Thumbs Up for the Corporate Approach to Personal Goal Setting
After evaluating the ‘personal vision statement’ method for personal goal setting, my analysis is as follows:
Pros:
- Very clear and concise questions to help you think about your life and what is important to you
- I like the incorporation of personal values into the mix. I think this is a critical element for evaluating the backdrop against your life’s goals.
- Using the Foundation for a Better Life’s list of values to augment the basic method really helped. There are other lists of values out there to choose from, but I like their stories behind some of the famous people that exemplify these values, as well as the quotes for each value.
- I think this method sets a good foundation to start getting into specific goals, the actions that need to happen to achieve them, and how to track progress.
- The different facets of life that were suggested were inline with what I expected, making it easier to categorize the different goals for your life.
Cons:
- The basic method didn’t have good examples of the different values that could be used
- I struggled with how personal strengths and weaknesses (the last two questions) really tied in to the personal vision statement
Lessons Learned:
Even though I had originally thought of this method as a way to determine ‘big-picture’ goals, I now believe that defining your personal vision statement (and values) is a critical step *before* you start identifying specific goals. I still see this step as part of the goal-setting process, but I don’t believe it is the only step. I still need to add another method (or two) to identify some clear goals for strategy development.
Overall Evaluation:
I really like this method, and will incorporate it into my APD Methodology. I give it a thumbs up!