Goal Setting Your Way To Greatness

Read any book on people that live successful lives (as society tends to base its judgements on at least), and you will find many traits in common. The most common theme among them is that they are master goal-setters. Some people even go so far as to set intra-day goals. The two questions to mull over for yourself are; are you where you want to be in life? and if not, are you are a goal – setter? If the answer is no to both of these, then following a few of the steps below may help you get to where you want to go.

In order to set effective goals that you will stick to, and remain motivated for, you need to be specific. If your goal is to lose weight for a wedding, or other event, it is pointless to simply set a goal to ‘lose weight’ When will you know when you have reached your goal? What will be a milestone to know you are on the right track?

The first step in setting a goal is to be clear about what you want to achieve. This is a vital step in setting goals that you will be able to achieve. If you only half want something to happen, then how do you think you will remain motivated down the track? You probably won’t. If you have a clear picture of what you want to achieve, you are already on your way.

 The next part you need to consider is if the goal is actually achievable? If you have a goal to make $20,000,000 per year next year, is that a reasonable goal that you are likely to achieve in that timeframe? It is not unreasonable to have such a goal, but you need to be able to break it down into smaller parts that you can measure. Consider these as milestones. In order to set goals that you can achieve, it is imperative that you write them down. Think of it as similar to making a contract with yourself. Writing it down also reinforces the belief in your subconscious. That way each time you read it, it will help you focus on your vision.

 It is also important to set a time frame when setting goals. If you leave it open ended you are not creating any urgency to try and achieve it. Because you have it open ended, it becomes easier to simply say; “oh, I’ll get onto that someday.” As John Fogerty once wrote someday never comes.

 In order to remain focussed and disciplined towards your goals, you also need to set up milestones and rewards. For example, if you want to lose forty pounds, doing that all in one go is a bit tricky. Wisdom tells us that breaking the goal down into measurable components will help us keep on track. A saying that I once read (unsure of the source) was: If you take a sharp axe to a tree and take one swing at the tree per day, eventually, no matter how big the tree, it will fall down. The same applies with goals. Smaller pieces help to keep you on track.


To recap the steps:

1) Be specific about what you are wanting to achieve, and what the end result looks like
2) Make sure your goal is achievable
3) Write them down
4) Set a timeframe
5) Set milestones and rewards

As an extra kicker, read them as often as you can. This will help implant them into your subconscious mind and reinforce the belief that you will make them happen.

An effective goal may look like the following: By (insert date) I will have (achievement i.e lost twenty pounds etc). This can then be broken down into smaller parts eg. By xxx date I will have lost ten pounds to my goal of losing twenty pounds by xxx date.

I hope this introduction to goal setting helps!