Goal Setting

Essential steps to achieving success

Written By Dr. Jan Northup

“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”
– Alice in Wonderland

Castles in the Sky
Henry David Thoreau wrote,

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

By employing the four action steps for empowering goals, you will have laid the foundation:

Create a Vision
Focus on What You Want
write Down Your Goals
Repeat Mental Rehearsals (Affirmations)

Create a Vision (Dreaming the Impossible Dream)
Creating a vision is your ability to formulate creative ideas on a large scale, often called daydreaming. Dreaming comes easier to some of us than others. Children do it easily. Most of us were caught daydreaming as children and were programmed that it was a negative activity. Forget the “daydreaming police” and look at the unlimited possibilities available to you.

Focus on What You Want
Become very clear on the final outcome that you want to experience. An interesting side note is that in working with both men and women on goal setting, I noted a difference in how they related their goals to me. When men shared their goals or their vision of their future in their personal life and careers, most talked about what they were doing to make it happened. Almost without exception, they would talk about what they wanted. Women, almost without exception, talked about what they didn’t want.

Writing Down Your Goals

Having your goals clearly in mind is establishing your purpose. The act of writing down your goals adds even more power to them. You make a contract with yourself when you write down your goals.

When you incorporate the following four components, you are personalizing and adding specifics to the outcome:

• First person, singular (I)
• Present Tense (write your goals “I am” rather than past tense, “I have” or future tense, “I will.”)
• As if it had already happened (Not as if you want something, but as if what you want, you already have.)
• And finally, put some “pizzazz” and excitement to your goals by using words that are full of energy and create a sense of happiness, contentment, pride, accomplishment and fun!

By writing your goals in first person, you have not only made a contract with yourself, but have also accepted the responsibility for the goal. When you say “I,” it puts you in control of the outcome of your life. Writing your goals in present tense makes goal setting an active process. If you write them in past tense such as “I have lost 10 pounds,” your conscious and subconscious say, “Good! Now I don’t have to do anything else.” When you word your goal in future tense, such as “I will start my diet tomorrow,” tomorrow never comes. When you write your goals as if you were enjoying the success of accomplishment, it adds excitement and vitality to your purpose. That is why you want to include positive, emotionally charged words in your affirmations to help you “feel” the results you want.

For example:
INEFFECTIVE GOAL: I will save 15 percent of my income this year.
EMPOWERING GOAL: I am enjoying reading my savings account balance of $_____ on December 3lst. (Your short-term or monthly goal will be: I am enjoying the monthly increase of $_____ in my savings account balance.)

INEFFECTIVE GOAL: I will be Vice President of Marketing in two years.
EMPOWERING GOAL: On June 10, I am filled with pride and a sense of accomplishment as I send out letters to friends and colleagues announcing my promotion to Vice President of Marketing.

INEFFECTIVE GOAL: I want to get my real estate license.
EMPOWERING GOAL: On October 24, I am hanging my newly-received real estate license on my office wall.

Talking to yourself? We all knew you were a little strange.

You’ve thought about your goals, you’ve learned a technique for writing them and now you’re going to add even more power to them by incorporating Action Step Four into the goal-setting process – repeated mental rehearsals. Repeated mental rehearsals (affirmations) allow you to see yourself during each step on the way to achieving your goals, as well as allowing you to see yourself enjoying the final outcome. Affirmations re-energize your efforts. They demonstrate your ability to take a nebulous thought to success.

The ability to set and achieve goals is essential to happiness and success. Striving to achieve goals puts you in charge of your life. Goal setting is an active process for change that leads tangible results. It is a tool that guides you from daydreams to reality to the rewards of your efforts. Every time you achieve even one step on the way to your long range goal, it makes you stronger. Seeing your progress is a great motivator to make more changes, take more risks, and dig into more of your action steps. When you are actively involved in goal setting, you are giving your full attention and focus to your life. Be patient with yourself as you move confidently toward your goals.

Decide on Your Dreams, and Make a Plan
courtesy of Diana Baysinger, co-owner of Arizona Partners for Best Year Yet

Success involves three parts of the human experience: the Mental, the Emotional and the Behavioral. Commitment to all three components is a challenge that must be met in order to experience success. According to Investor's Business Daily, most successful people have mastered the following 10 rules:

1. How you think is everything. Always be positive. Think success, not failure. Be aware of a negative environment.
2. Decide upon your true dreams and goals. write down your specific goals and develop a plan to reach them.
3. Take action. Goals are nothing without action. Don't be afraid to get started. Just do it.
4. Never stop learning. Go back to school, read books or get training and acquire skills.
5. Be persistent and work hard. Success is a marathon, not a sprint. Never give up.
6. Learn to analyze details. Get all the facts, all the input. Learn from your mistakes.
7. Focus your time and money. Don't let other people or things distract you.
8. Be innovative; be different.
9. Deal and communicate with people effectively. Learn to understand and motivate others.
10. Be honest and dependable; take responsibility; otherwise 1-9 won't matter.