This article goes into detail on the other important aspects of Locke’s theory, like setting realistic goals and being self-motivated. If you set hard (but not impossible) goals, you’ll actually put in the highest level of effort. The easier the goal, the less you’ll work to achieve it. Locke found that employees perform better and are more motivated to complete goals if those goals are difficult.
Proposed by industrial-organizational psychologist Edwin Locke, goal-setting theory recommends how to set the most effective kinds of goals. Then you start pushing yourself and your team to get the best results possible. When you set goals, you create a vision of what your life or your business could look like. Setting goals keeps you moving, increases your happiness, and significantly benefits your organization. The decisions you make and actions you take should bring you closer to achieving those goals. When you set goals, you take control of your life’s-or your work’s-direction. Instead of just running with no particular purpose, a true goal would be more along the lines of starting a training program to complete a specific race, say a Thanksgiving Day half marathon, which requires much more careful planning, motivation, and discipline. Then, you make a plan for achieving it, and you work to complete it. Goal setting is a purposeful and explicit process that starts with identifying a new objective, skill, or project you want to achieve. So let’s revisit what goal setting means. Just because you decide to start running every day doesn’t necessarily make that a conscious goal. Some people may have trouble sticking to goals because they don’t distinguish their goals from more casual, everyday self-improvement efforts. Continue reading to learn about the goal setting process and get the most out of your business, your team, and yourself.
Many people are stuck in the same cycle of setting goals, forgetting about them or failing to complete them, and then setting the same goals again with a renewed (but temporary) resolve to meet those goals.īut you can break the cycle. If you answered yes, know that you’re not alone. Do you set the same New Year’s resolutions every year? Do you recommit to the same goal, promising yourself that you’ll finally finish it?