Goal Setting Creates Life's Blueprint

Long term goals are those objectives that will take several months or years to achieve. Just as the blueprint for your house outlines and defines the complete project, the "big picture" or ultimate goal for your "life's blueprint" may be, for example, happiness and success. So, how do you plan to be happy and successful? You need long term goals. You are ready to establish the categories necessary for your ultimate goal. The categories for your "life's blueprint" (or rooms in your house) may be: education, career, financial, personal development, social, love, family. These categories will be different for each individual because your starting point is different. You may already have a degree and a marriage. You may just be starting your life's adventure. So, give this some serious thought and select categories that are relevant to your life. During this process, be sure the long term goals are truly the things you want for your life. Do you have a real passion and commitment for these goals? Are you willing to attend college for six years to get the degree you need to enter the career field established as a long term goal? Your passion for a goal will increase the motivation to achieve it. In the example above, we now have seven categories for this blueprint (or seven rooms for the house).

At this point, with your specific goals outlined, you need to prioritize your goals. This step will keep you organized and focused. If you are just starting to think about long term goals, you wouldn't put your ultimate career goal ahead of your degree because you may need the degree to enter that specific career field. Also, be sure that your goals are compatible. In other words, if your career goal is to become a social worker helping teens, your financial goal of a $20,000 monthly salary would make no sense. That salary level is not compatible with that career goal.

A GREAT TOOL FOR AN EXCEPTIONAL LIFE

Short term goals can be accomplished within a few weeks or several months. These short term goals are the steps necessary to reach long term goals. Once you have prioritized the long term goals, you are ready to examine each category (long term goal) and determine the steps necessary to reach that goal. These steps are the short term goals. For example, if the long term goal for education is a PhD, your short term goals may look like this: complete Associates Degree in two years, complete Bachelors Degree in four years, complete Masters Degree in six years, and finally, complete PhD in eight years. You can see the natural progression of the short term goals to reach the final destination - the long term goal.

After each long term goal has been broken down into short term goals, the next task is a careful review of each short term goal. You can then determine the steps needed within each short term goal; these steps could be called "shorter term goals". For example, using the education scenario above, you can first determine goals for the Associate Degree. These steps might include selecting the college, enrolling for classes and maintaining a certain grade point average. Again, this process will keep you organized and focused.

A GREAT BOOK TO HELP YOU SET AND ACHIEVE GOALS

If you are new to the idea of setting long term and short term goals, be sure you set goals that represent what you want for your life. Making a "life's blueprint" based on what someone else thinks or wants for you will not work. You need to have your mind and heart invested in this plan.

Okay, some tips to help you get started:

1) Goals need to be specific and measurable

2) Include dates to start and dates to complete each goal

3) Review your goals to be sure they are compatible

4) Be flexible and, if necessary, revise your goals

5) Use affirmations and positive self-talk to help you meet goals

6) Read books that motivate, inspire and challenge you

7) Reward yourself when you reach a goal

8) As you achieve goals, set new goals