8 Goal Setting Questions: Achieving Goals That Really Matter
Here are 8 goal setting questions to help you:
Discover more about yourself;
Decide what you want from life;
Plan to achieve your goals.
Useful questions but where do you start with such a big agenda? Perhaps by asking the most important question first: why does goal setting matter in the first place?
Goal Setting Questions One answer is proposed by both Charles Handy and Stephen Covey. They suggest that what we all want is to make a difference, to contribute.
Asking our goal setting questions matters because they help us to start thinking about how that might be possible.
We'll come back to Handy and Covey shortly but first, let's consider our 8 goal setting questions.
We've organized our questions to help you think more about who you are, what you're doing, and what you'd really love to do.
We start with a question which is short but powerful: why am I here? It may be difficult to answer but it's important, so take as much time as you need.
Answering this question is the key to what Handy and Covey suggest is so critical - our need to make a difference.
8 Goal Setting Questions - a Framework for Planning
Why am I here? If you find this difficult to answer, try answering these to give you some ideas: What is my sense of purpose? What is meaningful for me? What moves me? What is my passion? What do I care about? What need can I serve?
Where have I been? – What past experience have I got?
Where am I now? – What kind of person / manager am I? What abilities do I possess? What am I good at? What are my strengths and weaknesses? What do I love doing?
Where do I want to get to? – What kind of person / manager do I want to become? What abilities do I want to develop? What learning goals shall I set? What are the organizational goals in which I can make a difference? Which knowledge and skills areas do I need to focus on to deliver both my personal objectives and benefits for my organization? What is my conscience directing me towards?
How shall I get there? – What learning and development actions do I need to undertake? What resources will I need to do perform them? How shall I overcome obstacles to my learning?
How will I know if I have arrived? – How do I measure achievement of goals?
Is it money? Is it promotion? Is it another measure of success?
What's holding me back? - What's stopping me from doing what I want to do?
Who can help me? - Who can teach me? From whom can I learn?
You may want to write down your thinking and answers to these goal setting questions. Writing things down is a useful way to make vague ideas or aspirations into firm plans. It's also essential to ensure you capture these, even if it takes you a while longer to make sense of them.
