Behavior-Based Goals 101

Setting goals isn't complicated, but like everything else, there is a right and wrong way to go about it. Making intentions to change your behavior - whether it's to decrease procrastination or be friendlier when you're under stress - can be a lot trickier than creating them to change performance. Here are a few tips to get you started.

Focus on Future Performance

It's cause and effect - today's behavior affects tomorrow's performance. If you're having trouble meeting a performance-based goal you've set for yourself, consider that you might need to change a behavior instead. For instance, many people set targets to increase productivity. But regardless of how fast you type, if you spend all morning surfing the web you'll never meet your intention.

When it comes to behavior-based goals, your focus should be on future performance. Go out of your way executing your behavior-based intentions, stay consistent, and really work hard on changing the ways you handle stress or deal with interpersonal relationships. As you change your behaviors, the results will come.

Give Yourself Time

In some ways, changing your behavior is a lot harder than just increasing your productivity. How we feel, think, and react is second nature to us in a way that answering a certain amount of emails before lunch isn't. So don't be too hard on yourself if you aren't seeing the behavioral changes you want overnight.

Give yourself a realistic amount of time to make changes. You'll find it's difficult to change a behavior all at once. The most important thing is that you improve a little bit every day. Don't give up on your intentions, but don't get upset with yourself if it's harder to stick to behavior-based goals than it is to performance-based ones.

Measure Your Progress

Behavior-based objectives are harder to quantify than performance-based ones for a few reasons. It's not always easy to assign a number value to interpersonal skills or teamwork. It can be hard to track the ways you manage your time or communicate. Sometimes, behavior-based objectives are really subjective. But keeping track of your progress is important if you want to improve.

You may really need to get creative in order to measure your progress, and you'll definitely need to embrace the subjectivity of the process. Write down your thoughts and feelings. Rather than making charts and graphs, consider journaling to keep track of your positive and negative behaviors.

Peggy Everson - Superior Organized Solutions

Business Growth Strategist, Professional Business Organizer, People Problem Solver, Entrepreneur, Rescue Dog Lover. Got a problem? Let's talk!

Transforming the lives of entrepreneurs, through coaching and personality profiling! I want my clients to live the life they are meant to live and be happy, healthy and successful.

http://superiororganizedsolutions.com/

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What Is Behavior-Based Goal Setting?

When we think of goal setting, we usually think of things that envision a specific outcome. Some examples include:

• Lose 20 pounds.

• Increase income by 10%.

• Buy a larger house/newer vehicle.

• Run a marathon.

• Save money for college.

Of course, these are just a few of the more common goals that people set for themselves. But what if we based them on changing behaviors instead of obtaining a specific outcome? Could we modify or completely change behaviors that would lead us to the desired outcome quicker, healthier, and with less stress? Some experts certainly think so.

Many times, when we set intentions, we focus on the negative, i.e. what we don't want rather than what we do want. Behavior-based goals focus more on the behaviors we want to strengthen rather than the negative actions we want to remove. In strengthening the positive behaviors, we change the way we act and react in many situations - not just situations surrounding a target that is outcome-based. The ripple effect of creating more positive behaviors in our lives is wide-reaching, affecting far more than just what we may have had in mind when creating the goal.

Many businesses today are focusing on behavior-based objectives rather than outcome-based ones, because of this ripple effect. Smart companies know that when behavior changes for the positive, the employee is happier not only at work but in their personal life and family life as well. A happier employee is a more productive employee. So managers are learning to integrate behavior-based goals at each employee review.

This type of target-setting isn't seen just in the office, either. Personal trainers, life coaches, psychologists, therapists, and so many other professions are adding behavior-based goal setting to their repertoire of techniques. This helps those in these industries to help their clients reach success, whatever that may mean to them.

Targets that change behaviors can be seen as a kind of intermediate goal that helps one achieve outcome-based objectives easier, faster, and with more residual positive effects. A positive behavior that is strengthened in order to reach a goal is going to be strengthened in every situation where that behavior is utilized.

Try setting a few behavior-based goals of your own and you'll see that positively changing a behavior really helps in so many different areas of your life. The results are great, and your new positive behaviors will serve you well for the rest of your life.

Peggy Everson - Superior Organized Solutions

Business Growth Strategist, Professional Business Organizer, People Problem Solver, Entrepreneur, Rescue Dog Lover. Got a problem? Let's talk!

Transforming the lives of entrepreneurs, through coaching and personality profiling! I want my clients to live the life they are meant to live and be happy, healthy and successful.

http://superiororganizedsolutions.com/

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Peggy_Everson/2409561

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