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely (SMART).
- We need to be as specific as possible so there is no confusion or sugar coating
- The measurable piece clarifies exactly what we are trying achieve and forces the accountability
- Attainable because if we know from the start we won’t reach it, we will never try
- The goal also needs to be realistic. Although I want to be Superman, it may not be realistic for me to set a goal to leap over tall buildings
- You have to set a time goal or you will just keep pushing it off. Our business objectives are usually set at one year, but our personal development goals do not have to be. We could set some quarterly, mid-year or annual goals. Maybe you create the overarching annual goals and then create quarterly or monthly sub-goals to help you achieve your bigger goals.
Why is writing down goals so important?
Dr. Gail Matthews, a psychology professor at the Dominican University in California, has studied the art and science of goal setting. The study put two hundred and sixty-seven people together — men and women from all over the world and from all walks of life including entrepreneurs, educators, healthcare professionals, artists, lawyers and bankers.
The participants were divided into two groups: those who wrote down their goals, and those who didn’t. Dr. Matthews’ results showed you are 42% more likely to achieve your goals simply by writing them down. If you identify an accountability partner and share your goals, your chances of accomplishing your goals increase even higher.
To create goals for yourself, think about opportunities to expand and push your limits. As I stated in my “Don’t Have Enough Time; Then Run a Half-Marathon” post, don’t let not enough time be your barrier. You can and will find a way to make time. Create goals that push you out of your comfort zone and set the bar at a good stretch. You don’t want to set the goal so high you can’t ever achieve it, but you need to set it high enough you have to work hard for it.
Do not be afraid to fail. Failure is not the end. Failing and learning nothing from the experience to improve upon is the end. Embrace it head on and take the risk to get better. We learn by reading, experiencing and hearing others’ stories. When I am interviewing candidates, I usually ask them about a time they experienced a failure. I don’t ask the question to see how or why they failed, but rather what they learned from the experience to prevent them from failing again.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” -Winston Churchill
In business objective setting, we have the ultimate accountability to achieve our goals or we risk letting our team or boss down or ultimately losing our jobs. We don’t necessarily have that same accountability for personal development goals. Here are two call-to-actions for you to do today to focus on your continuous improvement journey.
- Write your developmental goals down and post them where you can always see them.
- Find an accountability partner. This could be a friend, coworker, spouse, parent, mentor, someone you met online with similar interests, etc. Share with them your goals, and create a plan to brief them along the way so they can help to hold you in check. And in return, do the same for them.
If you are ready to start a personal development plan and not sure how to do it, I have created a free course Personal Leadership Development Plan that will walk you through the steps. This plan covers four phases:
- Self-assessment
- Evaluation
- Actions
- Reflection
To enroll in the free course click here now.
Be Great…Today!
Brandon Brazeel, MBA, SPHR, SHM-SCP