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Balanced G oal Setting. Lawyers A ssistance Program Facilitated by R obert Bircher. Effectiveness of Goal Setting. Most Lawyers know goal setting is important but few actually use goals effectively
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Balanced Goal Setting Lawyers Assistance Program Facilitated by Robert Bircher
Effectiveness of Goal Setting • Most Lawyers know goal setting is important but few actually use goals effectively • This is due to the fact many classic goal setting methods rely on will power and don’t take into account that people resist change-often vigorously • I belong to a goal setting group that has done goal setting for 20 years and this method seems to work the best-because it doesn’t fight human nature
Multidimensional Goal Setting • Life has many dimensions and many people want balance in their life-thus setting goals in all areas of life is necessary • However since you can only complete a few things at once what seems to work is to focus on 1 or 2 dimensions at a time-then move on to the next one-or drop one and move on to one you are more motivated to do
Wheel of Life • You will find a wheel of life attached-filling this in shows where you are in or out of balance • On each dimension mark an ark where you are now-then one where you would like to be-there may be no difference in some areas or a large gap in others-color the areas differently so the differences are clear • The gap is the space between the two lines and you put down what would need to change for you to achieve your goal
Wheel of life • For example you may believe you need to lose 10 pounds to achieve your health outcome-you would write that in the gap area • Basically you do this for all dimensions-some may need a lot of change-some none at all • We have found out many things about goal setting that you won’t see in the textbook methods-mainly because the authors haven’t actually followed these methods!!
Goal Chart • Your goal does not have to be precise, in fact a vision or wish works better-ie “I want to look good for my age”-is vague but will work at this point-in fact a general dream may be the most effective goal you can write! • You can even simply put a direction in here-”I want more peace in my life” • This puts into motion an intention or direction to your life
Outcome • This is the part where you put the experience you are looking for-this is best described as a feeling –not a fact-ie- “I look good in my clothes and am not self conscious about my weight’ is a feeling statement rather than- “I will weigh 190 pounds by x date” • Feeling statements are more effective than fact statements-in fact you can use only feeling words or visions and they seem to work better than thoughts
Timeline • Goals are dreams with deadlines-a date is useful but some flexibility is useful here as well-ie by the end of the summer • We have found that some goals are not achieved in the timeline we predicted-but over time they often are • We used to have a rule that a goal could only be put down twice-if it wasn’t achieved we thought it wasn’t important enough-but over time they tended to happen
Miracles Never Cease • We found over time that many goals seemed to be achieved without much or any effort at all-we call these effortless goals • Some goals are the opposite-very effortful! • In some cases great achievements were made when no goal at all was made • In some cases a goal was repeated for many years with little success –in some cases was never ever achieved
Miracles Never Cease • It seems that the reason for these anomalies was that intention-if strong and genuine enough- seems to manifest with or without you!! • Also we began to realize that serendipity played a large role-there are so many unforeseen events in life, goals can manifest in minutes(You meet the person of your dreams)or life can change in minutes ( someone dies unexpectedly ) • It helps to review your goals to make sure you are conscious of them-also to look at ways you could manifest them
Goal Setting Tips • Your intention is more important than what you say you will do-great precision is unnecessary and may actually get in your way • Striving, stressing your self and focusing on achievement is somewhat useful in “effortful goals” but in general is useless or actually makes things worse • It works to focus on only one or two goals at once and it does work to make goals easy and achievable • Our group has tried dozens of methods and systems and over 20 years this is the most effective method