Creating Goals-Paths to Success

Goals, what are personal goals? Sure, you hear about them all the time but how many of us actually take the time to sit down and put them on paper, committing ourselves to them? Ask yourselves this; can you remember the last time you worked towards a clear and concise goal and know the moment that you actually accomplished it? No I'm not saying that this doesn't happen, nor am I saying it is rare, but I would like you to take the time to actually remember what it feels like to accomplish something we set out to do. Let's break down a simple process that you can implement today. Here is a road map to deciding what goals are right for you, setting for the short, medium and long term, and working towards accomplishing each.

What goals are right for you? Do you want to lose 50lbs, buy a new car or get a new job? Let's ask ourselves a few question which should help stimulate this process and get you on the way to a goal oriented life.

1. What do you want, specifically? - This is the first thing to ask yourself in your goal planning process. What is your vision? Your dream? Without being clear as to your explicit desires, no other steps can be taken, and no progress made.

2. Why do you want it (what value does it serve)? - The pivotal question in your goal setting process and a prime motivator. You must reflect on your values in order to answer it. What are my values? I can hear you asking. Well for right now lets say your values are what you value in life. For instance you may value free time or happiness. Does your desire reflect your values? If so, you've accomplished the second step and are on your way to goal setting success.

3. When do you want it? - Determining specific dates for completion of tasks is a crucial part of your goal setting procedure. Knowing that you have committed yourself to achieving a certain thing by a certain date will enable you to plan your time and thus maximize your efforts.

4. What will you give up or overcome to get it? - Confusion? Fear? Procrastination? Insecurity? Make sure you keep in mind why you want your goal. It will give you all the courage you need to push through your fears and move forward.

Long Term Goals or KEY Goals

Now that you have decided what is important to you lets start from the top and work our way down. Lets set a long term goal and call it our KEY goal. Make your KEY goal ambitious but attainable. Take a pen and piece of paper and answering the above 4 steps, decide on one KEY goal now.

Now remember in order to reach a key goal, you'll need to set interim goals – multiple short-term goals. Broken down into bite-sized pieces, the objectives are less intimidating. That is were our medium and short term goals come into play.

Medium Term

You have now created an overall KEY goal, a light at the end of the tunnel if you will, hopefully you have made it concrete by placing it on paper. Now how do you get there? A medium term goal is a good start. It is a stepping stone that you will have to cross in order to reach your destination. What do you need to accomplish prior to reaching your KEY goal? Write it down.

Short Term

Ok, now for the fun part. You are going to look at short term goals, these are goals that you can accomplish today or tomorrow or maybe even over the next couple of month. The trick is you need to pick goals that keep you moving in the right direction to accomplishing your medium term goals and then finally your KEY goals. You could make setting your KEY goal your first short term goal. But remember, goals can't be made too easy or they won't be worth working towards. I would like you to now list several short term goals you could start working towards today, keeping in mind what we talked about above.

Now that you looked at setting short medium and long term goals it is important to remember that once you complete your list it will continuously be evolving. Once you complete a short term goal you need to re-asses were you are on your journey and pick what to do next to help you get to your destination. Have fun with this and take pride in your accomplishments. You are ultimately the one who is in charge of your destiny so work hard and you will attain not only your goals, you will accomplish your dreams.