Setting And Achieving Your Goals by Tim Sousa

Setting And Achieving Your Goals

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Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3 Why Goal Setting Is Important...................................................................................................................... 3 Setting Your Goals ......................................................................................................................................... 4 Goals Are Personal .................................................................................................................................... 4 Goals Need To Be Specific ......................................................................................................................... 5 Goals Need To Be Measurable .................................................................................................................. 5 Big Or Small Goals? ................................................................................................................................... 5 Achieving Your Goals .................................................................................................................................... 6 Set A Time ................................................................................................................................................. 6 Break Down Your Main Goal ..................................................................................................................... 6 Take Action ............................................................................................................................................... 8 Track Your Progress .................................................................................................................................. 8 Review Your Goals .................................................................................................................................... 9 What To Do If You Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Reach Your Goal? .................................................................................................. 9 Four Options ............................................................................................................................................. 9 Goals Are Not Set In Stone...................................................................................................................... 10 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 10 Resources .................................................................................................................................................... 11

Introduction What do you want to do in life? If you like writing, maybe you’d like to publish a novel. If you’re an athlete, perhaps you want to perform better, perhaps get drafted into the major leagues. If you’re a businessman, you may want to achieve a higher position within your company, or maybe to earn a lot of money. No matter who you are, or what you want to accomplish, you are always setting yourself goals. You set goals on what you want to achieve, how much money you want to earn, where you want to live, and many others. If you want to succeed at anything, you need to learn not just how to set your goals, but how to set successful goals. You need to learn not just how to go about setting your goals in life, but how to achieve them. Having a goal is a good thing, but it is useless without action. Whether your goals are big or small, you need to learn how to set them, and how to take the proper action to achieve them.

Why Goal Setting Is Important Think of a goal as a destination. Your goal is where you want to end up at a certain point in time. If you were to get in your car, and start driving, without choosing a destination, where will you end up? Who knows where you’ll end up when you stop driving? You could be in a better place then where you started, or you could end up in a much worse place. You need to set your destination before you get in the car and start driving. By the same token, you need to set your goal(s), or you will have no idea where you will end up. Setting a proper goal will also give you guidelines on how to get to where you want to go. If you want to achieve something, you need to have a good idea of how to accomplish it. Let’s say you’re going for a drive again. You’ve chosen your destination, but you have no idea of how to get there. You could just drive

randomly, but how long will it take to get to your final destination? You’ll get to your destination much more quickly if you know how to get there. This is why it is imperative to set your goals. Your goals will give you something to shoot for, as well as a map to get there as efficiently as possible. Whether your goals are big or small, they will provide you a roadmap to get what you want from life.

Setting Your Goals So, your goals are important, to give you something to work towards, as well as a roadmap to guide you along the way. So, now you need to start setting some goals. There are several things to keep in mind, however in deciding on a goal.

Goals Are Personal Something that you will need to remember, is that goals are personal. Your goals are your goals. They belong to you, and no one else. This doesn’t mean that you cannot share your goals with others, and this doesn’t mean that others can’t help you towards your goal. All this means is that your goals need have meaning to you. If you set yourself a goal, make sure that the goal means something to you. Set a goal that you want to achieve, not one that someone else tells you that you need to achieve. It is certainly okay to ask for guidance and help in determining your goals, but you shouldn’t be setting yourself a goal just because someone else tells you to. Take a look at your values. What do you value most? Your goals will most likely be centered around these things. Do you play sports? Your goals may have to do with increasing your athletic performance. Are you a musician? If this is the case, your goals may be centered around playing in a certain ensemble. If you are an entrepreneur, your goals may be centered around a becoming financially independent.

Set your goals based on what is important to you. Let others offer advice, don’t forget, they may have more experience than you, but don’t feel that you have to set yourself a goal that someone else wants for you.

Goals Need To Be Specific This is an important key to remember. Your goals need to be specific. For example, you can certainly say that your goal is to be rich, but that is hardly specific. It is better to say that you would like to be earning, let’s say $10,000 per month. When you set yourself a goal, it is important that you will be able to reach that goal, and that you know how to get to your goal. If you set a vague goal, then it isn’t easy to know how to reach that goal, or if you’ve reached it. When you set yourself specific goals, then you can plan out how to reach the goal, and you will know when you’ve reached it.

