Business Goal Setting

“Success is not a destination, it’s a journey” – Zig Ziglar

In terms of sporting success, what is it that drives an athlete to keep going when winning is no longer an option? What keeps an ultra-distance marathoner running when the race leaders already crossed the finish-line twelve hours ago? Clearly, the athlete’s goal is something other than winning first prize.
In terms of business success, what drives the small independent grocery store owner to keep opening his doors for business when another, much bigger, grocery store chain has just opened in town? The store owner’s goal must be something other than winning the lion’s share of the market.

“Success is not so much what we have as it is what we are” – John Rohn

Research has found that individuals generally define success by striving to achieve one of three main goals:

1.    Mastery
2.    Ego
3.    Social Approval

Mastery
A mastery goal, sometimes referred to as a task goal, is one associated with self-improvement. An individual motivated by a mastery goal will measure their success on how well they perform or how well they get the job done – irrespective of whether they ‘win the race.’
If you are motivated by mastery goals, you will constantly strive to improve your abilities and increase your skill levels.

Ego
An ego goal, or an ability goal, is one of wanting to demonstrate a high level of ability or of wanting to perform better than everyone else. In short, wanting to be the best – the winner. An individual motivated by an ego goal will measure their success by being competitive and beating their rivals.
If you are motivated by ego goals, you will constantly strive to prove your ability and level of skill.

Social Approval
A social approval goal is that of an individual who strives to please others with the outcome. The success of such goals will be measured by winning the approval of other people.

Of course, it’s possible to be motivated by more than one type of goal. An Olympic athlete will always be competing to win (an ego-oriented goal) but even without the glory of winning, the motivation to succeed can still be maintained through achieving a personal best performance (a mastery-oriented goal).

How do you define success?

Here’s a little exercise to help you answer that question:
Imagine yourself pitching for a business deal. You…

1.    Pitch well, but lose the deal to a better placed rival
2.    Pitch well and win the deal against a tough rival
3.    Pitch badly, but still manage to win the deal against a weak rival
4.    Pitch badly and lose the deal to a rival you know you should not have lost to

Which of these outcomes would make you feel (a) most satisfied and (b) least satisfied?

Your answer to the above question will also help you to answer how you define success and will go a long way towards helping you understand what motivates you as a player in the business world.

How do you cope with failure?

The way you define success will have a direct effect on how you cope with failure. An experiment staged by Carol Dweck in the early stages of her research into her Mindset theory helps to highlight this.
A classroom of children were given a challenging task to complete. A mastery-oriented goal was emphasized so self-improvement was being encouraged. The children responded by displaying a high degree of effort, perseverance, and determination to complete the task.
A similar task was then given to the class but this time an ego-oriented goal was emphasized. The reaction to the challenge changed dramatically and became entirely dependent on each child’s perception of how good they were. This is known as perceived ability.
Children with high perceived ability did well but were reluctant to take any opportunity to improve their skills if it meant they might make a mistake in public. Children with low perceived ability did badly and tended to give up before completing the task.

“Most people achieved their greatest success one step beyond what looked like their greatest failure” – Brian Tracy

Failure to succeed – who’s to blame?

How an individual interprets success or failure is a personal choice, so does it matter? Studies have shown that ‘winners’ tend to attribute success to their own actions and ‘losers’ tend to attribute their lack of success to the actions of others – and partly themselves!
Attributions can be described as stable or unstable. For example, after winning an important business deal a person might say:

• “I was a bit lucky to win that one.”

This is an unstable attribution. The use of the word ‘lucky’ suggests that the individual has little confidence in their ability to produce the same winning result again. Success is being attributed to luck.

• “That has confirmed by pitching technique is sound.”

This is a stable attribution. The conformation of ability suggests that the individual has confidence in being able to repeat the winning performance. Success is being attributed to skill and ability.

If winning is everything, what happens when you lose? If you are motivated by ego-oriented goals alone, what happens when you fail to succeed? A ‘losing’ individual may attribute part of the failure to succeed to their own short-comings but will then almost certainly continue to list other factors they feel are to blame. But, whether you fail or succeed is down to you and you are the only one who can take or claim responsibility.

Who do you blame?

Whether your business succeeds or fails is down to you. If you find yourself blaming other factors or other people for any failure to achieve a goal then you’re potentially creating a road-block for yourself on your journey towards greater achievements. Using unstable or negative attributions suggests a lack of confidence. Losing confidence in yourself or in your business will affect your motivation, your drive to succeed, and without motivation, your business is unlikely to realize its full potential.

