Backward Goal-Setting

Using Backward Planning to Set Goals

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If your goal is to become an account director within the next five years, where do you start your planning process? Or if your team needs to redesign the company's organizational structure, where do you begin?

In planning, most of us would usually start building our plan from start to finish. What do you have to do first, second, third, and so on? And by what date does each step need to be completed?

This is a solid form of Personal Goal Setting that works very well. When combined with the Golden Rules of Goal Setting, you have a motivating formula that can help you actively move yourself forward.

A New Approach

However, there's another simple but lesser-used method of goal setting that can be equally as powerful.

It's called backward planning, backward goal-setting, or backward design, and it's used quite often in education and training. The idea is...

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