Setting Goals You Can Achieve

Free your mind of anything else that may be bothering you. It may be family issues, financial issues or even a book you cannot wait until later to read. Conversely, if you are feeling stressed about setting your goals, let that fade into the background, too.

Essentially, if your mind is not free, you won't be as successful as you would hope. Furthermore, it will take you forever to complete the task before you.

Setting goals can be a daunting task, even for the most experienced goal setter. As important as it is to free your mind, it's equally important to be up to the challenge physically.

Are you setting a long term or short term goal? Decide which it will be. If it's something you plan to get done in a day or two, it shouldn't be too difficult. However, if you are planning to set goals for longer periods of time, it's important to have a timeline in mind for when your goals should be attained.

When do your goals need to be set? At what point will you begin working towards achieving your goals? These questions are important.

If you have 6 months before you really need to know the steps you will take to reach your goals, you can relax and take your time planning. However, when you wait until the last minute and only have a week, that's a different matter entirely and you may be taking on more than you can comfortably chew.

Setting goals needs to be something you take seriously in order for your plan to be successful.

Do you feel you can now conquer the world? Do you feel energized and ready to carry through with your mission of setting goals you can achieve? Great! I'm proud of you. That's a large part of dealing with what can be the enormous task of setting goals.

As important as all preceding steps are to setting your goals, the framework of your goals is vital. This is where you frame your ideas together regarding specific aspects of your goals.

Allow me to provide a personal example. I am involved in eight active online ventures, in terms of writing and displaying/selling photography. I write primarily to Helium and Squidoo. However, I have two personal websites and a personal blog hosted from each web site. I feature some of my photos at Imagekind in case people would like to buy them but I also display products for sale through my Zazzle store.

It seems a lot, doesn't it? In fact, it is a lot for a person to take on who works 50 hours outside of the home every week. However, I set my goals based around what I want to achieve in a given month for each endeavor.

In terms of my blogs, they can be spontaneous as I come across articles or web pages I would like to feature. However, for Helium - a site which I've been almost neglecting lately in terms of providing new content - I've decided I wanted to write 5 articles before the end of February. I have narrowed it down to subject matter and it's now a matter of settling down to write.

With so many online endeavors which require substantial time commitments, I cannot afford to be a "fly by the seat of my pants" operation. I set monthly goals for what I want to achieve in each area.

You may be looking at setting goals as your greatest enemy by now. Please don't! Your goals can be your greatest friend, steering you on toward the finish line.

Don't feel bad if you feel hopeless with setting your goals properly. Help is available through many sources but the main thing is not to give up hope. If you do, everything goes through the proverbial window.

You may be preparing to write your goals and an idea comes, unbidden, into your mind. Give your mind permission to drift and see if there may be potential in pursuing this line of thought. Some of the greatest success stories of mankind came from a single idea so don't throw it away, believing it to be a waste of time.

Even if you are sure you will remember an idea later, be sure to write it down. After all, your mind may begin to get an influx of ideas and it's so simple for one to fall by the wayside.

When setting your goals, it may seem that anything goes. However, exercising caution is wise.

If you are setting up a small business, for example, and would like to gain exposure, is it necessary to focus all of your advertising dollars in listing your business name in several online platforms, or should you focus more in local areas? Sure, it doesn't hurt to dream big and have an ultimate goal of being listed toward the top of major search engines. However, word of mouth doesn't cost anything and, if you can build your reputation in the local sector, it will improve the chances of becoming a success overall.

Take a few minutes to look over the goals you have set so far. Can you justify them as they are or do they need to be modified a little, or a lot? Remember, the easier the goals you set for yourself - once again, within reason - the easier they will be to attain.

Now that you've come this far in setting your goals and have a better idea of what you intend to achieve, try your best to retain your focus. Minimize distractions that cause you to easily lose focus.

Turn off the ringer on the telephone, close the door to your office and ask not to be disturbed unless it's of vital importance.

If you need to laugh, don't stifle it. It will help you with setting your goals. If a crazy thought or memory comes to mind which makes you laugh, don't berate yourself. Go with the flow and laugh. It will soon pass and you'll feel you've taken a little mental break from it all.

When you look back at this moment, it won't be completely filled with stress.

One of the most important plans to put in action when setting goals is to break each point down into mini-size pieces, sort of like eating meat and swallowing potatoes; you don't swallow either whole.

