The Art Of Setting Goals

​Goals, we all have them, but what are we doing daily/weekly/monthly in order to reach these goals. A goal could be anything from starting a business, early retirement or even just getting that promotion at work. Unfortunately, most of us just think about the end result and not “What do I have to do in order to attain this goal”. For starting a business, it may be learning how to do a business plan, early retirement may be how much money do I need to have in order to live comfortably and for the job promotion, what skills or courses to I need to take before I am ready.

“A dream is just a dream.
A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline”.
Harvey Mackay

Most of my life I have had goals, some ended up coming to fruition while others never really came to light. The difference was in the planning that I did to achieve these goals. Lately I have set some new goals (mostly pertaining to blogging and YouTube) that I would like to reach in the next couple of years, so I decided to do some research into goal setting. On the internet, you can find all kinds of different methods that people use to attain their goals. I ended up taking several of the ones I found and producing a method that I thought would work for myself. Here are the steps that I came up with.
 

7 Steps To Setting Goals

1. Write down all of your goals.

2. Define your goals. Give a reason or “Why” for this goal.

3. Be specific for your goals. Are they achievable?

4. Revise your goals.

5. Set smaller, more time sensitive goals that you will need to do in order to reach your end goal.

6. Organize your goals (give them a sequence/priority). What do you need to do first in order to get to the next step?
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7. Start Immediately. Don’t be telling yourself that I will start tomorrow. Make sure you schedule it by writing it into a planner and have an allotted time period each day to work on these tasks. Ensure to stick to it.

​It is my opinion that writing down your goals on paper is the key to succeeding in reaching them. In my research, I read multiple articles and watched hours of video about how some of the most successful people made it to the top of their professions. Almost every successful person started out by setting their goals first and adjusting them accordingly when obstacles occurred. They also all seem to carry a small note pad with them to write down daily ideas that they would have. I myself use a notepad or sometimes the voice recorder on my phone. Why take the chance of not remembering that great idea or solution to a problem that you have when something comes to you at an inopportune moment.
 
During my research for this post I also came across several articles and blog posts about a couple of different study’s that were done by Harvard Business School and also one at Yale. Through further research I was able to find that both were actually never done. I was able to find one study that was done at Dominican University of California that shows the importance of writing down your goals. I will give a summary of the study that was done by Psychology Professor Dr. Gail Matthews at the Dominion University of California.

For this study, Dr. Matthews used 267 participants from a wide variety of businesses, organizations and networking groups from the U.S. and overseas, with the ages ranging from 23 to 72.
 
Group 1 was asked to just think about the business-related goals they wished to accomplish in a 4-week period and rate them according to difficulty, importance, the extent in which they had the skills and resources to accomplish each, commitment and motivation, and if they had pursued this goal before (and if they did, what was their success).
 
Group 2 to 5 were asked to do the same as group 1 but to also write them down and rate them.
 
Group 3 was also asked to write action commitments for each goal.
 
Group 4 was asked to do all of the above plus share these commitments with a friend.
 
Group 5 went even further by doing all of the above plus sending a weekly report to a friend.
 
Of the original 267 participants only 149 completed the study. They each rated their progress to the degree that they accomplished their goals.
 
The findings of the study were, group 1 only accomplished 43% of their goals, while group 4 was able to accomplish 64% and group 5 which was the most successful was able to complete 76% of their stated goals.
 
If you would like to see the full report that we got these numbers from you can see them at  https://www.dominican.edu/dominicannews/study-highlights-strategies-for-achieving-goals

Creating a Vision Board

​Another thing that you can do to map out your future goals is to make a vision board. Vision boards are great but, (there’s always a but), a lot of people make up vision boards and never end up doing what they need to do to get to those goals. I have several friends that have made up vision boards with their 5 year plans and what they want to accomplish in that time. Of all of the people that I know who have them, they may have reached 25% of their goals that they wanted to accomplish in that 5-year period. Basically, it was just a pretty picture for them to look at while they did something other than achieve their goals. By all means make a vision board for yourself, it is a great tool that can be a reminder of why you have chosen to put the hard work in that is necessary to achieve your goals.

Things To Be Prepared For:

Unfortunately, along the road to achieving your goals there is a chance that a goal that you have set is not achievable in a way that you have designed, in other words what you have tried has failed to produce the results that you needed to go to the next step. This is the time to shake it off and sit back down and take the time to revise your goals to get to where you want to be. There is always a solution to every problem, you just have to find a new way.

“Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently”.
Henry Ford

“Failure is success, if we learn from it”.
Malcolm Forbes

​If the fear of failure is something that may be holding you back from going for what you want in your life then you should check out the newest motivational quotes, 25 Great Quotes For Overcoming Failure, there is a link at the bottom of this post that can take you to that post.
 

What You Need To Do:

As you can see, writing down your goals and keeping a planner is key,  that way you can keep control of the daily tasks that you need to do in order to achieve you end goals. Ensure to tell a close friend or mentor what you desire to achieve by the end and keep that friend or mentor updated as you go (remember that a good friend or mentor is someone who supports you but will also call you out when they think you are full of sh*t). Make a vision board if it will help you stay on track (I myself don’t have one, I have everything written down and have a clear vision of what I want to accomplish), but if it will help you on your journey then by all means make one (some people see visual as an inspiration, just use it in combination of a written day timer).

We have scoured Amazon to find you the cheapest available aides to help you in your journey to setting and reaching your goals. We know when you are starting out that it is a lot of money that you will have to invest in the tools that you will need to get to the destination that you see yourself at, so we will weekly give you products that we feel are valuable to you but will also not make you poor in the process (budgeting is one of our upcoming posts, it's something I learned years ago and follow to this day).

Goal Setting Literature

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Our Link To 25 Great Quotes For overcoming Failure: ​Click on picture below.

We have started a new Facebook Group specifically for those who are trying to stay motivate so that they can improve their business and personal life. We would love for you to join our page for daily quotes and updates of when our new motivational post and our new series of blog posts aimed at improving your everyday life. You can join the page at https://www.facebook.com/Be-Your-Own-Leader-2487540467936932/

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​Thanks,

Mark
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