Goal Setting for Success: 5 Tips for Setting Crystal Clear Goals

It doesn’t matter if you’re setting goals for your personal life, your business, your health, or even your spirituality, setting clear and concise goals is the first key to achieving them successfully. Without clear goals, it is very likely that you will end up misguided about what you want to achieve. This misdirection could easily lead you down the path of stagnation.

o Crystal Clear goals will give you significant motivation, increased drive, and intensive purpose in your life.

Here are five important tips to help you define those clear goals for your life or business:

– Be aware of what you want to achieve. First of all, if you want to set clear goals, you need to know exactly what you want to achieve: where you want to be, what you want to have, and what you want to do. You’ll never know how to get there, if you don’t know where THERE is.

Once you know where you want to be and what you want to achieve, you can set goals that will help you get there.

o Where to be in 1, 3, 5 and 10 years from now?

o What kind of work do you want to do?

o What kind of relationship do you want to be in?

or Where do you want to live?

These are just some initial ideas for you…

o Take time to sit down and brainstorm your long-term dreams and wishes.

– Set the clock. A goal with no deadline is a wish or a dream that will easily evaporate like morning dew when daylight sets on it. Setting deadlines will delay procrastination and prompt you to take action to reach your goals. Having a timeline for your goals also helps clarify them because now you not only know what you want, but you also know when you want it.

o Create goals that you want to accomplish in a month, a year, and even five or ten years from now.

o Chronologically nest a few small goals to form the achievement of a larger goal: Example: I will walk 3 times a week starting this week, I will jog 1 mile a week by x/x/2009, I will run 5 miles a week by x /x/ 2009, I do 3 hours of cardio a week for x/x/2009, I run 5 miles a day for x/x/2009. All of this could lead to a larger goal of “I will run my first marathon by x/x/2010.” – you get the image

o Create a MAP (Massive Action Plan) to stay on track, BUT, don’t set your map in stone! Allow for modifications along the way, but always keep your eyes focused on the main objective.

– Keep it real. With realistic goals, you can almost guarantee that you will be able to achieve everything you want. Set yourself a goal that’s a little out of reach…then when you reach it, you can go further to reach the next one. This way you won’t stress yourself trying to achieve something that is out of your reach. A clear goal is a realistic goal, make it a lofty goal (don’t go too easy on yourself), but certainly make it happen.

o As I mentioned earlier, you’ll want to break down long-term goals into smaller goals and the smaller goal into achievable, bite-sized action steps. Completing action steps and tasks toward your goals will give you a sense of accomplishment and motivate you to continue your journey toward your main goal.

– Be crystal clear. Specify your goals with the details of exactly what you want. Avoid vague generalities. Have you hand a stranger a piece of paper that you handed your one sentence goal written on it, they will know exactly what you were trying to accomplish. In addition, they could know if you have already achieved it or now. When you set a specific goal, you’ll be better able to achieve it, not to mention you’ll know WHEN you’ve achieved it.

o Specific goals allow you to form your timeline and define your action steps. There is no guesswork involved when it comes to details.

o Example, “make money online” is too vague a goal. You would have to set a specific goal, such as “I make $1,000 more per month, by x/x/2009.” This goal is specific, measurable and realistic. Also, keep in mind the time of the finish. It is written in positive present tense.

– Review and refine your goals. Your life will go through changes, so your goals must remain constant. If you think about it, when you were younger you thought and believed things that you can’t today. You have changed as a result of the contributions, actions and activities that have taken place in your life. So, too, can your goals change as your life changes. During this process of review and refinement, discard the goals you no longer want and reprioritize the ones you do. Again, make them more specific, realistic, and achievable.

o It’s okay to refine your goals several times in your life! What’s important this minute may not be so important to you nine months or nine years from this minute. Embrace the change, heck even embrace it. Review your goals at least once a year and make new plans if necessary.

Many wander through life, not knowing what they want to achieve or what their purpose is. That won’t be you! Give your life crystal clear meaning by giving some thought to what is important to you. What goals do you want to achieve? What actions are you going to take to make your dreams of today your reality tomorrow?