A goal or objective is a projected state of affairs that a person or a system plans or intends to achieve—a personal or organizational desired end-point in some sort of assumed development. Many people endeavor to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines.

1. Make the most important goals yours

Don’t let others or society define the goals of opportunity. This will only sabotage your future.

Start ask yourself – What do I really want?

And start define your own opportunity and don’t worry what the rest of the worlds think.

2. Make your goals meaningful

When you prepare you future goals start asking;

What’s really important to me?
What’s the purpose of doing this?
What am I prepared to give up to make this happen?

Starting this process is often the most difficult process for many. But you have to answer these questions to get yourself in the right direction.

A final question to ask in this process is;

What are the rewards and benefits for this new action?

Action = Reaction => provide the opportunity of change and/or adaptation
No Action = No Reaction => provide status quo

3. Goals must be specific and measurable

Most of us is not used to set personal or business goals. And they end up being to wage.

Start being more specific with your goals. One of my personal goals this year has been to lose weight.
If my goal was something like this; My goal is to lose weight! – This is to wage, and more then likely with the first opportunity I would
derail and status quo will be achieved.

So I set my goal in away that I could understand;

By August 1 2010 I will have lost 30 l. I will start March 1 2010 with exercise 30 minutes a day 3 days a week. I will eat 4 nutritional meals a day. And start immediate with no alcohol in this time period.

If you want to be even more specific on the days you chose that is fine. This works for me, and that is what is important for me.

4. Make your goals flexible

This has for me been one of the most crucial part of succeeding. With flexibility I have the opportunity of change my course when needed.
It is no reason to keep repeat something that don’t work. And when I change I try not to change more then one – two things at the time.

5. Make your goals challenging and exiting

Many of us has been in business meetings where either the president, CEO, Manager etc has provided a status report for company, and then provided info of the vision of he company. I don’t know about you, but often these meetings tended to be a little boring. And you don’t pay to much attention, and after the meeting you go back to your normal routine.

Now where did all the fun and excitement in these meetings take it’s way.

When I make my goals I make sure to combine both personal and business goals. This allows me to put on my creative thinking cap. One of the advices I got when I started out my exercise on this was to make between 50 – 500 goals.

Yeah.. 50 – 500 goals. I was thinking – this is nuts – I would bte happy if I was able to jot down 1 goal. That was until someone introduced me to Mind Mapping.

The idea is to take a piece of paper and make a circle in the middle that you call GOALS. From there you just put down whatever it is that you want to learn or achieve. Don’t worry about moral, or what the world tells what is right or wrong. This is your time to shine. At this you don’t either want to worry about any hurdles. Just get it down on paper. By the way following this technique I have surpassed 500 goals

NOTE: The main principle here is to get your thought process going.

Here is a sample of a Mind Map:

6. Goals must be aligned with your values

A large percentage of our goals is often financial related. Achieving financial goals is where value comes in play. Don’t get fooled into a ‘get rich overnight’ scam. The lottery is no quick fix either – some call the lottery ‘poor man tax’. And some have taken it to extreme solutions like robbing banks, credit card frauds, check frauds, matrix frauds.. etc.. All these are events that is not aligned with your values or moral. These action result in reactions – where you spend time behind the bars.

Focus on your positive, exciting and purpose goals. Then there is no internal conflict holding you back – and you will plan for higher level of success.

7. Balance your goals

As you see in sample Mind Map I balance my goals with personal – family and business goals. Plus I add some fun and pleasure in there.

Life is too short not to have some fun and be able to relax – plus do the things you really want to do. When it comes time for me to look back on my legacy I don’t want to find myself regret all the things I wanted to do, but never did.

8. Make your goals realistic

This is a huge pitfall for many. Your goals should be fun and exciting. The Mind Map encourage your free spirit thoughts.

Now we need sort and add some reality into the mix.

The main purpose with the reality check is to make sure you don’t set yourself up for failure. If you make $20000 a year and your goal is to be a millionaire within 3 – 6 months you are setting yourself up for failure. Or you already have beat-up car that you still owe money on, and your goal is to buy a Rolls Royce within 3 – 6 months this will lead to failure. Or if you can’t swim and your goal is to be part of the Olympic Team of swimming in 3 – 6 months.

NOTE: It is not impossible to become a millionaire – several has already achieved this goal. It is not impossible to buy your dream car – several has already achieved this goal. It is not impossible to become part of the Olympic Team of swimming – several has already achieved this goal. What all of these has in common is that they had set their goals with a realistic time frame and a clear definition of what they had to give in return to achieve their goals.

9. Include giving in your goals

One of the things I learned is that if you give with a closed hand – it is very hard to receive back. But if you give with a open hand – you will receive back in abundance.

Giving is not only related to money – give your time – give your expertise – give your advice – give a smile

10. Have the proper support for your goals

Some are able to pull it off when they announce to hole world about their project. But as Gary Vaynerchuk would said it – this require a very special DNA.

You can also keep the goals to yourself and get on with the project. Action speaks loader then words.

But the strategy we will chose is to share your goals with someone we trust. These are individuals that will support and encourage you when the going gets though.

Adversity is not a question of if it will happen, but when it will happen. But with all the elements here in place you should be prepared to face these adversities head on.

Summary

I did not say this was going to be an easy process, and you have to make some sacrifices to achieve your goals.

What have you done to put your goals into action?

Disclosure

Make sure you take time to read my Disclosure since one of the things I will focus on this year is providing opportunity and new income streams.

I just love my new theme from my friends at Headway. This has brought my blog to a new level. I am know totally in control of my blog. Check it out now!

I hope you enjoyed this article! Comments is encouraged and welcome!

Your friend,

Are Morch
@TwtrCoach