Your Guide to Setting and Achieving Your Goals

Do you know how important setting goals is to achieving success at anything? Do you set goals? Are they effective? Do you have written goals? If you answered no

to these questions, you aren’t alone. Research has shown that 90 percent of people don’t have written goals.

Think of it like this. You go to the supermarket without a list. You roam the aisles, grabbing whatever catches your eye. When you get home, you realize you’ve forgotten half the things you need. So now you have to make another trip to the store. Not only have you wasted time, but money as well, on things you don’t need. Having goals without writing them down is like shopping without a list.

The one thing all successful people, whether athletes, business owners, or people who have lost weight and kept it off, have in common is that they set goals for themselves.

Many people work hard but don’t seem to get anywhere. They feel as if they’re adrift, floating from one day to the next.

A key reason for this is that they haven’t taken the time to think about what they want in life and don’t set any formal goals. It’s kind of like starting out on a trip without any idea of where you are going. It’s probably not a good idea.

Goal setting is powerful. It puts you in the process of thinking of your ideal future and what motivates you to work toward that vision. Goals are your roadmap to your future.

Creating this goals roadmap is the process that helps you choose what you want in life, where you want to go, and who you want to be. When you know precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you need to focus your efforts to achieve the end result.

Having goals will help you quickly spot when you are going in the wrong direction or the distractions that lead you astray.

So, how do you set achievable goals and avoid failure? This guide can help.

Welcome to the Guide to Setting and Achieving Goals report. This guide is designed to help you move from floating through life to setting and achieving goals in a simple, easy-to-implement format. Get ready—this guide will help you set goals for change.

What you’re about to learn in this guide:

·??? Why you need goals

·??? Why goals fail

·??? How to successfully set goals

·??? Tips from the experts

·??? How to follow through

Before we get to the heart of goal setting, we should look at more reasons why you need goals to succeed in everything you do.

Why You Need Goals

“Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.”– Fitzhugh Dodson

Almost all successful achievements begin with setting a goal. It motivates you to take the first step toward your goals.

You probably know people who take a passive approach to life. They don’t set any goals. They just go through their lives, day by day, doing the same thing from year to year. They don’t set a goal to achieve anything, and that is exactly what they achieve.

The following list gives you five more reasons you need goals in life.

1. To move you in a focused direction. Have a goal, especially one that is written down with a set date to accomplish it. Your goals represent your inner desires, which are what motivate you in life. Goals are a constant reminder of why you are doing your actions. They are the path that leads you forward.

2. Turn big dreams into small steps. A big dream can seem impossible to accomplish, and this can be discouraging. But when you set goals the right way, you break those larger, more intimidating goals down into smaller, achievable steps. These smaller goals make it easier to see what you need to do each step of the way.

3. Hold you accountable. Having concrete goals and writing them down gives you a timeline for achievement. If you fail along the path, you have something to look to for re-evaluation. You might be humbled if you look back on goals you set for six months, a year, or even five years ago, only to see you were supposed to accomplish much more than you did. It’s a sign that you went off the path with a wrong turn. Having these concrete goals written down helps you see where you need to go and what changes you need to make to reach them.

4. ?Goals help us believe in ourselves. Goals are a way to fuel your ambition. Goals give you a plan for your life, hold you accountable, and inspire you to aim for things you might have thought were impossible to achieve. For example, maybe you want to accomplish something many people only dream of. Setting a goal to reach that dream and the steps it takes to get there helps you see your progress.

5. Give you a picture of what you really want. More often than not, you have set goals that don’t reflect what you want. Maybe you think you need more money, but you really need a change of environment. Or maybe you’ve set a goal to change jobs when you really need to work at something you can be passionate about. Having a vague sense of success keeps you from going after what you truly desire. Setting goals forces you to ask yourself what you really want and re-assess your goals as you gain perspective and self-reflection on what really makes you happy.

Finally, goals are necessary if you want to succeed at anything. They act as a map to guide you to what you truly desire and hope to achieve in your life. You use goals to reach personal, spiritual, and professional success so you can live life to the fullest.

Why Goals Fail

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” ~ Henry Ford

Now that you know why you need goals, setting the right ones and meeting them can be somewhat of a problem. More often than not, we fail to meet some of the goals we set for ourselves. There are several major reasons for this.

