To most people, goal setting plans are sets of glorified to-do lists. To them, setting personal goals means simply taking a piece of paper and write down what is it that they want to become and leave it as that. They write down things like I want to be healthier or I want to become richer. This concept is a false representation of the process of goal setting.

Why is goal setting not a set of glorified tasks from a to-do list ? Well, goal setting is a planning process. Although in its planning process, it may involve tasks or mini goals, these mini goals are by no means independent of each other unlike a straight to-do list. In fact, these mini goals are interdependent on each other.

This is one of the reason why a proper goal setting process is needed because it provides a framework to brainstorm all these tasks and their related time lines. Goal setting guide forms can be used to aid you in listing down the task needed to be done for each step. By taking the effort and the time to plan, your chances of succeeding in your goals will be increased by leaps and bounds.

The output of this process will be highly detailed plan and road map to get you from where you are at to where you want to go. At this point, most people will argue that having a road map like this increases stress for the individual and may be counter productive. It is also these same people who have the concept that goals are not needed, only motivation is needed. Although for some highly motivated people, it is true that motivation alone can get them to their goals. However, these individuals are few and far between. For the rest of us, planning a road map does not necessary increase our stress level. In fact, forming a proper road map can act to reduce the stress level that we face when we are trying to reach our goals. This is because we are constantly reminded on what are the next steps to take and because all these steps will lead us finally to our goals, we do not have to second guess our actions every step of the way.

This plan, however, is by no means casted in stone. This road map is done purely to provide us with a focal point to the task we need to follow. Although there is a time factor involved in each of the task, you should also build flexibility into the schedule to account for unexpected surprises along the way. In this modern day, we experience plenty of distractions along the way. Answering phone calls, unexpected overtime working at the office and other issues can affect the schedule we have planned for ourselves. If we do not have a plan in the first place, we may not know how much delay we have incurred and how we can reschedule our plan. However, if we have a schedule to fall back on, we can immediately review where we are right now and make any necessary changes to the overall time line.

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Alvin runs a personal goal setting website at LifeGoals.