Seminar Gathers Many to Hear Talks on Goal Setting

by Marie Kauna – EMTV Online, Port Moresby

A seminar hosted by civil group, Attitude Plus, was held on Saturday, January 28, at the PNG Human Resource Institute, PNG Institute of Engineers Building in Port Moresby.

The seminar was an initiative by Attitude Plus, to bring together primary, secondary, and tertiary students who are currently at their first stage of making career choices; and young entrepreneurs, or leaders, who are on a path to self discovery. They were all present to listen to presentations about goal-setting.

As we all know, many of us have dreams, but too often our judgments are clouded with confusion, and when things do not work out the way we planned or expect, we may give up easily.

Saturday’s presentation brought very good opportunities for those who have felt that they have not set their goals. This is especially important for all, if for example you do not have a dream, but feel that it is about time to start planning.

Attitude Plus provided a number of presentations, which include;

• Goal setting
• Identifying your goals and setting achievable goals
• How to start your goals
• How to achieve the goals you set
• The tools you will need to set, and get your goals and
• How to develop a positive goal-oriented mindset to achieving these goals you set.

As distraction can become a part of our lives, it is sometimes hard to identify our dreams, and even set goals to achieving them.

The three speakers at the event, Ian Hetri, Jaive Smare, and Ganjiki Wayne all shared information about setting individual goals.

Each presenter had different topics to present. Hetri, on goals to setting up a business in PNG; Smare on thinking creatively; and Wayne on the general concept of goal setting.

Hetri, who is a young entrepreneur and founder of LinkPad, spoke on his experience with starting a business; how he has started his business; how he went on to achieving his goals; and what his business is like today.

Based on this, one of the important points Hetri highlighted was the journey of ‘starting from small using available resources’ to become successful.

In his presentation, Hetri highlighted why businesses fail, and why we fail to achieve our individual goals we set. One of the things he mentioned, is the reality that people are good at talking, and bad at implementing their plans into actions.

Hetri says when thinking of starting a business, it is important to be realistic, and start from whatever resources that is available, prior to expecting others to help. He gave the example of obtaining a loan from a bank, for starting a business, which is the norm for many people.

The seven smart steps to starting businesses in Papua New Guinea, are:

1. Creating a business model using ‘Lean Canvas’;
2. Using the Lean Start-up process to build and test the business product;
3. Registering the business at the Investment Promotion Authority (IPA);
4. Opening bank accounts;
5. Get Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) from Internal Revenue Commission (IRC);
6. Build a website and create a Facebook page;
7. Invest in paid social media to boost your business growth for first 12 months;

Following Hetri, Jaive Smare presented on ‘thinking creatively’.

Smare’s presentations topic was ‘Creativity’, and all his presentations were on creativity and what tools are available. He mentioned that the tools available are:

• Historical review – Do a review to help identify new ideas
• Shredding/trimming and cutting – Eliminate some of the things you plan and cut them
• Listening to people working at the front line – Listen to other people’s experience
• Combine functions – combine two functions to develop a solution
• Extracting concepts – understand the concept and identify simpler ways to deliver the concept
• Bulking and exceptions – accept different situations and identify solution to address these situations
• Restructuring – choose which to prioritise, make it your habit
• Starting afresh – re-define yourself
• Modules and smaller units – simplify, break down bigger module into smaller module
• Provocation amputation – cut something to provoke you, see things in different perspective
• Wishful thinking – think about how to get from one place to the other, ideal process
• Shifting energy – shift your energy from doing one thing to the other

The final speaker, Ganjiki Wayne, who is a lawyer and, the founder of Attitude Plus, gave a very important presentation on goal setting. In his presentation, Wayne shared ‘how you can discover or settle on the dreams you have.’

He says the four points are:

• To be intentional
• To reflect – stop and think
• To visualise the options
• And, to get help if needed

He further gave a presentation on the importance of goal setting, the six rules for A+ goal setting are:

1. Begin with the end in mind
2. Evaluate current reality
3. Make S.M.A.R.T Goals – Specific,Measurable, Achievable,Relevant,Time-Bound
4. Write the goal down
5. Share your goal selectively, and
6. Go to work

The presentations were quite motivational. And such opportunities are rare. The seminars were also free. More than 30 participants gathered at this event.

It is believed that more of these seminars will be conducted.

For more on Attitude Plus, you can follow them on Facebook.

EMTV Online came away with this lingering quote shared during the event, by a Elbert Hubbard:

“Many people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains or even courage, but simply because they have never organised their energies around a goal.”