This can be changed by learning some helpful mind training techniques:

• Goal setting

This technique allows you to identify the goals and ambitions you have for your business and then helps you to plan the route you need to take to realize them. The key to successful business goal setting is to use a series of lesser goals as stepping-stones to help build your confidence and maintain your motivation as you journey towards achieving your ultimate goal.

• Mindset

Through her Mindset research, Carol Dweck concluded that individuals are either in a fixed or a growth mindset.
An individual in a fixed mindset believes that things are just the way they are and any skills you have are just the ones you were born with: you’re stuck with the hand you were dealt and nothing is going to change that.
An individual in a growth mindset believes that nothing is ever set in stone and things can always be changed. Everything and everyone has the potential to change.

How you interpret success remains a personal thing but clearly, the mindset an individual has will influence greatly how they interpret their own success or failure. A fixed mindset will have a limiting effect on your ability to grow your business but a growth mindset will allow you to set the sky as your limit.
Gain an understanding of your own mindset and take the time to discover what really motivates you. With this valuable information gained and some goals set in place, you are armed and ready to run your business successfully and achieve its full potential.

“Success doesn’t come to you…you go to it” – Marva Collins

We have a habit of making resolutions every year and by the time we reach March, we forget most of the resolutions that we had made. It is very difficult to rebuff inbuilt habits ‘cold turkey’. Effective goal setting not only offers a positive intent, but also a better alternative to develop new resolutions that you can stick to in the future.

With effective goal setting, you can enjoy a sense of positive intent. Here are stated some of the reasons why you should concentrate on effective goal setting.

In the first place, you need to understand the differences between a resolution and goal setting. You can take a resolution to go to bed by 10pm, eat healthy food and hit the gym thrice a week. With effective goal setting, you can tackle each step at a time, even if they are some big changes. The intensity of difficulty can be altered as you advance through the process. If you set realistic goals, it will not be difficult for you to accept changes. In no time can you accustom yourself to the changes easily.

Effective goal setting will help you to move in the direction you aspire. Once you are on the right track, you can take baby steps to reach your goal. Rigid resolutions on the other hand will bring down your spirit soon and you might feel like giving up.

Resolutions can be said to be means for reaching the goal. However, it becomes difficult to stick to the resolution, once it is broken. With effective goal setting, you can drop a particular plan and try out a different alternative to attain your goal. For instance, you might take the resolution of hitting the gym five times a week, but you find yourself far away from your goal since you cannot make it five days. With effective goal setting, you can decide to exercise more and thus switch to walking, rather than going out for the gym. This also helps you to reach your goal.

You can now see it for yourself that effective goal setting technique is more realistic in comparison to setting resolutions. Here we shall concentrate on some effective goal setting tips.

You must keep the future in mind. You can visualize yourself close to your goal in a span of may be five years or fifteen years. If you find your goals realistic, you can stick to them easily without much difficulty.

Effective goal setting begins with emphasis of broad changes and not the specific behaviors. You can develop a stress management program, rather than focusing on programs like yoga every morning. This will allow you to bring in more changes and experiment with new ideas in course of the program.

For effective goal setting, you must focus on what you can incorporate in your life. Rather than taking the resolution of eating less food, you can decide to eat more healthy foods. This way you add more healthy foods in your diet and replace them with the junk ones. This way, it will be easier for you to stick to your diet and you can reach your goal of losing weight as well.

New Year time sparks off new ideas and you start reflecting on your goals for the past year and looking ahead to the new goals you will create for the coming year. There’s absolutely no harm in having goals, but it is useless to talk about goal settings without focusing on the ways to achieve them. Proper focus on goal attainment takes your goal sets to the next level.

1)    Know Your Destination:

You have to begin at the end while you set goals. You have a roadmap to some future destinations, in advance. Knowing where you want to get, gets you closer there.

Think of the purpose of your goals. There must be some reason you want to pursue them. Imagine your own funeral and just what you want your family, friends and community members to say about you, your character and your accomplishments. That’s enough to keep you motivated to stay on the track.

Think of your unique skills, talents and abilities that help you to contribute to humankind. If you aren’t sure, keep learning ways until you find something you love and at which you excel.

