Women’s Exchange of Washtenaw

More than 50 businesswomen attended WXW’s “You GOAL Girl” event on September 18^th where Susan Pollay, Merrill Guerra, and Michele Shannon, shared real-life stories about goal setting.

A few lessons learned that might help you achieve your goals include:

• Put pen to paper (or computer screen). Recording your goals makes them real.
• Identify your goal in enough detail to know when you have achieved it or make the necessary adjustments to reset your goal.
• Make your goal reasonable. Sometimes there is a  need to set intermediate goals that eventually lead to your overall goal.
• Set a time frame for accomplishing your goal.
• For group goals, provide a starting point. Everyone is a critic and you will get them to really think about where the group should go if you provide some place to start.
• Just as you need a business plan to start a business, having goals about where you want that business to go is the only way to will get there.

If you’re interested in reading more about goal setting, check out these recommended reads:

“The Magic Lamp: Goal Setting for People Who Hate Setting Goals,” by Keith Ellis

http://tiny.cc/QXO3n

“Goals! How to Get Everything You Want – Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible,” by Brian Tracy (author of the also highly recommended “Eat That Frog!”)

http://tiny.cc/blnfE

“Designing Your Destiny: Achieving Personal and Professional Succes Through Upside Thinking,” by Lisa Marie Ptatske

http://tiny.cc/QHP7D

If you’ve set some achievable goals, look for the follow up goal setting event coming in January of 2010!  That gives you four months to jump start your success!