1. EFFECTIVE GOAL SETTING
(A roadmap towards Successful Life Pattern)
1
With your Lord alone is (the knowledge) of the ultimate end.
(Al-Quran)

2. CONTENTS
I. Identification of Goals
II. Types of Goals (Personality Aspect)
III. Types of Goals (Temporal Aspect)
IV. Stating Goals
V. Goal Realization Plan/Strategy
(Individual Perspective)
VI. Goal Realization Plan/Strategy
(Institutional Perspective) 2

3. BASIS OF GOALS
 Human life is purposive phenomenon.
 The multiple purposes identify various goals and
objectives.
 A normal individual must form some aims and
pursues them for actualization. Human life is thus a
conscious struggle towards multiple goals, both
material as well as immaterial.
 An effective goal is attainable goal and shapes
successful human life.
3

4. HUMAN DREAMS AND GOALS
 Naturally, everyone has some dreams about his/her
future life.
 Dreams are mere wishes without will and wisdom, so
that dreams are actualized through persistent struggle.
 Generally, a sensible dream consists of visions,
roadmaps, milestones, and blueprints of struggle.
 It is noteworthy that an individual views only promising
dreams towards life, life styles, life patterns, and living
standards. Moreover, human dreams are evolving
phenomenon, they are refined on account of knowledge,
experience and reflection.
 An effective goal is outcome of evolving and promising
dreams.
4

5. IDEALISTIC VS. PRAGMATIC DREAMS
 Human dreams towards some targets are either pragmatic or
idealistic.
 The pragmatic dreams are realistic, while the idealistic
dreams are unrealistic.
 The pursuance of pragmatic dreams limits our efforts within
sensible range, while the chasing of idealistic dreams means
negativity, waste, daydreaming, and regrets in life.
 An idealistic dream has two dimensions, naivety and poetry.
The naïve content means dream is simply unattainable. The
poetic content means dream realization demands a complex
route.
 It is noteworthy that the poetic aspect of idealistic dreams
means presence of some innovative reality. The new hidden
reality requires, for actualization, a pragmatic touch,
conceptually, and execution vigor, practically.
 An effective goal is must in sync with pragmatism.
5

6. DREAMS, INSPIRATION, AND GOALS
 Dreams, either pragmatic or idealistic, need some
inspiration for actualization.
 Inspiration means wise motivation from real life
examples of successful individuals.
 People inspires on account of multiple reasons, both
material as well as spiritual.
 The institution of prophets is divine way for best
inspirations for all and sundry.
 Practically, people differ in selecting inspirational
personalities. An inspirational personality may be a
close person or an iconic character.
 An effective goal is inspirational and stems from
inspirational personality.
6

7. INSPIRATIONAL PERSONALITY, IDEALS, AND
GOALS
 Human beings make ideals during multiple life
efforts.
 The inspirational personalities are our ideals for life
struggle. They inspire strength, visible and invisible,
against multiple resistances, both inner and outer.
 However, deliberately, the inner strength is
developed through enhancing personal, social, and
economic skills. The outer resistance is managed
through shaping a strategic counter resistance
framework.
 An effective goal is thus designed deliberately and
strategically.
7

8. TAXONOMY OF GOALS
(PERSONALITY ASPECT)
 Human life is a dynamic reality. It is evolved, steadily and
gradually. Initially, one’s life activities are limited on certain
physical needs/comforts, overtime; it expands her area of
effect through concerned human nature.
 Life options are countless, they present themselves as
realizable possibilities, so that, they make alpha and omega of
human life.
 The divinely ingrained concerned human nature selects and
chases the available life choices permanently. Consequently,
goals of varied types shape specific life patterns of individuals
and determine/expand their area of effect.
 An effective goal is naturally dynamic and creates dynamism
in one’s life.
 Generally, human goals have four categories – personal,
educational, professional, and social. 8

9. PERSONAL GOALS
 Personal goals are based on one’s dreams towards life
style and living standards.
 Personal goals are unique and evolving. An evolved
personality would have pragmatic personal goals with
poetic touch.
 An important personal goal is financial freedom.
Financial freedom makes someone independent from all
types of exploitations of interactive life.
 A successful individual makes feasible financial goals
and revisits them, now and then.
 It is noteworthy that financial freedom provides sound
bases to multiple human goals, while absence of
financial freedom makes all goals simply unattainable.
9

10. EDUCATIONAL GOALS
 Instinctively, human beings are knowledge-seekers.
 The formal effort towards knowledge development
requires a set of educational goals. Educational
goals are clear-cut however evolving.
 Educational goals are shaped by parents,
educators, and successful individuals.
 Effective educational goals mean successful
education career.
10

11. PROFESSIONAL GOALS
 Professional living is essential phase / aspect of
human life.
 Professional goals get strength from our approach
towards life comforts.
 The pleasure driven professional goals leads
towards deplorable life. On the contrary, the
intellect-driven professional goals mean better or
esteemed life.
 Effective professional goals lead towards better
career.
11

12. SOCIAL GOALS
 Divinely, human beings are social creature.
 The interactive life has multiple dimensions such as
blood kinship, geographical neighborhood, and
ideological brotherhood.
 An effective interactive life demands some social goals.
 A person may pursue various social works as ideals in
his/her life.
 The prominent social ideals are various communal
works such as community hospital, blood donation
network, creation of NGO and literacy program.
 The poetic vision and humanistic tendency are invisible
forces behind multiple social goals. 12

