SECTION 13.1: MEASURE EFFECTIVENESS

Our goal setting lesson plan for successful living provided the hope and wisdom needed. In the following information, you'll learn how to evaluate the effectiveness of your goal plan.

How do know whether or not your plan is working? An athlete and his or her fans know if the actions taken are effective simply by looking at the scoreboard. A businessperson can tell if their business strategy is working by reading the bottom line of the profit and loss statement.

But how do we know if we are winning in life? How do we determine how effective and efficient we are at carrying out our goal setting lesson plan? Is our plan working or does it need to be changed?

When assessing the level of success you are experiencing is each of your key life categories, it is imperative that you ask and answer four key questions.

Four Questions for Effective Evaluation:

1. What have I learned? - This may include knowledge that has been gained, skills that were developed, and mistakes that should not be repeated.
2. What actions have worked? Not worked? - Detail the effectiveness of specific tasks. Did each task achieved do what was intended to support the larger goal? Detail actions taken that did not provide the expected benefits.
3. What progress has been made? - In each life category, can you honestly score yourself higher than you did at the beginning of your goal setting lesson plan journey? Explain how you have grown emotionally, physically, intellectually, spiritually, financially and in the quality of your relationships.
4. What adjustments to my plan are necessary for maximum results? - What do you plan to do differently? What should you do less of, more of, and what should you stop doing altogether? What should you add to your plan that you now realize is missing?

The questions you use to measure your effectiveness at goal planning are critical to the long-term success of your goal setting lesson plan. Other tools that can be utilized to measure success by asking insightful questions might include things such as: surveys, one-on-one interviews, and focus groups.

However you decide to measure your success at achieving your goals you must be 100% honest with yourself. Based your judgements on facts, not merely an intent. Be true to yourself and continue to press forward until you reach your ultimate reward.

Success Lesson #27: Effective Habits

"Practically all the achievements of the human race are but the accomplishments of effective habits."
- Lamartinen

"I never could have done what I have done," said Charles Dickens, referring to the time when he mastered shorthand, "without the habits of punctuality, process, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time, no matter how quickly its successor should come upon its heels."

For good reason, every man or women has been defined by their "bundle of habits". Every tiny virtue we adopt, or every vice we accept, leaves its mark upon us.

Habits are commonly spoken of in the negative, referring to the habits of consuming alcohol, taking drugs, biting your nails, arriving late, displaying a negative disposition, etc.

To the contrary, habits can serve us wisely and provide us with great powers to learn, grow and achieve. We can train and educate ourselves, through habit, to do innumerable things automatically and thus save time and energy for other more important tasks.

We can form habits that will make our lives clean and beautiful, or we can give in to our lower tendencies that might lead us straight to the poorhouse or the penitentiary.

What some people call fate, is actually a web of their own weaving, from threads of their own spinning - their thoughts and acts that have become habitual.

The effective habit of always choosing the highest within one's reach, of doing the best thing possible under the circumstances, cannot be overestimated.

Positive habits such as this are critical to the achievment of your goal setting lesson plan. Every day of your life will add a new chapter of growth and improvement to your character when higher habits are formed.

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Next Goal Setting For Success Chapters

» CHAPTER 14 - Stick-To-It-Tive-Ness! - Our free plan of action template requires you to anticipate barriers so you will be more likely to push forward.

» SECTION 14.1 - It Is Up To Me! - Don't wait to be motivated, motivation and goal setting requires you to be self-motivated.

» CHAPTER 15 - Celebrate To Motivate - Begin having the time of your life and celebrate every small success along the way to realizing your dreams.