Goals Setting - What It the Perfect Number Of Yearly Goals To Set?

To be effective in goals setting you must first learn to set long term and short term goals. Long term goals are essential in helping you plan the future (a period of seven to 10 years into the future is recommended). Short term goals help you to turn your long term goals into reality and also serve the purpose of giving you a sense of accomplishment on a regular basis. If you were only rewarded after seven years, you would most likely find it difficult to stay focused and motivated for your goals.

In the article we focus on short term goals and in particular look at how many goals you should be setting each year. The perfect number may surprise you.

In the 1950's, George Miller a prominent psychologist came up with the theory that humans can only deal with seven pieces of information at one time. If more pieces of information come in, then we have to start grouping the information if we want to remember everything. For example, if you were remembering large numbers you would have to break the numbers into groups such as 143, instead of 1, 4 and 3.

This is useful information when you consider your yearly goals. You should consider a number around seven. It could be less or it could be slightly more but seven is ideal. This way you will know you that you can easily remember all of your goals that you plan to achieve.

Once you have chosen your goals, and the number of goals, to be effective you still need to do the following:

• Write down your goals: Write them down and place them where you will look at them every day. This will help keel you motivated, and will also set your goals in concrete, rather than just an idea in your head.

• Remember that all your goals are not equal: Weigh up which of your goals are the most important for you, and give these your priority when you are working on your goals. You will be better off only achieving a few of your goals, rather than doing bits of everything and achieving none of your goals at all.

• Make sure your goals are somewhat realistic: While you want to stretch yourself and improve, if you set goals that are too far fetch (like becoming a billionaire in the next six months), you will most likely fail. A better idea is to break the goal down into small achievable chunks, and slowly progress towards. For example, It may be more realistic to become a billionaire in 20 years' time.

So in summary, when setting your short term goals go for a number around seven. This way you will easily be able to manage and achieve the number of goals you have, and you will stay on top of your goals setting.

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