2)    Balance Your Goals:

Goal setting may sound like professional, organization tools. While this is a very important part of your goal setting strategy, it shouldn’t be your only center of attention. You are more than what you do at work; you are an individual with personal aspirations as well. Think of it.

Set the important realms of your life and set definite goals for them. So, when you have a goal setting strategy session, focus on your work, love, family and spirituality. At the end of the day, you don’t have to regret sparing less time to your children or your spouse!

3)    Identify Your Strengths and Weaknesses:

Unless you know where you are starting from, you are left in a void. It’s as important as knowing where you are going.

Make your own critique. Take time off to identify the reality of your life, in the spheres like work, family, love and spirituality.  Where do you stand in each of the areas?

Take stock of your current position and assess your strengths. Enumerating your strengths can be very helpful in setting future goals. Sometimes it’s your strengths that will sustain the accomplishment process.

Do you need to give up something to be successful with this particular goal? Many times people fail to reach their goals because of the fears that are beyond their conscious awareness. You must bring them to surface to confront them and manage them well.

4)    Good Time Management:

When you know the ‘why’ things relating to your goals, plot out the course to get you there. Schedule monthly, yearly, weekly, or fortnightly and daily goals, so that you can review the long-term goals in term of the shorter ones. Positive goal setting requires effective time management. That is possible when you prioritize and protect your time to do the things that you have identified as important.

5)    Visualize Goals:

If you are serious about accomplishing your goals you must write them down. Writing them down affirm them and make you more alert. You then say these affirmations daily, at least once but more if possible. Always have a clear picture, visualize what you’re trying to accomplish in the first place.

Visualizing goals is a good mental rehearsal and they keep your focus on. The more vivid and sensory-based you can make your visualization, the more effective it will be, you can see the results you predict from your goals and how it’s going to impact your life.

Meditation is another way of keeping your focus on. Take time off, get in touch with your inner self. Introspect and reflect, ask yourself questions and seek answers to them.

6)    Think Positive:

The law of attraction holds good for everything we want to achieve and get results from. We attract into our lives that which we focus on. If you focus on the positive things, you exude positive energy. On the contrary, negative thinking attracts negative happenings. If we are constantly complaining about our bad luck, then that is what we can expect.

Maintain an attitude of gratitude, while working in harmony with your true self. Even when things go wrong, you can always be grateful for the lessons learned along the way.

7)    Monitor Progress Continually:

There’s a lot difference between goal setting and achieving them. Even when you arrive at some destination closer to your goal, you are never satisfied and want to walk more miles. Life is a continuous journey. There is always much room for improvement.

It’s a challenge to keep your focus on and stay motivated. Most of the times we meet unexpected jolts and negative turn out of events, while at times there’s lot to get motivated. It’s a roller-coaster sort of ride. Having a guide, a coach or a mastermind group to whom you are accountable makes all the difference. You can promise yourself accomplishing certain goal, doing a thing on a regular basis. What if you skip the daily tasks? If you can involve someone in your goal setting process, that calls for an explanation if you are not true to your intentions. With that integrated and conscious effort, chances are thin you’ll mess with your goals.

If business goal setting is not what you like to do, you’d hardly care to set them down on paper. You can even diligently try to avoid the whole topic, all because you have limited success with achieving any goal you’d actually written down in years past. Do you know that setting your goals down is as important as getting them done! There are some astonishing facts about effective goals and how to set them right. If you have an open mind to suggestions and information, this is high time you evaluate the ‘why’ factors influencing the goal sets.

Understand why having a ‘why’ visibly attached to your goals is so important! More so, why you should always keep that ‘why’ factors in front of you, all the times!

The journey begins with defining goals in the first place, and the accomplishment part comes later. The reason so many people fail to achieve their goals is that they concentrate more on the accomplishment part rather than planning things. They are too engrossed with the process of achieving goals. They care for the ‘how’ questions rather than the ‘why’ factors.

Imagine you set goals to lose weight, the first day each month. There are many people who seriously set this as a New Year’s resolution yet never realize their goals. You know why – they focus on the process of achieving that goal, rather than why they have the goal in the first place.

Do you think the process of losing weight is all that glamorous! Not exactly, they require you to change your routines, get moving, be consistent, and be patient as you work through the process. If you decide you will take a thirty minutes brisk walk each weekday, what will you do the first day it rains! When you focus on the accomplishment process solely, you would hardly want to go for that scheduled work and get soaking wet. On the contrary, if you have focused on the purpose, then you’ll likely to think differently. You’ll take a walk some place where you don’t risk pneumonia in the process.