·???? Vague goals that lead to setting the wrong priorities. Sometimes, you find time to do things that don’t add value to your life and aren’t irrelevant to your goals. You might have a goal to write a book within a year. Instead of writing to reach that goal, you work on other stuff like getting pulled into Facebook or chatting on forums about something else.

If the goal is important enough for you, make it a priority to work on it.

·???? Listening to the wrong people. Often, we associate with those who steer us in the wrong direction for whatever reason. They may be afraid you will leave them if you succeed. Or maybe they are jealous of your ambition.

·???? Our own selfish acts keep us from achieving our goals. Selfish acts include not being willing to change a bad habit or thinking we deserve something without doing the work.

·???? We procrastinate. We make excuses. Lots of excuses. It seems it’s easier to come up with an excuse than a reason why we must do something. We’ve all made them. They range from not having enough time to the full moon. We’d rather watch TV or put off doing something because it’s easier than tackling our goals. Excuses are just that: excuses, and they keep you at a standstill.

Excuses often arise when we are afraid or uncertain of the outcome, the next step, or what people will think. They may also occur when we are feeling lazy. We don’t want to get out of our comfort zone and tackle what needs to be done to move us toward our goal.

·???? Negative thoughts and fears. We grow our fears larger than we think of our abilities. Fear of failure (or success) kills dreams before they reach the first step. We often believe things won’t work out (or if they do, what will change), and this keeps us from working on our goals.

Fear robs you of self-confidence. It allows you to come up with reasons (excuses) why you can’t accomplish your goals.

·???? Lack of higher purpose. Your “WHY” is weak. You have to know what your goal means to you and why you set it. Are you chasing after something because it’s expected of you or to keep up with your peers?

If you set a goal for the wrong reason and spend time chasing after things you really don’t want, you will lose your motivation to continue. You will not be committed to your goals enough to achieve them, and you will waste time, money, and energy. Instead, figure out your “WHY” before you set your goals.

·???? Working on too many things at once. Trying to do many different things spreads your attention too thin. It can keep us from developing our skills and expertise in an area we would thrive and be passionate about.

You need to discover what you are really good at and most driven to achieve and focus on it. Set goals to succeed before you move on to something else.

·???? Not having a plan. As the saying goes - "When you fail to plan, you plan to fail." Having a plan is an essential part of reaching your goals. It’s the roadmap that gets you from point A to point B. Ask yourself how you plan to achieve your goal and what actions you need to take. Then, use the answers to make a plan.

A plan is the steps you need to take to reach your goal. Use these to set your priorities for what you need to do and when you need to do each step.

·???? Not responsible and lack of commitment to the goal. This is kind of like knowing what your “why” is. We’ve all done it. We start a diet with good intentions on Monday, but by the end of the week, we begin to cheat until we are completely off track.

To follow through, you need to be fully committed to your goal. Excuses, friends, and those donuts will always pop up when you least expect them, derailing you or causing you to put off your goals.

·???? Bad habits derail you. You have a habit of giving up when the going gets tough. It’s easier just to quit than to work through problems.

Your goal may require you to change the way you eat, exercise more, work harder, or put yourself in front of others. It’s easier to grab a bag of chips and sit on the couch or to pass the work on to someone else. Changing your bad habits is a necessary step in achieving your goals.

There are many reasons we fail at goals. One of the biggest, of course, is failing to set goals in the first place. Even an informal goal is better than none at all. Lack of action and following through on your goals often comes from fear. Recognizing your fear and committing to working through it will go a long way toward reaching your goals.

Successfully Setting Goals

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” ~Larry Elder

As you can see, failing at our goals is often much easier than achieving them. You might be asking yourself why bother setting goals if you are going to fail. You can successfully achieve your goals if you take a few steps to set the right goals.

Those who succeed at reaching their goals all have certain things in common.

·?????? Believe in your goals. It doesn’t do you any good to create goals you don’t believe you can achieve. Make them within your current reach.

·?????? Visualize yourself having achieved the goal. For example, if you want to lose 10 pounds in 2 months, visualize yourself buying a size smaller outfit.

