5 Golden Rules of Successful Goal Setting

Any challenge begins with defining your objectives, it is very important to know exactly what you want, allow yourself to want it, achieve it and to keep an open mind without limits.

It is impossible to progress when your objectives are not defined. If progress is achieved, in many cases it wasn’t what we were looking for, it is a parallel one, which isn’t bad but it doesn’t satisfy us, due to not being the authentic one.

You should give yourself a realistic time frame for your objectives and a way of measuring them. A good time frame for learning a language, would be from 6 months to 1 year or 3 years.

In many cases it is really challenging knowing how to situate your objectives into time frames and define them but it is absolutely essential to achieve success.

To make it easier, ask yourself some questions. Answer with precision and in writing. It will help you to form a clear picture of what you really want.

Just to remind you that, I am a linguistic coach but you can apply these steps to any aspect of your life (work, family, and relationship, children …) to be able to improve it.

The questions are:

Why are you signing up to the class?

What do you hope to achieve?

Incorrect answers to the questions are:

I want to learn Spanish/English

I want to speak Spanish/English

I want to improve my Spanish/English

And answers such as…

Phrases with NO MEANING, make no sense, conclude to nothing, are so frequently used that they have become nothing but a sound.

You must define what it is in your life, which allows you to say: I speak Spanish/English, I’ve improved my Spanish/English. The definition must be very clear, a phrase such as “I want to improve my Spanish/English” is very relative, you may learn 10 new words and period and I doubt this is what you are looking forward

Examples of correct answers:

Starting from a basic level…

• From now to 6 months, I will be able to understand a basic conversation, answer the simple questions, indicate directions if stopped on the street.
• From now to a year, I will be able to understand a phone conversation correctly, follow a meeting in Spanish/English

• understand 40%, elaborate and add a comment on….
• From now to 3 years, I will only need Spanish/English classes to maintain my language level, speak fluently and participate with absolute freedom in meetings run in Spanish/English…

Once your objectives are defined, now you must make some decisions.

Remember: Progress = Making decisions + Act upon

This is the formula to success for any goal.

For it to work, write down what it is you have decided to do and in what time frames.

Formulate the steps you need to take to achieve them in 6 months’ time.

Example:

• Attend class: Mondays from 9am to 11am
• Participate in class.
• Listen to a recording every day.
• Read aloud, record myself on a mobile and keep comparing myself to the original until obtaining a perfect result.

To make defining your objectives easier, do them together with your teacher but it must always be you the one to make the decisions, remember they are YOUR objectives, your teacher will only advise you on how to achieve them.

One important thing: If you really want something DO NOT WAIT FOR THE OPPORTUNE MOMENT, DO IT NOW.

There’s a secret in these moments, which we desire and long for so much (when I have less work to do, when a project comes to its end, when my children are grown up, when I finish paying off the mortgage, when I retire…) and the secret is….that these moments NEVER COME.

Speaking of secrets, I’m going to share another one with you, this is the secret of managing time. TIME CAN NOT BE FOUND, TIME IS CREATED.

If we do not learn how to manage our time, it will simply fly by and we’ll miss it, YEARS will pass and we will still be standing at the same dead point, waiting for the opportune moment…

React, do not wait for it, and create that moment.

How many years have you been attending class without having defined your objectives nor having taken the correct actions to be able to achieve them? Have you learnt Spanish/English? Do you speak it?

So what is it, that doesn’t work? Why have the majority of my students been studying English for YEARS, investing their time and money, yet they don’t speak it? Could it be because they have never stopped to think WHAT is it exactly that they need and HOW they want to achieve it?

Dear Students. Open your eyes! The typical model of:

I want to learn Spanish/English and for this I go to class, I leave work, my meetings, I attend class thinking about work and in personal things, I barely pay attention to the teacher (because I am very busy so I can’t give it my 100%) I do whatever I can with my homework, so as to not anger my teacher (not for myself, it’s for that teachers tick) I want to do more but it’s just that with extra hours, the family, the home, the children, friends…

This doesn’t work!

This is the biggest ever self-delusion. Personally this stance surprises me. It seems that…

I need to learn Spanish/English

I go to class making sacrifices

I can’t study 100%

The teacher tells me that I should listen, read and ….

I don’t have the time

The Academy offers a cool system

I’m enthusiastic

I continue not to have the time

I buy an online option

I download an app

I continue not to have time for PRACTISING, LISTENING, HAVE 30 MINUTES OF THE DAY TO DEDICATE TO MY STUDIES.

It is evident that continuing like this, we will achieve nothing. How can we learn how to ride a horse, without riding the horse? You cannot learn how to dance by simply watching how the teacher does it.

Having a good teacher and attending classes does not mean a form of learning.

Both things are your tools, the one who has to learn must be you. It is easier to study using these tools but do not make them responsible for your progress, think about what you have done to achieve success.

Things to do to learn are, reading, pronouncing, recording, doing your homework for yourself, not for the teacher.

Doing things to learn is using appropriate ways and methods to help you achieve what you want.

Tell me, how can you learn how to speak by doing writing exercises?

Only through writing can you learn how to write, right?

Therefore, if the route you are taking is not working nor is it satisfying you, then change it now and opt for a different route. Trying takes nothing.

To accomplish your goals, however, you need to know how to set them. You can't simply say, "I want" and expect it to happen.

So, here are five golden rules of goal setting:

• 1. Set Goals that Motivate You
• 2. Set SMART Goals

Specific.

Measurable.

Attainable.

Relevant.

Time Bound.

• 3. Set Goals in Writing

• 4. Make an Action Plan

• 5. Stick With It!