Write down goals for which you have strong purpose and you can substantiate the ‘why’ factors. Don’t pay heed to what others want you to accomplish, focus on what you want to achieve, and why?

•    Think why does ‘why’ matters, and if you can figure that out, your life is made easy. Focus on how you’ll feel when you achieve the goal – live it NOW.

•    Think of how you talk about the goal.

•    Concentrate on the good sides of ‘why’ and what are they going to offer, not the negatives of the process.

Sometimes sharing your game plan with others, or involving your closer ones can be fun and lot useful. Speak about your goals to someone else, so you have someone to go to later who reminds you of the ‘why’ things. You would get reminded why you’re doing this again! It can make all the difference to the world, especially to your world.

Setting business goals is ok, but achieving them is a different ball game. Have you ever set a goal and felt miserable because you didn’t reach that? Have your previous targets failed and you scoffed at yourself for being too lazy and feeling like a hypocrite! Most people experiences negative results because they care less for their goals. They are always too far off and they hardly feel like working towards them.

Goal setting is all about defining specific, measurable and time-specified objectives. Most effective goals are tangible, realistic and have a real time-frame for completion. People have personal reasons to set goals and the process allows them to specify and work towards their own objectives – most common with financial or career-oriented goals.

Tangible outcomes may sound mechanical and they don’t allow for flow. They can hardly ignite passion in the pursuers and there’s no heart in it. Less amount of motivation means more stress and a feeling set for failure. So, what’s the magic way to deal with goal setting? How can you set passionate goals that you can see through? Is there any formula to effective goal sets?

Learn the Magic Formula to Set and Achieve Long-term Goals:-

One should take care while setting short-term and long-term goals, so that they both fall into place. That requires setting goals in a complete new fashion.

When you have set your goals in credible and realistic terms, you’ll see your big dreams are moving closer to reality every day. This means that your short-term goals happen quicker. When short-term goals take less of time to materialize, something else happens that makes you more excited, which means now you take bigger steps, meaning your long-term goals move faster than you can predict. Fantastic, isn’t it?

Quickly reaching goals is no far-off dream, they can happen with anybody, trying to balance their smaller goals with the bigger ones. That’s probably you want to achieve when your set your goals. Great things begin to happen quickly when you work out this magical formula. Even there’s a lot of change in attitudes, you’ll enjoy working towards you targets, big or small, when you get results in short time. You can share this formula of successful goal setting with others who struggle with their own. It will fascinate you when they’ll start having the results you’ve experienced.

This is a practical, effective and fun way to look at goals so that they’re reached in less time, with more zeal. What are you waiting for – start achieving what you want.

Do you know the answer to the question – what is the shortest distance between two points? This isn’t tough – the answer would be a straight line. When you wish to achieve your targets in the shortest possible times, follow the same straight-line theory. If that sounds vague, think again. You’ll need traveling straight towards your goals at all times. That’s how it saves you the detours, distractions and gets you there as fast as you wish.

Most of the times, people don’t head straight towards the direction of their goals, and they take more time to reach. There are many reasons why people don’t always head towards their goals. Maybe they drag their feet too long, show excuses of lack of energy, being too busy all the times with other priorities in life.

Sometimes people get confused with too many options to choose from. They start with following a path and tweak roads often. Switching paths make them run round in circles getting nowhere. Some people switch ideas more than often and float like a twig. May be they just overcomplicate things, adding many extra steps to get from where they are to where they want to be. Occasionally there are things that just can’t be avoided – serious illnesses and accidents and these will demand your attention, slow you down for a while. People get carried away by the tides and stop working.

Life has so many distractions to offer, it’s up to you if you lose your sight and eventually the goals at hand. No matter what form of distraction they are, the result is that you waste your time and energy getting nowhere. At the end of the day, you get discouraged and disheartened to give up, ever trying to reach that goal.

Be honest with your business goals and what you wish to accomplish from them. Self-assessment is crucial to reach the targets.

Good and Sustainable Habits Save the Day:-

So how can you avoid the pitfalls of distraction? Focus on whatever you want to achieve keeps you from going astray, and lose your track. This mental habit makes a huge difference, practiced by all successful people in all walks of life.