·?????? Write down your goals. This is a powerful step. It’s the number one thing that helps keep you on track. Begin by writing down the big goal. Then, break it down into smaller steps to reach it. Henriette Anne Klauser details this in her captivating book - Write It Down and Make It Happen. Writing down your goal means you are stating your intention and setting things in motion.

·?????? Commit to them. Do something towards achieving your goal every day. It doesn’t have to be a major step. Just do something. Maybe it’s drinking one more glass of water or walking an extra block.

·?????? Stay focused. Keep the number of goals you set at one time to less than 5. It’s difficult for anyone to focus on more than five items simultaneously. Don’t include several goals under each big goal. Instead, focus on a few goals that you can repeat from memory.

·?????? Create “SMART” goals. This popular acronym has been proven to work when setting your goals. They meet five specific criteria:

§? Specific- the goal must identify exactly what you want to accomplish in a very specific way. Instead of a goal of “write a book”, make it more specific, like, “Write a book proposal for The Family Life Manifesto.”

§? Measurable- the goal needs to have a measurable end result so you know without a doubt that you have hit your goal. A “earn more than last year” goal can’t be measured. A goal of “Earn $10,000 more this year than the last.” can.

§? Actionable- your goal should start with an action. (run, finish, quit, earn) instead of a to-be verb (be, have, am). Replace “Be more active” with “Run 2 miles daily.”

§? Realistic- a good goal will stretch you out of your comfort zone but not be so unrealistic as to not be attainable in a reasonable amount of time. A lofty “Qualify for the PGA Tour” goal might be better than “Lower my golf handicap by four strokes.”

§? Time—The goal needs to have a specific completion date. It can be a year-end date or a closer date. “Lose ten pounds" doesn’t have a specific time, while “lose 10 pounds by August 31” does.

·?????? Plan of action. Once you’ve committed to a goal, create a plan of action to attain it. The best way to do this is the break the big goal into smaller steps. Work backward from the big goal to help you figure out what you need to do.

·?????? Review your written goals frequently. Review them regularly to stay on track and determine your next step. You can review them daily, weekly, or monthly, whatever works best for you. Let your goals inspire you to complete your daily task list.

Goal-setting is not just helpful; it’s necessary to succeed in what makes you happy. Those who consistently progress towards their goals are often happier and more satisfied than those who drift through life. Successful goal setting is the guide that gets them to the end of their goal.

Tips from the Experts

It’s one thing to tell you that you need to create concrete goals. I mean, who am I to tell you they work? I searched for experts who have used goals to achieve success.

Here are some of their tips on setting and achieving goals.

1. “Focus and concentration are the keys to success. Focus means that you know exactly what it is that you want to accomplish, and concentration requires that you dedicate yourself to doing only those things that move you toward your goal.” Brian Tracy is a top sales trainer and personal success authority.
2. “Set ‘bumper goals’ – so that if you finish Benchmark A, B, or C – you STILL have a win and can stop or celebrate! This gave me a ‘game’ mentality, and I was actually curious to see which goal I would hit first! Maybe I’m a geek, but it made my task more fun!” Carrie Wilkerson, The Barefoot Executive, is a best-selling author, international speaker, award-winning podcaster, and radio guest.
3. “Even though you have a goal in mind that you will work tirelessly for, remember that you are human, and everyone needs a rest. Do you know that statement that says to adjust your oxygen mask before helping others? That is absolutely true—get your oxygen before you can give to those around you.” ?Mally Roncal is a makeup artist and founder and president of Mally Beauty.
4. “Never feel you’ve reached your goals. Don't give up on your dreams; work toward making them a reality.”? José Eber is a celebrity hairstylist.
5. “I block out several hours weekly on my calendar for ‘creative time.’ I turn off my phone and spend time writing and researching. I think it's really important to do these weekly sessions because they clarify my brand and where I want it to go; this practice can help with any goal.” Emily Morse is a sex therapist, relationship advisor, and author.
6. “Goals such as ‘eat more healthfully,’ ‘exercise more,’ or ‘get more fun out of life’ are vague. Make it clear to yourself what you’re expecting from yourself. Goals such as ‘bring my lunch to work every day,’ ‘take a 20-minute walk after work,’ or ‘make a lunch date with a friend every Friday’ are easy to measure.” ?Gretchen Rubin is the best-selling author of The Happiness Project.
7. “Some goals must be BIG to make you stretch and grow to your full potential. Some goals must be long-range to keep you on track and greatly reduce the possibility of short-range frustrations. Some goals must be small and daily to keep you disciplined. Some goals must be ongoing. Some goals (i.e., weight loss, sales success, education, etc.) may require analysis and consultation to determine where you are before setting the goals. Most goals should be specific." Zig Ziglar was a motivational speaker for a long time.
8. “A key thing about goals that I learned from Facebook is only to have one goal for a specific period of time. It helps with saying no to other distractions you will face during the year.” Noah Kagan is the founder of AppSumo, a company that connects businesses with great products that will help them succeed. He also writes the OkDork blog.
9. “Using my list of priorities as a guide, I focus on one step at a time. New ideas may be considered, but if they could get priorities out of order, they have to wait their turn. I generally jot those ideas in a project file and then return focus to the task at hand.” Kathryn Aragon, is an award-winning copywriter, content marketer, consultant and product creator. She is also the editor of The Daily Egg, Crazy Egg’s conversion optimization blog.

