Success Factors Reaching Personal Growth Goals

Become Successful in Goal Setting and Achieve Your Goal

Jul 21, 2009
Jerry Lopper

Success Factors Reaching Goals - Jay

Learn the four critical success factors enabling you to achieve your goals in personal growth.

The successful goal setter will utilize four goal setting success factors. Becoming a successful goal setter is important to achieving personal growth and development. The goal setting success factors introduced here are fundamental and should be clearly understood before beginning a goal achievement process, such as those described in Summary of Goal Setting Activities.

Goal Achievement Success Factors

The four goal achievement success factors are introduced here as questions to be answered and fully understood by the successful goal setter. The questions to ask are:

Whose goal is this?
What benefits result from achieving this goal?
Is this goal energizing?
Can you visualize success?

Achieve Your Goals

The first question, "Whose goal is this?," is a critical success factor in goal achievement. The motivational energy necessary to work toward and achieve a challenging goal will only be available to the goal setter who is working to achieve her own goals.

The first goal setting success factor, then, is goal ownership. If the goal is your goal and you feel a commitment to it — even if it was suggested by another person — you will be able to garner the energy and creativity necessary to succeed.

Benefits of Reaching Goals

The second goal setting success factor is having a clear understanding of the benefits to be gained by achieving the goal. The successful goal setter will clearly see the personal benefits associated with attaining the goal. Even if the primary benefit is to an employer, spouse, friend, or organization, there must also be a personal gain for successful goal setting.

Goal Setting Energy

The third success factor underlying successful goal setting is the energy source available to the goal setter. This factor confirms the first two success factors — that the goal is personally owned and the benefits are clear. Goals that are personally owned and with clearly understood benefits provide a nearly inexhaustible source of personal energy.

Simply thinking of the goal should be energizing. If this is not the case then one or both of the first two success factors are missing or lack clarity.

Visualize Achieving Your Goal

The successful goal setter will easily visualize achieving the goal. This is the fourth important goal setting success factor — being able to visualize goal success. The ability to visualize success confirms that the goal is a challenging, but realistic goal. Despite the presence of the first three success factors, an unrealistically challenging goal will be difficult to visualize.

Confirm Four Goal Setting Success Factors

Early in the goal setting process, reflect on the four questions which will establish the likelihood of successfully achieving your goal. The success factor questions are: