This is the time of year when, like millions around the globe, I usually have another look at my goals and reconsider my life and purpose.
Many people just look forward, asking themselves ‘what do I want to do this year?’ and then they boldly make statements such as: ‘This year, I’m going to get fit’… I know how successful that can be because I used this ‘process’ for many years myself – with less than excellent results!
Like any business or marketing exercise, what we should be doing is to start by benchmarking. If you don’t know exactly where you are now, how can you set sail for somewhere else?
I’ve done my benchmarking homework before, so these days I start my goal setting process by first looking at the goals I set myself last year and ticking off the ones I’ve achieved. Then I literally look back over the previous year – A quick and easy way to do this is to browse over the photos you took in the previous year. (I use iPhoto and click ‘last 12 months’.)
This works well because we tend to take photos of the things we find interesting or significant at the time. I find that browsing the year’s photos gives me a great overview of the previous year. I’m always surprised by just how many things we’ve done. Try it now for yourself.
There are always lots of things I did that weren’t on my goal list – so don’t think of goal setting as something that takes the spontaneity out of life. One thing you’ll probably notice is that whilst you may not have done all the things on last years list, many of the things you have done will fit into one of the categories of goals you set for yourself.
About Benchmarking for Goal-setting
Goal setting helps you to define the key things you want to do, but without benchmarking, your goals won’t have a solid platform from which to grow.
If you haven’t done a goal setting exercise based on benchmarking before, you’ll need to consider benchmarking all aspects of your life. Relationships, health, career, personal development, your values, beliefs and expectations and much more. After you’ve done the big exercise, it comes down to review each year thereafter.
If you need some help setting your goals, you can always contact me for a chat.