There you have it. From successful people the tips they use to reach their goals straight from them. Follow their examples to achieve your own successful goals.

Following Through to the End

A goal properly set is halfway reached. ~ Zig Ziglar

Listen. You know it’s a great idea to create and write down your goals, but if you don’t follow through with them, they won’t do you any good. It takes more than wishful thinking to follow through on your dreams. Learning a new skill or getting more education, or motivating yourself to change the way you eat takes specific steps.

Once you know how to create strong goals and how to make a plan to follow through on each one, you’ve learned a skill that will help you succeed the rest of your life.

• Differentiate between short—and long-term goals. This is your first step. You need to write down your goals and set a specific date you want to achieve them. Goals can be one month, three months, six months, one year, five years, or any other amount of time. Short-term goals might be something like losing 5 pounds in 2 months, while a long-term goal could be saving $300,000 in five years to build a home.
• Have an accountability partner. This person believes in you and can hold you accountable when you go off track or want to quit. An accountability partner is like a sports coach. They are there to guide you, make sure you do what you say you will, and give you a good talking to when you fall off course.

• Visualize your goals every step of the way. Take time to visualize what the completed goal looks like. How does it feel? What will you be doing? What does it smell, taste, and look like? If you need to, cut out or draw an image of the final goal. Imagine yourself in a situation where you need to raise your motivation. When you run into a tough spell, use your visualization to remind yourself why you are pursuing the goal.
• Break down your goals into smaller steps. Make each step small enough that it’s not so monumental that it takes you a long time to complete it. Instead, have small tasks to complete each day to reach the goal. Physically tick off completed tasks from your goal breakdown list. For instance, maybe your big goal is to lose 20 pounds by eating healthy and exercising. Break this down to something like eating one fresh vegetable for each meal today. Walk for 5 minutes.
• Review often. Take time every month to review your goals. This keeps you on track and can help you see if you are pursuing a goal that no longer matters to you.
• Be consistent. Work on your goals every day. If necessary, tweak your habits. Work on changing old habits that won’t help you reach your goal. Begin building new habits.
• Reward yourself when you reach a milestone. Allow yourself to celebrate certain steps along the way.
• Practice self-forgiveness. If you fall off track, don’t beat yourself up. Be kind to yourself, and then get back on track.

It’s important to follow through on everything that matters. You wouldn’t ask someone on a date and then not show up, would you? Follow-through is important and can be achieved by having someone to help motivate you, breaking down your goals into small, manageable steps, and remembering why you are after the goal to begin with.

What to Do Next

Ultimately, successfully setting goals can help you find and follow what really matters to you. Take the time to think about what you want out of your life, business, and health. Then, write out the goals you want to achieve in the short term and in the long term. Make them outside your comfort zone to help you stay motivated.

Get others who are committed to helping you succeed on board. Ask them to be your accountability partners.

Break the goals down into smaller steps.

Finally, be aware of why we often fail to reach our goals. Make sure you really want what you’re reaching for and have a definite reason for pursuing it.