Focus:

Focus your mind and your energy on your goals. Don’t let problems and distractions get in your way. What you focus on is what you get. When you focus on distractions, you get distracted. When you focus on your goals, you will get there. You should practice this mental habit each day.

Write down the well-thought out plan in clear terms. The plan should state where you want to go and how you are going to get there. Make credible and realistic plans so that you don’t have to tweak plans mid of the stream.

Schedule time for daily actions; make sure you know when you are going to do the things. That keeps you move along towards the set target. Distractions may crop up – don’t give up, pause, take a deep breath. Remind yourself about your plan. Ask yourself does this thing help me or hinder me? Choose from the ones that help you.

Use Tools and Techniques to Focus:

Focus is a habit that you need to instill and imbibe in you, or else it can be very difficult to reach even the smaller goals. You will need to work to change your habits.

There is no dearth of tools to help you to improve your focus. Consider the ‘to-do’ list. A simple ‘to-do’ list helps a lot of people to stay focused, every day. If this isn’t enough, there are a lot of personal development tools you can find to help you focus better. Decide on the best method and techniques that suit you and head for a straight line journey towards your goal.

You don’t have to be a fantastic and enigmatic hero to attain goals and do certain things in life. Ordinary people with simple aspirations can set and achieve targets when they are sufficiently motivated to reach those challenging goals.

We all set goals, it’s a universal thing to do. Goals are the most commonly used training tools for organizations. Goals organize the competitors’ focus and endeavors towards achieving a specific task. They help the performer to increase persistence and motivation to keep going. They provide important tools and learning strategies for long-term training.

However, people often set their goals in vague terms. When you get down setting some goals or if you reevaluate your current goals, follow these seven steps for proper goal setting.

Define Your Goal in Clear Terms

When you think of setting goals, ask yourself certain questions, like, what you want to accomplish? Is that worth your efforts? How would you design goals if you knew success was inevitable? What would be your strategy if you think this was the very last chance?

Set definite goals with clarity. Stick to your targets so that you see through them no matter the setbacks and failures that might arise along the way. Define in specific terms rather than being vague or general, so you can tell whether you have actually reached it.

Determine Your Position

Set short-term targets along with long-term goals, so that you can determine where you are right now in terms of your goal. Have you been just ‘getting by’ or do you train to reach the next level? Thinking of doing things you may not want to do in order to reach your goal? Do you fence your best – identify when such situations arise and why.

Know How to Get There

Know how to get there after you’ve established your goals. Identify your strength and weakness, and the situations that motivate or upset. Identify at least one aspect in each of the following skill type categories that needs improvement:

Physical Skill Type: Do you need to gain in speed?
Tactical Skill Type: Need to develop winning strategies?
Technical Skill Type: Need more accurate point control?
Mental Skill Type: Do you lack confidence?

Create Daily Improvement Plans

Daily improvement plans is crucial to goal setting process. Work towards reaching your goals on a daily basis. Improve the afore-said skill type categories. Write down at least three or four specific actions that you can take. Always write in first person present tense and get results.

Work on Short-term Goals

Long-phased goals take months or years to complete. Short-term goals keep you motivated throughout this time. Achieving these goals will give you feedback on your progress towards your ultimate goal. Your short-term goals should be process orientated, and reflect that achieving your goal is an ongoing process.

Commit

Doers and dreamers are different in many ways. Commitment sets them apart. Most New Year resolutions fail due to lack of commitment and the zeal to go through with it. Procrastination and second-guessing yourself will only delay your eventual success. Make sure you enjoy the journey along the way!

Evaluate Your Progress

Examine and monitor how far you’re from the goal each day. Ask yourself whether you are getting closer to the goals or just getting by. Is your goal plan actually working or does it need modifications? If you are not sure, then you are not really making progress. Have fun while you mark off the completed short-term goals. Record the small success and lessons learned along the way, or make a checklist that charts your progress. At times, it may seem that your goal is too far off – just open the record, look at your progress list and visually see how far you have come, and how much time you need to actually get to your goals.

New Year celebration means more new resolutions on the platter. There’s virtually no end to planning and hoping things for the year ahead. Many people will set their goals such as faster job promotion, a salary hike; spend more time with their families etc. It’s good deal fun setting goals for the New Year, but how many of us really care to see them through? How many of us ever actually achieve those goals? They are not that encouraging figure. Have you wondered why most people fail to do that! One of the reasons can be lack of foresight. They do not set realistic and clear goals. The second reason is most people do not take steps to achieve the goals they have set for the year.

