Goal setting is important whether it is at work, in management, in sports or even just dealing with our personal commitment. With proper goal setting, it not only helps to realize our dreams, it also constantly serves as a motivation to us and also providing us with a sense of direction of where we should be focusing. Without goal setting and resolution, we would not be able to achieve much in the long run. All successful people are able to set and achieve their own goals which will in turn lead them to achieving higher goal setting.

Year 2007 is coming to an end and it is now time to set new goals/resolution for the year 2008. But before doing so, perhaps we should individually review the goal setting we have set for year 2007 and whether or not we have achieved all our goals. If yes, then my congratulations to you, and do keep up the good work, if not, perhaps we should review and understand the reasons for not being able to achieve our goal set for year 2007.

One of the most common reasons for not being able to realize our own dreams is due to the fact that most people often have the wrong misconception about setting dreams. Dreams are very often too unrealistic and not achievable in reality, for instance just merely dreaming to become a millionaire, dream of losing weight, dream of having a well toned body or even dream of having a condo but without actually properly plan and working hard for it will always be waiting for a dream to come true, where they are just waiting for things to happen and the same dream can remain year after year.

However, with proper planning by using SMART goal setting, we are able to quickly realize our dreams by focusing on both short term and long term goals where we are able to bring out our individual potential to its own limits.

Having a real understanding and being able to recognize our current standard, both our weakness and strength is the most crucial in the initial goal setting phase as we will then be able to realistically set goals which we will be able to realize eventually.

SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. The following are the steps used for setting and realizing our dreams and we will be using Taichi sports to illustrate on the SMART Goal setting procedures.

1. DREAM

2. Breakdown into Goals (Short & Long Term)

3. Breakdown into STEPS

4. Focus on STEPS, seasonal goal will take care of themselves.
BASIC GOAL SETTING
(STEPS)

STEPS Goasl Setting

Goal Setting - Using SMART guideline to help athletes in establishing seasonal goals:

Specific - Goals stated must be specific, behavioral terms, within a given time duration and define standard of success. Plan long term goal follow by mid term goal and finally short term goals to focus on achieving. An example is to achieve kicking above shoulder level in a slow & controlled manner during Taichi routine.

Measurable - Goals must be quantifiable and progress must be measurable. An example is computing the success rate of movement during practices to measure improvement.

Achievable - Goals set must be achievable by athlete's capability, both physically and mentally.

Realistic - Goals set must be realistic. The above goal set must be realistic with proper training planning by the coach and commitment by the athlete during training.

Timely - Goal set must be timely, that is it must be measurable, realistic and achievable. For example, a time frame of 10 weeks for progress to be seen in the improvement of the above technique is easily achievable by most athletes with proper guidance and commitment during training.