When I talk to people about goal setting I find out some interesting things.  Many people plan what they are going to watch on TV for the week, where they are going to eat and what they are going to eat when they go on a Friday night.  They take 6 months to 1 year to plan their holidays.  However, ask the same person what are their goals (either short term or long term) and they will look at you as if you are somehow asking a weird question!

You’ve got one life, you want to have the best life and you don’t have a goal!

Let me ask you, right now, right this moment how many goals did you set this year and how many have you achieved?

In fact do you know where the goals you wrote down are?  What… some of you did not even write down the goals.  Ok we gotta talk!

It is said that those who commit their goals to paper are more likely to succeed and achieve them.  The simple act of writing them down can ensure more chances of success. Of course if you write them down, that in itself won’t ensure success.

You need to be able to visualise and see your goals every day. You do this to remember that you have created them and to internalise them.

However just doing that is not enough to achieve them!

In order to reach those goals you need to take action, each and every single day you need to make sure you are moving at least one step closer to your goal.  Look back at the end of each day and be happy that what you did that day is getting you closer towards your goals.

Re read the above, three very important points, once you understand those points you are closer to creating goals to success.

I am not talking about ordinary goals that you have read about. I am talking about goals to success.

You might be thinking “Richard what’s the difference?”

Let me tell you that a lot of what you may have read and be taught about goal setting is 80% correct, but there are some missing steps.

However, right now you are going to learn the “goal to success” formula.

1) Ask yourself exactly what is your goal? You should think about specifics. “I want more money” is not a goal, it’s a statement.  “What I want is to earn $5000 a month” is much better.

2) Why do you want to achieve this goal? “I want to achieve this goal to help my family” – nice answer but you need to set the goal for you.  Better answer would be “I want to earn $5000 a month so that I can have less stress in my life.” Not bad but let’s improve on it in point 3

3) Create the goal using positive language.  The word stress in the goal above is a negative. If you are going to be looking at this goal each and every day you don’t want to see any negative words.  Let’s rephrase this goal “I want to earn $5000 a month so I can live a happier and more fulfilled life, that will allow me to help my family and friends have a better life.” Whoa you are on a roll now, that is a pretty sweet goal, but heck we can improve it more

4) Set a timeframe.  You have to know when you want to achieve this goal by, otherwise there is no pressure to do it. It’s a case of “yeah I want to do it but mañana is ok to start!”  Therefore we want to modify the goal to read  “I want to earn $5000 a month so I can live a happier and more fulfilled life, that will allow me to help my family and friends have a better life. I am going to achieve this by X.”  Looking good! We now have a date when we need this achieved  by so now we can start planning

5) The how.  So great goal my friend, but how are you going to achieve it?  Changing jobs? Getting an extra job? Writing a book? I have to know … “I want to earn $5000 a month so I can live a happier and more fulfilled life, that will allow me to help my family and friends have a better life. I am going to achieve this by X.  I will achieve this by setting up my consultancy firm to service the X market.”  See where we are going with this? Things are becoming clearer now.

We have the what, the want, the positive, the timeframe,  the how, so we are there right?

Well nearly. One thing you do need to do is think about the who.  Who else is part of this goal?  Who else will be affected by my decision.  I believe in holistic goal setting. Looking at all the parts that make up the goal.  So one important thing you must do is think how this goal is going to affect those around you.

If you decide to set up your own consultancy firm will this take away time from your family? friends? will it give you more stress?  This is one point that many people fail to consider.  You may decide you want to build the perfect life for your family, but suddenly you achieve what you want, only to find you don’t know your family any more because you were never around.

Don’t be fooled thinking goal setting is easy.  Sure writing out a goal is easy, but achieving it is different. Remember if it were so easy everyone would be setting goals and achieving them!

You see goal setting takes time to do initially.  Knowing what you need to know before you start is important.

However what you have just read is the start of your goal to success.  In future articles I will get more in-depth and we will start to create really successful goals!

Goal Setting For Success! Crush Your Goals.
Leave your comments and opinions on goals below. Comment, Share, Subscribe. 🙂