Allow me to provide another personal example:
A goal I wish to attain by the end of February is to update the guestbook modules in all of my Squidoo lenses so they are more SEO friendly. Considering I have over 150 lenses, that can be a daunting task. However, if you were to look into my goal book, you would see this goal broken down into simple steps.

For example, the first week of February, I would go through all of the lenses in my Purple Star Series and make this change. The following week, I would do the same for all of my lenses which have been blessed by Squid Angels. This would conquer nearly half of my lenses. With the remaining two weeks in February, not to mention the week I have remaining in January - since I'm reaching some of my goals early - I can comfortably see this being achieved by the end of February.

You may prefer to work with a computer. However, I prefer to organize everything into a binder so pages can be added and removed easily. When I achieve my goals, I highlight them so my notebook doesn't look messy.

I don't throw these pages away because they may serve as a refresher later, when beginning another year or goal setting session. Furthermore, when I achieve my goals, it's nice to have a journal to look back upon so I'll know what I did, when I did it and when it's time to freshen my content.

If I was starting a business, I would operate the same way. Even for nostalgia, it would be nice to look over my ultimate battle plan and see the evidence in front me that I had carried through.

When you set your goals, allow the fine print to follow. Don't believe a detail is too small to be included. After all, it's the sum of these details which, ultimately, becomes the stepping stone to fulfilling your goals, one small step at a time.

Even when tempted to quit or take an extended break, you can't allow yourself to make excuses! If you're in the process of setting goals, in the first place, it's because you felt an initial need to do so. Carry on; you'll be happy when you've finished instead of having that deadline continually hanging over your head.

When you have finished everything you intended to do, in terms of setting goals, take a couple of hours to quietly do something you want to do, as long as it isn't stressful - as long as you are trying to free your mind from everything.

Walk along a nature trail and listen to the birds chirping. Listen to waves as they crash against the shore. Bend your knee and smell the roses. Enjoy the moment as though you may not be provided with another.

When you've put some distance between yourself and your goals, you'll have a better chance of looking at your goals with a clear mind, with a fresh set of eyes. It is only when this happens that you will be able to review things properly.

If there are any adjustments which need to be made, make a note of them and set a plan in motion to get the changes made as soon as possible. Don't linger too long or you may lose interest or grow irritated with having to "get back at it."

Are you the sole person responsible for achieving these goals? If so, that may be a good thing even though it creates more work for you. However, have a spouse or friend look it over to see if it seems suitable in terms of the amount of available time you have to work on these goals.

If, however, you are going into business with another person, allow your partner to go over the goals you had set - your vision for establishing the business - and test your theory. See if it makes sense or if you're trying to tackle too much too soon. It's always good to have a second opinion.

When you experience trouble with your vehicle, unless it's something obvious such as a flat tire or the muffler hanging on the ground, your natural instinct is to pop the hood and check some basic things first.

The same is true for setting goals; sometimes they need to be fine-tuned, but it's not always in the little details of your plan. Sometimes it's in performing one area of your plan before another, as in organizing the sequence of major events to occur, regardless of what seems simpler, cheaper or easier to achieve.

For example, if you are setting up a business, it's best to install the security system before bringing in the electronic equipment which is needed to run your business. It doesn't matter if you already have your computer systems and can install them yourself; the important thing is protecting your investment when it has been installed.

When all has been reviewed and altered to your liking, it's time to do a victory dance.

No, you don't actually need to dance. You can shout or throw your arms in the air instead.

You have grown so used to setting your goals that it can easily become a habit to refine them. You easily forget how much it frustrated you when you initially sat down with the process of setting those same goals. However, leave things as they are. You've approved them and another person has set their stamp of approval - so let it be.

If absolutely possible, place an extended break between the time you finish setting your goals to the time when you must begin implementing them.

I know it sounds crazy but, before you judge the concept, try it.

Yodeling stretches your lungs because you don't have the same opportunity to breathe as when talking and singing. When you begin implementing your goals and forget to breathe because of what can be a hectic pace, your lungs - thus body - will thank you. You actually may be able to do everything without becoming faint - so yodel away. :)

Depending upon how long you've been working at setting your goals, get some sleep. Even if it has taken you a month to get everything in place and you've slept 6 - 8 hours every night, you will sleep much better tonight. Try it and see!