Writers need to set themselves targets which they can judge themselves against. Here’s a helpful article from Ethan Beh, re-printed with full permission, which I hope will help.
By Ethan Beh
It is very important to set goals. Having a target helps you take action, focus on important things and prevents time and effort spent on unnecessary things. Many people underestimate the importance of setting goals.
Like the old saying goes ‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail’.
Differentiating between end goals and mean goals when doing goal setting is very important. End goals is what you ultimately want to achieve or get. While mean goals, as it’s name suggests, are used as means to attain end goals. Anytime when we set goals, we must ensure that we are setting end goals not mean goals.
For example, let’s take the common goal of wanting to be rich. This is an example of a mean goal and not end goal. Think about it, what you ultimately want is not more green paper or higher numbers in your bank account balance. What you are seeking for is actually happiness, security, freedom etc which you think money can give you.
Sadly many people fail to see that and got caught out by it. They try hard to amass more wealth but eventually still end up unsatisfied. This is because they did not get what they ultimately wanted. All this because they put their focus on the wrong goal.
How many times have we heard a story similar to this. A young man starts out in his career. He dreams of earning the big bucks so that he and his family can live a life of happiness, freedom and security. He starts out at the bottom of the corporate ladder and spends 20 years working hard to rise up to the top. He finally becomes the Managing Director, and has a big fat salary. But because he has spent most of his time working, he doesn’t enjoy any freedom or happiness.
So in the end he achieved his goal, but sadly he found out that it did not give him what he wanted.
When you set a goal, give your all to achieve it, finally attain it only but only then discover that it did not give you what you wanted is very discouraging and distressing.
Take your time when setting goals. Don’t be anxious to get it over with. If you get it wrong, all your time and effort will eventually go down the drain. Think it through thoroughly first because you want to get it right the first time.
Article Source: http://www.affsphere.com/Self-Help/Goal-Setting/Goal-Setting-Tips-End-Goals-vs-Mean-Goals-1.html
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November 5th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
If you’d like a tool for setting your goals, you can use this web application:
http://www.Gtdagenda.com
You can use it to manage your goals, projects and tasks, set next actions and contexts, use checklists, schedules and a calendar.
A mobile version and iCal are available too.