Dream Big

Jill Koenig from the American Chronicle says that she has acheived some crazy goals over the last year. She says not to listen if some tells you to make just "reasonable" goals:

Don't set easy Goals. Set Goals that make you stretch. Set goals that challenge you and force you to grow. Set Goals that motivate you to become more today than you were yesterday. Set Goals that make you become extraordinary. Set Goals that scare you. Set Goals that make you feel ALIVE. Set Goals that are compelling and be willing to do the work.

Set some UNrealistic Goals.

Set some INSANE Goals.

Live Your Dreams

Make it Clear

"Setting a proper goal is a trickier process than it seems," says the Blog Mr. Wang Says So. And "setting a proper goal is very important because a properly-set goal will automatically become much easier to achieve."

The key is clarity. You need to be very clear when you set a goal. The clearer your goal is, the more achievable it will be. Because you will know exactly what you need to do next, to bring you closer to your goal. No shooting in the dark, no beating around the bushes, no getting lost in the woods.

I really like how Mr. Wang expresses this: it's a lot of what my top 10 goal tips say, but a very concise way of putting it: when you are setting goals, strive for clarity! :)

"Tips for Happiness and Productivity"

The Scented Ink blog gives a "wow" of a list of 52 tips for happiness and productivity. I'm suggest browsing through the list to find one or more tips to use as goals in your own life. Without further ado, here they are: 52 tips.

Where Do I Start

ArticleBiz.com says that there is one common question about goals setting and personal planning: “Where do I start?”

You might be tempted to start at the beginning – after all it seems logical, and it is good advice in many circumstances. The beginning is you next step, so you set some goals for the next step you want to take.

The problem with goal setting and personal planning is that setting one short term goal at a time does not work. You have to know where you are going before you even think about setting out to get there.

The first thing you need to do is to set aside some time to yourself to really think about what you want. Take a pen and a piece of paper and write down what you really want. It may help you to think about the 5 things that you most want to do in your life.

Now you have a picture of where you want to go. Like all great works of art, you need to add some emotions to the picture. Ask yourself “Why do I really want these things”. Write down your answers. Be honest with yourself, if you really want to make $100,000 to prove yourself to your in-laws, say so.

Look at the whats and whys you’ve written down, choose the one objective that you know you really want the most. This is the one to work on.

Start building a picture of what your life is going to be like once you’ve achieved this goal. Be imaginative, engage all your senses and your emotions. This is the dream that you want to achieve.

Set aside some time each day where you can have some time to yourself. It could be before you get up in the morning, it could be at a break in your work, early mornings and late evenings are usually the best. Run your dream through your mind to remind yourself of what it is you want and why you want it...

Pick out 3-5 steps that you are going to need to take to achieve your number one dream. Write them down together with a date when you are going to achieve them – these are your goals.

The final step that so many people forget is the simplest of the lot. Just get going! Take action.

Overcoming Failure

There's a great post over at a website called Achieve-it about how to overcome failure. The author says:

As important as goal setting is, understanding how to deal with the blockades we might encounter in our path is also pretty important.

One of the first things you can do is to define the problem. What obstacle have you encountered? Be very specific, for the better you can define the issue, the better you can deal with it...

Once you clearly understand what the problem is, it’s time to start dealing with it. Many times, the way you deal with a problem will work exactly like your initial goal setting process. Come up with some action steps to help you overcome the problem. With these action steps, though, don’t set yourself up for further failure. The only way your going to reach your goal of overcoming this difficulty is by having the right skills, resources, and support. If you don’t have all three of those elements to meet a given action step, perhaps you should consider finding them as part of your plan to overcome the difficulty.

When you’ve actually gotten past the problem, it’s time to make sure it doesn’t reoccur. Oddly enough, this is going to involve some fantasizing on your part. Imagine meeting your bigger goal. Now think about the problems you might find along the way. How are you going to deal with those? If you can create action plans in your mind for possible problems before they occur, you’ll be far less likely to have to struggle with them when they do actually pop up.

The real key to dealing with failure is to embrace the problem and allow it to start the rebuilding process. You learn all kinds of things when you fail, and putting that new knowledge to work on the road to your larger goal will only make you more successful.

"Join the Fight"

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man [or woman] who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs; who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

~Theodore Roosevelt

How Do You Eat an Elephant?

When he was thirteen or fourteen years old, blogger Kendall Schoenrock says he set a number of goals in personal areas such as "Education, Career, Family, Financial, Public Service etc." He kept these goals very private, but they made a huge impact in his own life. On his blog, he's shared one of his goals: to write a book. A huge goal, but something that can be done, bit by bit. (Source: kendallschoenrock.com.)

How about you? Have you taken time to sit down and come up with the goals that are of real importance to your life and future? If not, take time to do so today. I guarantee that if you write these goals down and start applying them in your life, you will be happy you did. After all, these are the hopes, dreams, and desires that are core to you and to your happiness!

New Goalsetting Worksheets

About.com has some new, useful (and very easy) goalsetting worksheets available, very handy for when you're setting your goals. Here they are:

About.com Worksheets

I've found About.com's worksheets really helpful. Enjoy!

Goalsetting Questions to Ask

Ask yourself "who, what, when, why, and where" when you are setting goals, says a lawconsulting blog. Here's the site, with specific examples:

Cordell Parvin Blog