“Personal Goal Settings : 4 Practical Steps to Achieving Your Goals”

Do you have problems for achieving your personal goals?

“Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail”. We all know the importance of goal setting!

If you’re like me, you probably have a set of goals for different aspects of your life.
However, the problem for me is that I can hardly reach my goals!

Do you have the same problem as I have for achieving your goals?

I’d like to share with you a good article:  “4 Practical Steps to Achieving Your Goals” written by Terry Tean.

“Why goals don’t work for most people and how to turn this around. Use these 4 simple steps to create more meaningful and impacting goals.  A goal without action is a daydream. Well written goals that are acted upon become a lifestyle…”

In short , here are the 4 practical steps to achieving your goals:

1. Set Long-term and Short-term Goals.

2. Make sure you’re deeply motivated to achieve those goals for yourself.

3. Always write your goals in positive present tense.

4. Write Daily Action Steps to Reach Your Goals.

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4 Practical Steps to Achieving Your Goals
By Terry Tean

If you’re like me, you probably have set a lot of goals in your life.

The question isn’t whether you’ve made goals.  The question is whether you’re regularly achieving your goals or not.

Early on in business I was told to make goals.  So I made them.  The problem was I never seemed to reach any of my goals.  Basic goal setting as I was taught never seemed to work for me.  I’d set one goal, and I didn’t reach it.  I’d set more goals, and I didn’t reach those.  It was a constant discouragement to the point where I gave up on goals altogether for quite a while.

Right now is a season when many people have made New Year’s Resolutions.  They’ve also set their goals for the new year.  You might have had the same experiences I did with goal setting.  You might even have given up on one of your goals already this new year. You might have become so frustrated with goal setting that you’ve given up on setting goals altogether like I used to be.

It’s not Goal Setting that’s wrong.  It’s that most of us have only learned a portion of what we need to know about it.  I’ve laid out four quick practical steps to help you set goals and achieve them below .  Please don’t leave any of them out if you’re serious about moving forward in your business and personal life.

1. Set Long-term and Short-term Goals.

A lot of people set the end goal, but they forget to set little milestone goals.  For example, let’s say someone wants to lose 30 pounds or increase their income by $50,000 this year.  Those are longer term goals.

You might decide that 1 pound per week is a safe and practical amount to lose.  So you give yourself 30 weeks or more to reach that goal.  You should also set your monthly goals of losing 4 pounds per month.

One of the biggest problems I’ve had with goal setting in the past is the discouragement of comparing myself with others.  Watch TV or read ads online, and you’ll see “success stories” surrounding you of people who blow your results out of the water.

They might lose 15 pounds in a month, and you get discouraged with your 4 pound weight loss.  That person increased their income by $100,000 in less than 30 days.  What’s wrong with you when you only increased by $1,000 in that same 30 day period?

I’ll have to admit here also that I tried to lose weight and get in shape by joining some of the fitness challenge systems such as Body for Life.  Within a couple of weeks, I always got discouraged and quit, because their “examples” always did so much better than me. I’m much better off setting reasonable long-term and short-term goals.

There is the old saying, “You overestimate what you can accomplish in one year, and underestimate what you can accomplish in 5.”

Set weekly goals, monthly goals, yearly goals, three year goals, ten year goals, and lifetime goals.  You will overestimate what you can accomplish in the short-term goals, but you will underestimate just how much you can accomplish in those long-term goals.

Set those long-term goals high, but set manageable short-term goals that you can reach and succeed with.  Ignore many of those claims you hear about extremely fast results.  Because if you’re like me, you’re better off setting practical goals you reach short-term.

They’ll empower you to keep reaching for the long-term outrageous success you’re looking for.

2. Make sure you’re deeply motivated to achieve those goals for yourself.

A lot of my early goals were set because of others expectations of me. Your mother wants you to graduate from that college.  Your father wants you to become a doctor.  Your spouse wants you to lose weight.

You might even set goals based on keeping up with the neighbors.  Your next door neighbor got a raise and bought a new sports car.  So you decide that’s your goal as well.

That’s fine until you come to realize you don’t want or even like sports cars.  To you, they’re a pain to drive and you get tired of using a clutch.  You’d prefer more time hiking or relaxing in the woods.

What is it you really want?  That’s what you should be looking at when you’re doing your goal setting.  Who do you really want?

I suggest doing something else when you first write your goals as well.  Write down at least two to three reasons WHY you want it.  A goal without a reason why will soon be a goal that isn’t reached.

What is going to motivate you to reach that goal?  What is it inside of you that will make you put down that donut when it is calling out to you?  What is that can make you get up one hour early to work when that bed feels so warm and comfy?

Why do you want to achieve that goal?  Do this exercise for every goal on your list.  Below each goal, write at least 2 to 3 reasons why you want to achieve it.

3. Always write your goals in positive present tense.

Don’t write negative goals.  For example, don’t write, “I want to quit yelling at the kids.”

Your subconscious mind is a powerful tool when you use it correctly, but it doesn’t understand giving it negative comments.  Your mind is based on images.  For example, don’t think about a golden retriever.

I’ll bet the first thing you did with the above sentence was think about a golden retriever.  Didn’t you?  Yet, I told you not to.  Did you do it because you’re rebellious or because it’s simply hard coded into you?

If you set a goal of not yelling at the kids, then you’re constantly thinking about yelling at the kids.

Set your goals in the positive.  You’re a caring parent who encourages your children at least 3 times a day.

The goal, “I want to earn an extra $50,000 this year,” needs to be changed to present tense also.  If you’re currently earning $50,000, then your new goal would be, “I earn $100,000 a year by January 1st, 2008.”

4. Write Daily Action Steps to Reach Your Goals.

The fourth step is that you must write action steps to achieve your goal.  It’s great that you made goals.  Now what are you going to do about them daily?

What will you change in your life to reach these goals?  Write at least 3 or more steps you’ll take to reach toward your goal this week.  Write 3 steps you’ll take this month.

You might like it when a self-help speaker tells you to make big and lofty goals.  Then they tell you to constantly write them down and say them.  That’s all good, but it’s only a portion of the whole picture.

A goal without action is only a daydream.  What action will you take today?  What action will you take tomorrow?  This is especially important for your short-term goals.  How will you reach each step along the way?

A goal without action is only a daydream.  Well written and motivating goals with action is a life.

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Terry Dean is the President of MyMarketingCoach, LLC where You Earn More, Work Less, and Enjoy Life.  Pick his FREE report today, “10 Key Strategies for ANY Business Owner to Earn More, Work Less, and Enjoy Life” at http://www.mymarketingcoach.com
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