In association with Team Publications.

Advice to make sure that you set and achieve goals and objectives now seems to come from everywhere: school, college, work, in sport and recreation, and even in retirement. Setting goals is now seen as a life-long need in order to be successful, or at least to achieve progress in some way, shape, or form. However, perhaps ironically, this widespread call for goal setting as a means to achieving success doesn’t mean that the activity is either widely practiced or practiced to the satisfaction of those who do engage in the process. Those who do not set goals at all suggest that the process is often a waste of time and energy (as nothing really gets done). Even those who do set goals commonly suggest that (like New Year resolutions) they fall short of personal goals and targets very quickly (days or weeks sometimes). Goal or objective setting as a discipline or activity has a very long history (much longer than most modern management methods). Armies in particular have set goals since ancient times to win battles and wars. Over time, these skills have been developed into systems and methods that can be used in much more mundane circumstances and applied to much smaller groups, or even to a single individual, with great success if care is taken and commitment is high. In itself, the activity of establishing goals and objectives is part of a general process of plannin