Setting Goals for Success Crash Course -Lesson 3

Welcome to your Third Lesson in the Setting Goals for Success Crash Course.

It’s Shaunita, with your third lesson in the Setting Goals for Success Crash Course. I hope you have taken some time to think about your goals and have been working on a plan that will help you reach them.

Today we are going to talk about how to set powerful goals that are achievable. As we discussed in the last lesson it’s important to take time to do your research in order to set the right goals. Whether it’s for your professional success or your personal life understanding what you have to do to reach the goals you’ve set is a very important step of the process.

A good place to start is with your dreams. We all want to fulfill our dreams and in order to do that you first have to find out if they’re achievable. While the point of setting most goals is to challenge yourself you don’t want to make the goals so hard that you can’t reach them, which (most of the time) only leads to failure. To ensure maximum success, make sure that your goals meet the following criteria.

- They match your core values

The more any goal fits into one of the four main areas of life - Family, Financial, Physical or Personal - the more likely you are to be able to set a realistic goal that you can achieve. If a goal for some reason doesn’t fit into one of your core values, it’s not likely you’ll experience much success.

- You’re in control

While goals that rely on others aren’t wrong, they are harder to achieve. Any goal that you control 100 percent is a goal that you can reach. Do ensure that you’re not letting fear get in your way or blaming fate for your failures, though. Self-limiting beliefs can get in your way on this one.

Remember to be realistic about whether you do have control or not and give yourself more credit. For example if you think you do not have control over your financial future because “that’s just how it is,” you are mistaken and need to eliminate this line of thinking.

- You can envision it

If you can’t see the end result, it will be very difficult to move forward toward achieving the goal. If you need to draw a picture, make a vision board, or take a day out to fantasize about your big dreams and see how they all fit together in the big picture of your life, do so. You need to clearly see the end in order to achieve it.

- It’s specific

Every goal you make needs to be very specific in nature. If you really want to be sure to reach the goal, you have to know when you reached it. Instead of saying “I want to start a business,” state exactly what type of business you want to start, who you want to be your clients, and other information that makes the goal more concrete.

- It’s measurable

At which point have you achieved the goal? If you can’t give a number or something that is measurable, then you won’t have a real goal. If you want to use the business example, you might include that you want to earn x amount of dollars each week by a certain date and then how and why you are going to do it.

- It’s actionable

To achieve any goal there have to be steps that you can take to get there. Like using a map to reach a destination that you want to go to on vacation, you need to draw a map to your vision of success with the steps and paths you’ll take along the way. Put not only what but when, and how you’ll accomplish the step.

-It’s realistic

You don’t want to write a goal that is too hard to achieve or worse, impossible. Be sure that it’s scientifically possible to do it by researching everything realistically. For example, you’re not likely going to start a business today and earn six figures by tomorrow or even the first year in business. Look at the research and determine what is doable and how you’ll do it.

- It timely

Every goal has to have a time limit; otherwise, you may never achieve it. Start with the end and work your way back to today, creating the list of things to do each day to finally reach the result. But, do set a time limit. You can adjust as you get into the project if it works to be more realistic, but resist the urge to change the time because you’re not sticking to your task lists.

If you keep these things in mind, it will help you create powerful goals that you can achieve. It will also help reduce the risk of failure because you can always adjust your timeline and your goals as you learn more. The important thing is to give each goal plenty of thought and consideration before setting it.