Goal setting is the best way to improve your life. Goals are imperative to achieving success. And, it’s never too late to set a goal.
Did you set a New Year’s resolution or goal, only to have it fade away? Every year people all over the world set new goals and make resolutions for the new year, unfortunately most will never fulfill their promises.
In the following text I’ll outline how to achieve your goals and keep your resolutions this year.
Maybe you’ve already set your goals, now you must act on them. If you haven’t set any goals, now is the time, the New Year offers the perfect time to set new goals!
Often, many people set goals or make a resolution to overcome bad habits or negative behavior. Your goal may be to achieve more success or increase your income.
Creating a Goal System
Having a goals system will ensure that you focus your efforts to achieve success. Remember, a ‘goal’ is different from a ‘wish.’ You may wish to be rich, but that doesn’t mean you’ve taken any practical steps to make that ‘wish’ come true.
Why should you set goals? Setting goals is the best way to improve your life. The most common reason for not setting goals is procrastination, but there are lots of other excuses. Ironically, stopping procrastination is one of the most popular goals. So, why not get started now?
When goal setting there are about 8 categories that most goals come from, there are many more, but most can be put into these categories:
Primary Goal Categories
- Financial
- Physical
- Spiritual
- Mental
- Social
- Family
- Career
- Habits
Common Personal Goals
- Lose weight
- Stop smoking
- Increase income
- Vacation
- Get out of debt
- Finish school
- Learn a trade
- Write a book
So, now that you have an idea of the more common goals, why don’t you set your own? It can be as simple as getting out a piece of paper and a pen. The most important thing is to get started now. The goals you choose are the ‘what’ you would like to accomplish. Simply choose 1 or up to 5 goals and write them down. You may want to do this in a journal or notebook or pin them to the refrigerator.
Be specific with your goals and be careful to keep your goals simple and to the point, listing only what is important and realistic to you. If you make too many, you may get discouraged or have problems focusing.
Why Set Goals?
Once you have your goals written down, you’ll want to determine ‘why’ you want to accomplish your goals. This is simply the purpose for accomplishing your goal. Your ‘why’ is imperative and will keep you motivated when you run into roadblocks or get sidetracked. Be honest with yourself about why these goals are important to you and why you should do them now.
To summarize, the Goal is ‘what’ you want to do and the Purpose is ‘why’ you must do this now. Once you determine mentally what you want to accomplish, you will subconsciously start taking on behaviors that will bring you to your determined result.
Here are some examples of goals, specifics, and purposes:
| Goal (What) | Specific Accomplishment | Purpose (Why) |
| Stop Smoking | Decrease gradually and No cigarettes after 6 months | To breathe easier and live a longer life with your family. |
| Lose Weight | Lose 24 lbs. this year | So you can be more physically fit and live a healthier life. |
| Write a Book | 200 page “how to” book | To promote a cause and teach others what you have learned. |
| Save Money | $40,000 over 10 years | To pay for your children’s college, so they will be able to get a higher paying job. |
| Give to Charity | 10% of your earnings | To give back and help others because you have prospered. |
You should now have your goals and your purpose written down. Continuing to take action is vital at this point.
If you break your goals down into short steps they will be easier to accomplish. For example, if you want to lose weight, be specific. Let’s say you want to lose 24 pounds this year, you could break that down to 2 pounds per month. Or if you want to write a book, you may write a chapter a month or 2 pages a day.
Getting Started
Getting started requires action steps. So, you may want to journal or keep track of your daily accomplishments. By tracking your successes you will build confidence.
If your goal is to stop a bad habit, you will want to think of ways to interrupt your negative pattern. You will want to create a positive reinforcement for the negative one. Create a new association that will provide pleasure for the success.
Over the years I’ve put together a common sense approach for setting goals and broken it down into easy to follow steps.
Steps for Achieving Your Goal(s):
1. Write down your specific goal and purpose for achieving your goal. First, handwrite your goal, this will cause you to think and visualize your goal. Later you may want to type or print out your goal
2. Plan your goal setting. Set a specific date for accomplishing your goal. Break your goal down into easily attainable steps
3. Take action toward accomplishing your goal. Work toward your goal daily. Practice discipline until you form a habit
4. Visualize yourself achieving your goal. Play a movie in your mind. Watch the movie at night and in the morning
5. Verbalize your goal. Say “I choose to earn $ (your financial goal here) per year.”. Say “I will do this through (your specific plan or job here).”
The most important part of any goal plan is taking action. So, start now! Keep your mind focused on the above steps and start working towards your goal.
Close your eyes picture yourself in the place you want to be. Don’t worry about whether or not it’s working or over analyze what you’re doing. Just keep your mind focused on your goal and discipline yourself to do the steps above on a regular basis.
The following steps will allow you to “really” accelerate your results:
- Are you going to dream about this or really do it?
- Really print this out right now.
- Really paste this next to your computer right now.
- Really follow the steps once a day for 30 days.
- Do it now and don’t let anything get in the way of you accomplishing your goal.
- Take action and you will feel better about yourself and others. You will achieve success!
Until next time,
Barry Page
Barry Page is a recognized author and publisher of multiple blogs, websites and videos. He is a leading expert on private banking and a Registered Financial Consultant. He specializes in showing families how to increase their happiness, health and prosperity. His business is based in Ocean Springs, Mississippi and he services clients throughout the country.
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