Many people are intimidated about the future which makes goal setting a hard task. While there are plenty of opportunities for mistakes to be made, the goal writing process really isn't all that hard. The real challenge comes in actually following through with what we set out to do.

A good exercise for determining good goals is to brainstorm as many thoughts about what you want to be like in the future. Simply sit down with a blank sheet of paper (yes, you can use your computer too!) and avoid all distractions for ten minutes.

Write down anything and everything that comes to your mind. Remember, your just brainstorming now so it's all about getting as many thoughts as you can written down on paper.

Here are a few questions to get your going:

* Where do you want to be in a year?

* Who do you want to have with you?

* Where do you see your home business in five years? 10?

* How much money would make you happy this year?

After you've brainstormed for at least 10 minutes you should have quite a bit of info written down. With this information you will now be able to create some solid and secure goals that you will feel good about.

1. Write down your longest term goal. This is where you want to be in a number of years.

2. Give yourself a time frame for making that happen. You may want to say that you want to make your first million in two years. Or, it may take many more for that to happen. Giving your goal a time frame helps to get your mind set in how to make that happen. If you leave it open ended, the long term goals are not benefited by your actions each day, as they would be here.

3. Give yourself smaller goals to reach as steps up to the larger one. For example, as a new online entrepreneur you may have a short term goal of getting a basic online marketing campaign set up and running within a month's time. In six months, you might have a goal of learning 10 new ways to drive traffic to your website and implementing each one of them. As you can see these short term goals are stepping stones to a long term goal.

4. Write down your goals on paper in the following manner. "Within six months, I will have paid off all debt that I owe and be running in the clear. I will also have learned 10 new online marketing techniques that will be driving traffic to my business and making me sales." By writing your goal down in this manner, you have listed not only what the goal is and the time frame to have it done, but also how you will get there.

5. Take this piece of paper and place it everywhere and anywhere that you will see it at least several times per day. Seeing it will allow you to think it. Thinking about it makes it happen. Success through goals is the only way to find it.

Goal writing really isn't as hard as it seems. All it requires is a little time to sit down, withdraw yourself from the fast paced world, and think about what you really want. After you have a clear vision the rest of it should be pretty easy. Put your goals on paper, read them every day, and develop a "can't lose" mentality that will keep you going through the hard times. Remember, by simply writing your goals on paper you will put yourself ahead of 50% of the home business owners out their that "don't have the time" to plan out the future. Do the little things and reap the big rewards!

* For more information about the author and learn how you can start your own profitable home business check out:

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