Goals Need To Be Measurable This goes along with goals needing to be specific. Your goals need to be measurable. You need to have certain criteria to be met so that you know when you reach your goal. If you set a specific goal, then the chances are pretty good that it is a measurable goal. Let’s say, for example, that your goal is to write a book. What criteria have to be met before that goal is achieved? Do you simply want a finished book? Do you want to reach a certain word count? You will need to know the benchmarks that you will have to reach in order to call the goal completed. Big Or Small Goals?

Are your goals big or small? Think about that for a minute. Do not think that all of your goals, if any, have to be big, lofty goals. Your goal may simply be to get the bathroom cleaned this weekend. It could be to save enough money in the next year to take your family on vacation. You don’t have to set a goal to make a million dollars in the next five years.

If you are new to setting goals, you may very well want to go ahead and just set a few small goals. Smaller goals are easier to reach than larger goals. Achieving a few small goals may very well motivate you to set your sights higher, and start setting larger goals. On the other hand, there is absolutely nothing wrong with having big goals. Perhaps you may have a goal of buying a private island in the Caribbean, and retiring there. That’s totally okay. Remember, goals are personal, so while someone else may be setting themselves small goals, you can go right ahead and set yourself large goals. When it comes down to it, however, large goals will need to be broken down into smaller goals.

Achieving Your Goals Setting your goals is only one half of the equation. You now need a plan to achieve your goals. If you were traveling, it isn’t enough to know where you are going, you have to know how to get there. Likewise, you need to make yourself a map to your goals, a plan to reach them.

Set A Time Once you’ve set your goal, you need to set a time. It isn’t enough to just set your goal, you need to have a timeframe. You need to know when you want to achieve your goal. Having a deadline for reaching your goal will help to motivate you to keep going. Setting a specific time limit for your goal will help you to schedule the tasks that need to be done to reach the goal. With no time limit, many people will just put things off, again and again, and never reach their goals. Having a time limit, you will know what you need to do, and when.

Break Down Your Main Goal Whether your goals are big or small, there are specific tasks that need to be taken in order to reach the goal. If you set yourself large goals, they may look difficult or even impossible to attain.

Let’s face it, when you sit down to eat a big steak, you don’t try to stick the entire steak into your mouth and eat it all at once. No, you eat the steak one bite at a time. If you break the large goal into smaller goals, however, each of those smaller goals is more attainable, and if you take things one step at a time, then before you know it, you’ve reached your primary goal. Let’s look at an example. Let’s say that your goal is to write and publish a novel. That may very well be an attainable goal, but it gets much easier if it is broken down into smaller goals. So, the goal is to write and publish a novel, that goal may be broken down something like this: 1. Develop a plot and outline for the novel. 2. Develop characters for the novel. 3. Write the body of the novel. 4. Read through the novel, and note anything that needs to be fixed. 5. Go through and edit the novel. 6. Repeat 4 & 5 as necessary. 7. Find a publisher, and find out what you need to give them. 8. Send the publisher what they need. 9. If the publisher rejects the novel, repeat 7 & 8 as necessary. 10. If publishers will not accept your novel, look into self-publishing. Even when you break your goals down into specific steps, some steps may be able to be further broken down. In the above example, step 3 could be further broken down: 1. Write X number of words on day one. 2. Write X number of words on day two. 3. Write X number of words on day three. … and so on. Take the time to look at your goal, and break it down into smaller steps. Look at each step, and determine which steps can be broken down into even smaller 7

steps. Once you’ve broken everything down, then go through and determine a timeline for your overall goal, and a timeline for each step.

Take Action This is probably the most important step in achieving your goals is taking action. In fact, this step is probably so obvious that you may wonder why I’m bringing it up. Many times, I’ve seen people set a goal, saying, “I’m going to accomplish this, I’m going to get this done”, and then they never do anything. Setting your goals, and making a plan to achieve them is great. Without action, however, a goal is nothing. You have your goal, you’ve broken it down into smaller steps, and you’ve set a time for accomplishing the goal. Now you need to start taking action. Look through the list of steps that you’ve written down, start at the beginning. Do the first task on your list. When that is done, go on to the next task. Just take on each task as it comes, and before you know it, you’ve reached your final goal.