13. TAXONOMY OF GOALS (TEMPORAL ASPECT)
 Goals are realized within definite time framework,
so that, temporal dimension is inevitable aspect of
effective goals setting.
 Temporally, human goals have four categories –
short-term, medium-term, long-term, and eternal.
Short-term goals take a year or less, medium-term
goals are realized within 1 to 5 years, long-term
goals take more than five years for realization, and
eternal goals are permanent and continually
evolving / expanding life goals.
13

14. STATING GOALS
 Goals are our visions/dreams, so that, they are
expressed in positive language with cheerful tone.
 Effective goals can be grouped into two categories
– individual and institutional.
 At individual level, an effective goal is Specific,
Measureable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-
bound (SMART). Smart individuals make SMART
goals.
 At institutional level, an effective goal is Specific,
Measureable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound,
Encouraging, Rewarding, and Team-driven
(SMARTEST).
14

15. CONTENTS OF GOALS
 An effective goal has two contents, viz., welfare
content and pecuniary content.
 The welfare content is linked with Divine Scheme of
Creation, while the material content is linked with
perishing life comforts.
 The qualitative superiority and quantitative
inevitability of welfare content is cosmic reality.
 Dominant welfare content means a humanistic
struggle, while the dominant worldly content means
personal struggle.
15

16. GOALS VS. OBJECTIVES
 Goals are the broad results that a person is
committed to achieve, while the objectives are the
steps that a person needs to arrive at his/her goals.
 For goals, we use words (e.g., institution wants to
capture maximum market), for objectives, we use
numbers (for example, institution wants to capture
25% market).
 Goals make the individual/institution more effective,
while objectives make the individual/institution more
efficient.
16

17. AFFECTS OF GOALS (INDIVIDUAL ASPECT)
 At individual level, goals set our personality, path,
pace, performance, and prospects.
 At personality level, an effective ambition towards
personality profile shapes vibrant and dynamic
personality.
 At path level, an effective aim specifies suitable and
secure course/direction for life struggle.
 At pace level, an effective target makes one’s
efforts swift and speedy.
 At performance level, an effective intention makes
one’s life efficient and productive.
 At prospect level, an effective purpose earmarks
proper area of effect for individuals.
17

18. AFFECTS OF GOALS (LEADERSHIP ASPECT)
 At leadership level, goals improve concentration, enhance
execution strength, develop persistency towards task completion,
make stable team profile, and creates cohesiveness among team
members.
 Concentration has been defined as "the ability to direct one's
thinking in whatever direction one would intend". The most
significant leadership trait is concentration.
 Execution Strength is an ability to do work, properly. It is the
level of execution vigor that differentiates pragmatic leadership
from idealist leadership.
 Persistency means to work continually and enthusiastically till
logical or desired outcome is not attained. An effective leader
observes the maxim, Follow One Course Unless Successful
(FOCUS).
 Stability means firmness during crises or flexibility during
change.
 Cohesiveness is a measure of the attraction of the team to its
members, the sense of unity among team members, and the
willingness of its members to coordinate their efforts.
18

19. GOALS REALIZATION STRATEGY
o Generally goals are realized if an individual,
1. Starts from Possible, (Pragmatism)
2. Establishes Personal Commitment with Goals,
(Effective Inspiration)
3. Rises above Fear of Failure/Feelings of Regret, (High
Morale)
4. Overcomes Procrastination, Slovenliness, etc., (Self
Discipline)
5. Set a Deadline or Duration for Task Completion, (Time
Efficiency)
6. Relates Goals With Tasks and Durations, (Wisdom) &
7. Avoids Perfectionism/Distractions. (Leadership)
19

20. INGREDIENTS OF GOALS (BUSINESS
PERSPECTIVE)
 A business is teamwork of interdependent
individuals. They work together for some economic
benefits. They define a few goals / objectives for
business growth and development.
 At institutional level, group motivation is vital
ingredient for task completion.
 To motivate individuals towards better performance,
goals must have - Clarity, Challenge, Feedback,
Task-Pattern, and Collective Ownership.
20

21. CLARITY
 Conceptual clarity on goals shapes scientific
management framework at institutional level. The
cornerstone of clarity is regular brainstorming
sessions of all stakeholders.
 Clarity of purpose gives vision to institution or
individuals, directs one’s efforts, and shapes
effective work profile.
 It is extremely productive to align business goals
with life purposes.
21

22. CHALLENGE
 A permanent presence of SMARTEST challenges
makes the persons smart towards goal realization.
 An effective entrepreneur designs challenging goals,
now and again.
 Practically, the areas of challenge are different for
entrepreneur and followers. The area of challenge for
follower is to observe strictly discipline or to maintain
smooth working or to meet deadlines, while the strength
of leader is to break comfort zones, now and then. The
braking of rules or habitual work-pattern is inevitable for
innovations or growth.
 A repetitive challenge to comfort zones/routine work-
pattern is essential for goal realization. 22

23. FEEDBACK
 Dynamism is vital for growth and development. A
person or team may trap into some ineffective/static
loop of work.
 The only solution to ineffectiveness is objective
feedback from all concerned sources. It checks the
vicious trap, timely, and responds it properly.
23

24. TASK PATTERNS
 A task pattern is either simple or complex. A simple
task is accomplished through direct work-patterns,
while a complex task is done through some indirect
work-patterns.
 Institutions are designed to actualize certain goals
& objectives. The process of goal actualization
demands clean path, it is responsibility of
entrepreneur to clean path hurdles and to set
effective task patterns. Cleaning path hurdles mean
swift goal realization.
24

25. COLLECTIVE OWNERSHIP
 A participative goal setting procedure strengthens
collective ownership of targets.
 A collective ownership means unified strength
during struggle. At institutional level, targets are
achieved because of teamwork. A collective
ownership develops team spirit among diverse
team members.
25