If you have a vague goal in your mind, that gets you nowhere. It becomes almost impossible to take steps to achieve your unrealistic goals.

Follow six Key Steps – Get Better Results with Your Goals:

a.    Set Goals in Numbers and Digits

Defining goals in vague and global terms makes them hard to achieve. Set the picture clear. Instead of planning a weight loss for the coming few months, set definite tasks like, losing 2 pounds per month until you reach the desired level. Defining goals in numbers and figures makes them real and easily attainable.

b.     Schedule Time Limit to Achieve Goals

Goal without a timeline is nothing but a utopia. Set time frame and see if you’ve moved along the scale of accomplishment. If not, evaluate the reasons and how far off your goals seem. Time frames motivate. When you have crossed off tasks in the list, you get a taste of success, even for the time being. If you do not set a time frame to your goals, you probably end up chasing that dream for the rest of your life.

c.     Goals must be Attainable

Goals must be realistic and attainable to be completed in set timeframes. Move ahead of fantasy. You may have high and mighty goals in your charter, but when you find they are not real enough to materialize, tweak your goals to fit in the accomplishment charts.

d.    Follow Your Progress

Define long-term as well short-term goals in tandem. Short-term goals are landmarks and show the way to the targets – you know your exact position on the goals, seeing those short-term accomplishments. You go on striking off the temporary and weekly tasks to get to the monthly ones. Doing this helps you determine if you are progressing or lacking behind in your goals. Then you can take extra steps to speed up.

e.    Allow for Obstacles

Goals without obstacles are unreal. It’s natural to face obstacles and deadlocks when you’re shaping up your goals. Don’t get upset or frustrated. Little failures lead to grand success stories. When you overcome obstacles, you feel on top of the world, a sense of satisfaction that keeps you motivated for more such tasks. Even if you did not achieve your goals, take it as a challenge for your next goal. Don’t give up.

f.    Identify the Purpose of Any Goal

You set goals, because you want to get results. Goals without a purpose are not sufficient to motivate you. We all have personal reasons to set goals and substantiate them. When you want a salary hike, you must know where you’re going to spend those extra bucks.

While you follow these simple and significant steps, you can see some reason not to repeat what you’ve done the last year. You don’t skip resolutions and succeed in whatever goals you’ve put forth. New Year resolutions may sound cliché but if you follow and take steps to achieve them, you will achieve almost anything in life.

Realistic business goal setting and the guts to believe that you can achieve the goal gets you closer to accomplishment. When you are done with establishing your objective, there are two key elements necessary to accomplishing that business goal; you will need a definite date and a definite plan. It is easier to achieve targets if we break them into smaller tasks. Do you put the whole steak into your mouth, or break them into digestible small bites so that you do not choke! That makes them taste better and enjoyable. Your body finds them easy to digest. Why don’t you break your goals down the same way!

5 Easy Ways to ‘Go and Get it’:-

1.    Set the Date – Do reverse calculation while setting deadlines. Pick any date of completion and work backward. While you set completion dates for the end of the month, set smaller goals for each day through the month’s end. This will set both the long-term and short-term goals and each day as you accomplish your short-term goals you move one-step closer to accomplishing your long-term goal. Include personal development goals and days off.

2.    Refer Calendar – Think of a goal you set for the month end, write that goal on the last day of the month. Likewise, write down the short-term goals for each day through the end of the month.

3.    One Work at a Time – Don’t try to scale heights in a hurry. Do one thing at a time. If you have too many tasks on the list, such as posting to your blogs, forums, post classified ads, participate in groups, submit articles and work on your articles, all in a day – sort them as priorities. Or else, they’ll bog you down. Focus on one or two things every day and then mark them off. It’s so much fun to put ‘X’ on the calendar on the days you complete the scheduled tasks.

4.    Definite Time Frame – Work for definite hours per day. When you limit the time you spend and concentrate on the tasks every day, you build momentum and increase your productivity.

5.   Follow Schedule – Stick to the goal setting lists and the time schedules, so that you don’t stray from them or invite more stress. Don’t switch tasks at your whims, that’ll get you nowhere.

Look at the calendar at the end of the month – there are more ‘X’s and less empty squares. That’s encouraging! Write down your goal plans to achieve them in time. You’ll feel more accomplished seeing those marked off tasks. Build self-confidence and make more progress with these five easy-to-handle steps to accomplishing any Goal.