Track Your Progress It is of vital importance to keep track of your goal, and to keep track of the progress that you’ve made. Every day, review your goal, review what you’ve already done to accomplish your goal, and review what you need to do that day. The simplest way to keep track of your progress towards your goal, is to simply keep track in a notebook, or on a whiteboard next to your desk. Write out your primary goal, and then write out each step that you need to take towards your goal. Cross off each task as you complete it, and soon you’ll see how much closer you are to your goal each day. Another way to keep track of your goal is to sign up for a website designed to keep track of your goals. One good site for this, is Goals On Track. Once you sign up, you can log in, and set up your goals. For each goal, you can set up specific tasks that you need to accomplish. Each day, you’ll receive an e-mail that tells you what tasks you need to do that day. Goals On Track will also allow you to enter habits that you want to develop. If you want to keep track of your goals easily, I highly recommend that you check out Goals On Track. 8

Review Your Goals Going hand in hand with keeping track of your goals, you will want to review your goals from time to time. As you work towards your goals, you may find other tasks that you’ll need to accomplish to reach your goal. You may find that your goals will change slightly over time. Take some time to review your goals, and don’t be afraid to adjust or completely change your goals if necessary. Reviewing your goals on a regular basis will also help to keep you motivated. Take a picture that will remind you of your goal, and post it somewhere where you’ll see it on a regular basis. Tape it to your mirror in the bathroom, so you’ll see it every morning. Post it on the wall next to your desk, so you can see it while you’re working. Being able to see a visual representation of your goal can go a long way to motivate you to keep striving towards your goal.

What To Do If You Don’t Reach Your Goal? There may very well come a time while you are striving towards your goal when it feels like you just can’t reach it. Don’t worry, this happens. You may find yourself stalled on your journey, or circumstances may change, and your goal may not be as important to you as it once was.

Four Options If you find yourself stalled on your way towards your goal, it isn’t the end of the world. Things may happen to get in your way, obstacles may arise. You have several options on how to deal with it. First of all, if you get stuck while you’re on your way to reaching your goal, you can just stop and give up. You can start beating yourself up, and getting down on yourself that you didn’t reach your goal. This is certainly one option on how to react to getting stuck, but this just doesn’t fly in my book. You can start getting down on yourself for not reaching your goal, but I certainly do not recommend it. Another option is to just be satisfied where you are. You’ve made some progress, you’re closer to your goal than you were when you started. Only you can decide if you’ve made enough progress, if you’re close enough to your goal to be satisfied. 9

This is certainly another option, and it’s better than the first option, but I still do not recommend it. If you get stuck while you’re striving towards your goal, you can stop and catch your breath. Take time to look at where you are, and where your goal is. Analyze the situation, and look at how you can alter your plans or perhaps your goal, in order to reach it. You may need to approach your goal from a different direction. Take some time to decide how no need to change your plans. When you can continue on, then do so. The fourth option is to do whatever it takes to get going again. If an obstacle stands in your way, find a way over, around, or through it. Don’t let any obstacles stand in your way. If you’re stuck, find a way to get unstuck, and continue on your way.

Goals Are Not Set In Stone Do not let yourself start thinking that once a goal is set, it cannot be changed. Circumstances may change. Your values may change. You may find that what was once important to you isn’t as important as it once was. As you review your goals, do not be afraid to make any adjustments to your goals, or even changing the goal completely. Many people may have the goal of getting married and having kids, and raising a family. What happens, though, if you happen to fall in love with a woman who cannot have children for some reason or another. What to do? You can adjust the goal, and adopt children. You can decide to not have children at all, and just make something else your goal.

Conclusion After reading this e-book, you should now at least have a good idea on how to set and achieve your goals. You first need to look at your values, decide what is important to you, and set your goals accordingly. Break your goal down into smaller steps, make sure each step is small enough to be achievable. Take action to reach your goal. Spend some 10

time regularly to work towards your goal. Review your goals, and track your progress. You should make setting and achieving your goals a high priority. Do not, however, ignore the important things in life just to reach your goals. You still have family and friends that should be a high priority in your life. Do not neglect them, ever. They may be an important factor in whether or not you reach your goals. You never know who may be able to help you to accomplish what you want out of life. Follow this advice, and you will be well on your way to achieving what you want out of life. Start setting your goals now, and take action. Do not just let things happen, go out and make things happen.

Resources Goals On Track How To set And Achieve A Goal Goal Setting And Getting

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