Goal setting is the process of deciding what one wants to accomplish and designing a plan to achieve those expected results. For effective goal setting, one must need to understand more than just decide. When we decide what we want, we also need to work in the same line to accomplish our goals. The definition of goal setting is the process of identifying, establishing measurable goals and timeframes. If you want to succeed, you need to set goals.

Without goals you lack focus and direction. Goal setting not only allows us to take control of our life’s direction but also provides us a benchmark for determining whether we are actually succeeding. And for accomplishing ones goals, we need to first understand how to set goals. We simultaneously need to ask our self some questions like; Do we really understand the meaning of goal setting? Are we really serious about accomplishing the realistic goals of our life? Are enough resources available in favour of goal accomplishment?

The goals should be very specific as they give us direction to proceed further, time constrained as we need to have some time limit to achieve those goals , and realistic as we know ourselves better .The level of difficulty in goal setting should be ideally there as it motivates us to strive hard and work towards more and more .

Goals that are difficult to achieve and specific enough, tend to increase our level of performance more than the simple goals. For example, losing out weight.

• We need to make our goals quantifiable as they give help us to measure the productivity and efficiency of work done.
• We should also try to enumerate our goals as they help us to assign the responsibilities to achieve that target, that goal.

Research also reveals that many experts often create their own learning goals and hardly

encourage anybody to adapt these goals to their personal needs and interests (Marzano,

Pickering, &Pollock, 2001). Many over judge, overestimate their students’ ability to set

their own goals (Boekaerts,2002).

Goal setting is important for every individual as it give us guidelines and motivates us to

achieve our goals. Proper action plan help as blueprint .The goals should be set in a very

smart way which means the following:

SMART :Specific ,Measurable ,Attainable ,Relevant  ,Time Bound.

Goal setting technique seems to be simple but involves a deep rooted thought process. An individual who is focused and determined, can start thinking on what is his or her dream and future plans .Not only dreaming but taking strong decisions and making massive action plan is equally important. Goal setting is much more than simply saying we want something to happen. Unless we clearly define exactly what we want and understand why we want it the first place, our odds of success are considerably reduced and identify the large-scale goals that you want to achieve. Then, we should break these down into the smaller targets that we must hit to reach our lifetime goals. Finally, we have our plan, and we start working on it to achieve our goals. This is why we start the process of setting goals by looking at our lifetime goals. Goals are useful for setting the direction. Systems are great for actually making progress. In fact, the primary benefit of having a goal is that it tells us what sort of system we actually need to put in place. The connection between goals and motivation has been widely investigated in the research literature, but the relationship of goal setting and achievement at different levels has remained largely unexplored.

By: Dr. Tanaya Patil