Deciding on potential goals takes considerable time, but saves you redundancy. To see if a single goal fits into your overall scheme of accomplishment, you need to decide on the viability of the goal. You should work that goal through a process that can help determine whether you should be pursuing this goal at all, or call off for another time in future. Though this is a time-consuming thing to do, it saves you future headaches and frustration. When you eliminate goals that are not for you at this time, you have ample time and scope to identify what you need to focus on now.

Three Useful Ways to Prioritize Your Goals -

Set Your Goals First:

While you set your goals, make sure they are realistic, specific, measurable, attainable, direct and timely. Sort the long-term goals from the immediate ones and identify the ambitious goals.

Then you’ll get down to breaking them into small tasks to accomplish each day. That process ensures daily accountability for your goals. If you want to shed 60 pounds in a year, you will break that down to a goal of five pounds a month or 1 pound a week. You can now figure out how many calories you need to cut out or burn off to achieve that weekly weight loss.

Concentrate on the Beneficial Aspect of Goals:

Most people get tired while realizing their goals, because they are often reminded of the costs and the pains relating to accomplishing targets. They fail to reach their goals because they concentrate less on the beneficial aspects of the goals they’ve set before them. When you know the results you’ll get from achieving a target, you get motivated. Losing weight motivates when you see the benefits and the stock of fun you’re going to have. Often, there are negative motivators like, quitting cigarettes will put on weight and you will feel miserable.

Concentrating on the positive and tangible results makes accomplishment an enjoyable journey rather than a slogging one.  Think of the rewards, each time you begin to ask yourself whether pursuing a goal is worth the effort. Mark them and read them aloud.

Consider the Goal Setting Barriers:

No pain no gain. If you want your goals to be realistic ones, consider the goal setting barriers and obstacles that you’ll come across. Avoid being embarrassed and surprised in advance. People often complain that they’d completely no idea of the problems that have cropped up in the process – they hardly knew pursuing that goal was going to be so demanding, stressful, involving so many unexpected pitfalls! That’s the wrong way to conceive goals.

Careful planning in advance eliminates much of this disappointment. You must remember that you can’t always see the roadblocks ahead. To stay motivated on the task, you’ll need commitment, attitude, responsibility, and constantly focus on the benefits. Patience is the key to success. Focus on the good things and not just the obstacles.

Most people don’t get enthused and excited about obstacles. Very few can keep their cool right in the mid of a mammoth traffic jam, when you’re in a big hurry. Can you enjoy a bad cold just before a long-planned vacation – hopefully not. Disappointments or setbacks of any kind hardly excite us. However, obstacles can generate enthusiasm only if you view them in positive lights – overcoming obstacles makes you strong and enables you to soar high.

“All successful people have a goal. No-one can get anywhere unless he knows where he wants to go and what he wants to be or do” – Norman Vincent Peale

Think of a goal as a target; an ambition; a dream. Allow yourself to think big. What is it you really want? What is it you want achieve in your life and want do you want to achieve in your business? What prompted you to begin your business? Where would you like to go with your career; where would you like your business to take you or where would you like to take it? What is your ultimate goal? Now is not the time to feel restricted by mundane realities: dare to dream. After all, if you’re unable to imagine the possibilities, those possibilities can never become realities.

Why should I set goals?

Setting yourself a goal in life is a powerful way of motivating yourself to turn a dream into a reality. Setting yourself some goals in the running of your business will have an equally powerful effect. Once you set yourself a goal, you’ve created a vision of your future. Perhaps you have a particular financial goal in mind; perhaps your desire to be self-employed stems from the goal of achieving a particular lifestyle but knowing what it is you want to achieve allows you to focus your efforts on what you’ll need to do to get you there. Having that focus means you’re able to concentrate on the things that are really important in your life and you’re also less likely to become distracted by the things that really aren’t!

“If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time” – Author Unknown

How do I set goals?

Once you’ve set your sights on your ultimate goal, next you need a series of lesser goals to help you achieve it. Think of these smaller goals as stepping-stones to help you progress towards your bigger goals.
It’s often said that the game of golf reflects life. In golf, the ultimate goal is to complete the entire course but to do that, eighteen individual holes must be played. Each of these holes becomes a smaller, stepping-stone goal towards the big goal of playing the whole course and each hole in itself requires another set of mini goals to be put in place as a hole-in-one is a rare occurrence.

