Effective Motivation And Goal Setting Techniques

Welcome to the Effective Motivation and Goal Setting Techniques page. This web site is about setting and achieving personal goals. To see more goals articles please go to our achieve your personal goals or setting goals pages.

Effective motivation and goal setting techniques should deliver two benefits: help you set goals that motivate you, and help you stay motivated as you progress towards your goals.

The first stage of effective motivation and goal setting techniques is to make sure that you choose the right goals - goals that you believe will change your life for the better. There are two key strategies.

First, it's easier to feel motivated to achieve a goal is you know the goal is important to your life. One way to do this is to identify what values are important to you and also what you want to do with your life. So you can prepare a personal strategic plan as recommended by Gary Ryan Blair and Stephen Covey. Each goal you set then needs to fit within your overall vision.

Second, whenever you set a goal you need to identify exactly why you want to achieve it. How will you benefit. As I discussed in my article on goal motivation theory, motives can fall into two categories: pain or pleasure. Achieving a goal may take you away from the pain (as you perceive it) of your current situation and towards a greater degree of pleasure.

Once you have chosen a goal, the second stage of effective motivation and goal setting techniques is to keep motivated as you work towards the goal. In Awaken The Giant Within, Anthony Robbins states that "Life's greatest rewards are reserved for those who demonstrate a never-ending commitment to act until they achieve".

Again I suggest two techniques.

First, write your goal down every day. This helps ensure that you plan your daily activities around making specific progress towards you goals. I also recommend that, next to each goal, you write your motives for achieving the goal.

Second, focus your time and effort on moving towards your goals. Gary Ryan Blair's Power Of Focus provides some great pointers to help with this.

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