Do you make these 5 goal-setting mistakes?

As the end of January draws near, professionals of all stripes in offices everywhere have formulated this year’s goals.

To guarantee you accomplish your 2014 objectives, make sure you aren’t making these very common mistakes:

Being too general

Goals need to be very specific. For example, it’s not enough to want to “improve my communication skills.” Get behind the generalization and drill down to exactly what you want to accomplish.

The communication goal instead becomes: “I want to stop nagging my sales reps about the quality of their pipeline.” Pinpointing exactly what you want to achieve allows you to then identify the behaviors you need to start or stop doing to get results.

Unrealistic Goals

Your goal needs to be achievable. If your company's average deal size is $250,000, it’s likely unreasonable to make $500,000 per deal as your own sales or business target. Unattainable goals sink motivation and employee engagement.

Lack of Commitment

You want it, but not badly enough to follow through and do what it takes. Be honest with yourself. Hoping something will happen or be achieved is a far cry from making sure it happens. You’ll only make your goal a reality if it’s important enough that you can fully dedicate yourself to a success plan.

Not Identifying a Realistic Timeline

Milestones and due dates keep you on track and ensure goals are met in a timely fashion. Aim high, but make your expectations practical. Rome wasn’t built in a day, so allow a sensible amount of time for getting the job done.

Lack of or an unclear action plan

You may have a goal and a timeline, but only a foggy clue – or no idea at all – as to how to make it happen. Plan your work and work your plan, as the saying goes. Identify the steps you need to take to get where you are going. Without a map, who knows where you’ll end up? Certainly not where you intended to be.

Goal setting can be fun, exciting and invigorating. With well thought out goals, commitment, planning and implementation, you are sure to succeed.

As Van Morrison sings, “You're making your own reality, every day.” Make your reality a year dedicated to achieving concrete goals and success!