Effective Goal Setting Steps

February 8, 2010

Effective Goal Setting in Twelve Steps

Based on the recording "The Psychology of Achievement" by Brian Tracy, available from Nightingale Conant.

Step 1: Desire – the great motivator/force that propels us. Set a goal that you intensely desire. Your goals must be and can only be personal. Something you want for yourself.

Step 2: Belief—you must absolutely believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that you have the ability to meet the goal. Of course, you need to make the goals believable and realistic to your conscious mind. If you're earning $20,000 today, you can't make the goal of $1 million tomorrow. You'll need to increment it. More specifically, your goal needs to have about a 50-50 probability of success. This means that it's challenging enough to push you out of the comfort zone but still attainable. You must have an absolute conviction that you will achieve the goal. In fact, the more conviction you have, the more rapidly you'll move toward it.

Step 3: Write it down—this is absolutely essential! The majority of us never do this. This is the way you program the goal from the conscious mind into the subconscious mind. You need to write it down in vivid, clear, precise detail. For example, let's say a new house is your goal; describe it in detail—the number of rooms, the color schemes, etc. Again, this is the most important single step. Until it is written, it is just a wish.

Step 4: How will you benefit?—again, write out a specific list of all the advantages that you are going to enjoy once you have attained this goal. What difference will it make in your life? If there are one or two benefits or reasons to meet this goal, that's great, but if you have 10 or 20 reasons, you'll have even more desire—and the greater and deeper will be your conviction to meet the goal.

Step 5: Current status—where are you right now? This is an obvious one—you need to know where you're starting from.

Step 6: Timeline—decide exactly when you'll accomplish the goal. It must be measurable in terms of time. Be clear and specific. We need to be able to measure the beginning, the middle, and the end of the process.

Step 7: Obstacles—you need to think about—and again, write down the obstacles that you'll have to overcome. Certainly, any goal of consequence will have obstacles that we must overcome. If there are no obstacles, then it's not a goal but simply an activity. It's also important to note that the ones that loom large in your mind may look a lot smaller when you write them down. Often, once you write them down, you'll see that only one or two are really significant.

Step 8: Knowledge needed—again, any goal of any consequence will require additional knowledge to attain it. Perhaps it's market research, a book to read, or people to talk to.

Step 9: Cooperation—people, groups, organizations whose cooperation and assistance you will need; think about how you can serve, how you can compensate and reward others in return for what you want/need from them.

Step 10: Make a plan—from steps 7, 8, 9 above, make a plan complete in every detail, with all the activities required. Itemize and list them in terms of priority. Also list them sequentially. Keep in mind that all plans are really just lists of activities laid out in terms of priority and timeline. Once you've committed this to paper, you must review it and rewrite it—perhaps frequently. When you move forward (or have difficulties and obstacles), you can look at the plan and see where you may need to adjust.

Step 11: A clear mental image—of the goal already attained. Develop in your mind a clear mental image of what your life will be like—what it'll look like—after you've reached this goal. Every time you get the chance, play that picture in your mind—over and over again. That mental picture of the goal already attained can in reality be the most important step of all. Remember, it must be a clear, vivid, distinct image. We will achieve a goal to the degree to which we can see it in our mind.

Step 12: Determination, persistence, and resolve—your persistence is the direct measure of how much you believe in yourself and in your ability to succeed. Never, never, never give up. The best plan will not work unless you do. Some of us are easily discouraged and we'll quit at first sign of defeat. But keep this in mind—everyone who has ever achieved greatness has failed many, many times before they reached that pinnacle of success.