WHAT ARE OTHER STRATEGIES FOR GOAL DEVELOPMENT?

Set target dates. Develop strategies for achieving goals. Once you have developed the goals, you need to create a specific, concrete plan for achieving those goals. These strategies are a specific description of what you are going to do to achieve the goals as well as to evaluate the goals. The specific strategies should include daily tasks as well as longer-term plans.

If your goal is to reduce the amount of sweets you eat, what are the specific methods you will you to do that? Perhaps, you plan to write down all the sweets you eat so that you are aware of how much you eat which may, in turn, reduce the amount of sweets you consume. Or you may choose to remove sweets from your immediate vicinity so that it's more difficult to find them.

Develop support network for achieving goals. When I taught smoking cessation classes for the American Heart Association we instructed our classes to develop a goal with a quit date that they shared with other people they knew would be supportive. By sharing the goal, they developed a support network of people who were likely to check with them about their progress. This increased the likelihood of them quitting cigarettes. However, if your support network is critical and negative, you may find that sharing reduces motivation and success.

Develop plan for goal evaluation. Finally, you need a method to help you evaluate the goals you have set. The plan may keep track of progress, or it may need to determine if the strategies actually work towards accomplishing the goals, or it may need to examine what factors block the goal achievement. This part of the process becomes easier if you set measurable goals initially. The more comprehensive the evaluation, the more it allows you to modify goals or change strategies to achieve the desired outcome. One thing I always loved about behavior therapy that I tell my clients "There is no such thing as failure. There are so many different ways to achieve your goals, that each time something doesn't work it just gives us information to develop strategies that are more likely to work."

Example of implementing this procedure. I have the goal of developing my website. Currently, approximately 2500 people a month visit this site. My long-term goal is to attract 20,000 people a month within the next year. To achieve that goal I have developed short-term goals. One of my strategies for achieving this goal became one of my short-term goals which is to write two articles each week so that in a year I will have over 100 articles posted on this site. To write that many articles I needed to delineate particular times for me to write. I chose times during which I typically am most alert and motivated so as to increase the likelihood that I would follow the plan. Now the strategy I chose of writing two articles a week to increase traffic to my site might not work. So I've developed another short-term goal of examining Google Analytics monthly to determine if the number of visitors is increasing as the number of articles increase. If I find that the strategy doesn't work, I can then develop different goals or modify my goals and strategies for them to become more effective. I'll tell you in 2011 whether this worked.

GOAL SETTING PRINCIPLES

Intro--page 1

How Do You Develop Your Dream Goal?--page 2
 
How Do You Develop Specific Goals?.--page 3

What Are Other Strategies for Goal Development?--page 4

MOTIVATION: INTRINSIC VS. EXTRINSIC
By Monica A. Frank, Ph.D.

"I have so many great ideas, if only I could get motivated."

"I do well with deadlines, but I can't seem to motivate myself."

"I can't seem to lose weight unless I have someone constantly checking on me and I can't afford a personal trainer."

"I would perform better if I could make myself practice more."

Do any of these sound familiar? What the above statements have in common is the individual's need for extrinsic motivation for follow-through, the inability to achieve a desired goal unless someone else provides the impetus to pursue the goal. Without the development of intrinsic motivation, individuals have a great deal of difficulty achieving success in almost any area. If you examine successful people, one of the main differences is their ability to motivate themselves. They are not necessarily more intelligent, or have better ideas, or have better luck; they are just able to pursue a goal to its conclusion.

What is the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation?--page 2

How does normal motivation develop?--page 3

What prevents the development of the proper balance of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation?--page 4

How is too much need for extrinsic motivation problematic?--page 5

How do you develop more intrinsic motivation?--page 6