Think of life the same way. Plan a series of stepping-stone smaller goals to help you reach your big goal. Setting manageable mini goals in place will not only help you to stay on track but will also help to keep you motivated when the ultimate goal feels a long way off. Applying the same techniques in your business life will help to promote continuing growth and keep you on target to realizing your ultimate ambition.

Goals can be described as long-term, your ultimate goal, or short-term, your mini goals but all goals must be smart goals to be effective:

S – specific
What exactly is it that you want to achieve?
Perhaps your ambition is to be rich. How rich? Maybe you dream of being successful. How successful?  The desire to be rich and successful is a goal but it’s not a specific goal. The ambition to be rich could be made more specific by changing it to, ‘I want to have one million dollars in my bank account.’ The dream of being successful could be made more specific by changing it to, ‘I want to win the Business Of The Year award.’

M – Measurable
It must be possible to measure exactly the outcome of each goal set. For example, it would be very easy to measure the goal of having one million dollars in your bank account but it would be difficult to measure just being rich. At what point would you know you’d achieved the goal of being rich? If you dream of running a successful business, how would you quantify success?

A – Achievable
All goals, whether long-term or short-term, must be based on reality but this should never prevent you from aiming high. Becoming a multi-millionaire is realistic; winning a prestigious award is realistic, but aiming to achieve everything by close of business today is not!

R – Recorded
Without accurate records, it becomes impossible to track progress – or indeed, lack of it! If goals can be measured, they can be recorded and by keeping up-to-date records it becomes possible to ensure that all mini goals are keeping you on target towards your big goal. It’s important that all of your efforts achieve worthy results and keeping records  allows you to note where adjustments may be needed to keep you on the right track.

T – Timed or Time-Phased
By when will you have one million dollars in your bank account? In what year will you win the Business Of The Year award? Setting yourself carefully planned short-term goals can really help to keep your motivation high and achieving regular mini goals will boost your confidence, keeping you going when the going gets tough.

“Write it down. Written goals have a way of transforming wishes into wants; cant’s into cans; dreams into plans; and plans into realities. Don’t just think it – ink it!’
- Author Unknown

Can I Change My Goals?

Writing down your goals creates a sense of commitment but you’re not writing them in stone!
If planned goals are proving too difficult to achieve, motivation levels are likely to drop. This is also the case if goals are proving too easy to achieve. Research has shown that the most effective goals are realistic and challenging. Experience, along with trial and error, will determine how effective your planned goals actually are. The important thing to remember is that business goal setting is just the beginning of a journey. Circumstances may change along the way, unexpected opportunities may arise, and the outcome of smaller goals may affect your approach to bigger goals. Be flexible – change can be a good thing.

Can I Side-Step?
Goal setting is a process that allows you to chart a path through your personal life or the life of your business. Although it’s important to plan your route, an equally important element of the goal setting process is to be flexible. It’s unlikely that your journey through life will follow one straight road so you must be prepared to navigate your way around occasional obstacles that attempt to block your chosen path.

In the game of golf, you may be aiming for the putting green as you take a swing at the ball but then find yourself in some rough ground at the edge of the fairway. This wasn’t part of your plan but it doesn’t mean ‘game over.’ As a golfer, you would simply continue to aim for the green with your next shot, planning that shot from where the ball landed.
This can be mirrored in the game of life. You may miss your target, your stepping-stone goal, but it’s not ‘game over’ in terms of achieving your dream. It wasn’t part of your plan but it must be viewed as nothing more than a side-step. Taking a side-step may add a little time to your journey but it needn’t prevent you from reaching your planned destination.

“In achieving your goals, you may run into roadblocks. Don’t let that stop you, go around, over, or under. If you are committed to your goal you will find a way”
- Catherine Pulsifier

What Happens When I Get There?

Arriving at your planned destination may be the end of one journey but this simply means it’s time to begin another. Achieving one goal creates an opportunity to set another. Goal setting should be a continuing process. Experience gained on your journey will allow you to broaden your horizons. Success builds success. Achieving your personal goals builds self-confidence and achieving your business goals builds the business world’s confidence in you. Set yourself some new goals. Continue to think big – think bigger! Continue to aim high – aim higher!

“You have to set goals that are almost out of reach. If you set a goal that is attainable without much work or thought, you are stuck with something below your true talent and potential” – Steve Garvey