Sucess Tip: Goal Setting

Motivational Success Tip

Category: Goal Setting
Bringing the Words to Life!

“It has long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.”

--Elinor Smith

How many times have we heard how important it is to put our goals on paper? This message is universal in the motivational genre. One reason writing your goals is so important is that if you cannot express your goals clearly and succinctly, you will not be able to achieve them. If you are sure of your goals, you will be able to describe them to another person and on paper.

After you put your goals on paper, what do you do next? Do you file the paper away, never to look at it again? Ignoring your goals assures your failure. Goals have been compared to business plans. A business plan contains a detailed description of how the business will achieve its objectives. Smart business owners have a business plan and adjust this plan as they see the reality of market conditions.

Once you can state your goal clearly, succinctly, and enthusiastically, expand on it as if you are writing a business plan. Decide how you will achieve your goal and put it in writing. Then, begin implementing your plan.

What if you aren't sure how you will achieve your goal?

TIP: There is a simple exercise you can do to help you develop your plan for reaching your goals. Allow yourself 10 to 15 minutes to perform this exercise.

Using your imagination, project yourself forward to the time when you have achieved one of your goals. Fully visualize yourself at that moment. If creating pictures is hard for you, imagine what you would hear or feel at that moment. Once you have that thought in mind, take a deep breath and delve further into it.

Ask yourself “How did I achieve my goal?” Your answer may come quickly, you may draw a blank, or it may seem silly or impossible. That's OK. If you draw a blank, it may be an indication that you need to reexamine your goal to see if it should be split it into smaller goals, eliminated or reworked. Another possibility is that you will get your answer later while you are in REM sleep (dreaming) or from out of the blue when you are thinking about something else. Thoughts that appear silly or impossible when you first conceive them have a funny way of becoming practical in time.

When you have the first part of your answer, write it down, no matter how silly or impossible it seems. Ask the question again from the perspective of the answer. For example, if your goal is to attend law school, your answer may be to earn enough money to take some time off and go full time. The next question to ask yourself is “How did I earn this money?”

Keep questioning yourself and working backward until you return to where you are today. You now have a preliminary plan for achieving your goal. You'll want to review and possibly modify the goal and plan at least once a year.