3 Secrets to Meet Your Goals Every Time, Without Fail  

If you want to see more success in life, then mastering the ability to set and achieve goals is crucial. Brian Tracy, in his book Get Smart: How to Think and Act Like the Most Successful and Highest Paid People in Every Field, writes:

“Only about 3 percent of people have clear, specific, written goals and plans that they work on each day. The other 97 percent have hopes, dreams, wishes, and fantasies, but not goals. And the great tragedy is that they don’t know the difference.”

Successful people know exactly how to set and achieve goals. They do it for every part of their lives. When a person is completely clear about what he or she wants, then that person can single-mindedly take steps to accomplish it. Tracy goes on to explain, “Goals are the best antidote to ‘fuzzy thinking,’ which is probably more responsible for frustration and failure than any other factor.” Try these steps to take your goals to the next level.

Get Clear
Take time to create a clear vision of what you want your life to be. Some questions to ask might be:

• If I could create any picture of my life, what would it look like?
• What is my definition of success?
• What are my values and how am I living them in my life?
• What do I want people to say about me when I am gone?
• If money were no object, how would I be living?

Taking time to just sit and think can get pushed to the side easily. However, if getting clear is a priority in life, setting and achieving goals becomes easier. You will be in greater alignment with your true purpose and know that all your hard work has greater influence and meaning.

If you just can’t find a spare hour or two in your schedule, this long-term thinking can be done while driving or commuting on the train or taking a shower. If you watch a lot of TV, turn it off for an hour. You will make more progress on your goals by spending an hour working on your vision than by watching television for that hour.

Set One Big 90-Day Goal
Looking at the vision of your life, ask yourself, “If I could move only one big thing forward in the next 90 days, what would it be?” This may be a hard question to answer. Take time to really think it over.

Depending on your work schedule, you must be realistic with your time. My favorite David Allen quote is, “You can do anything, but you can’t do everything,” and it’s so true. When we try to take on too much at once, we can get overwhelmed easily and either lose momentum or simply give up on our goals. When you select one big thing to work on, the real priority comes to the surface. You will be able to focus more time and energy because you will not be divided among multiple projects.

As you consider your big 90-day goal, think about the final outcome you want to achieve. The outcome should be specific, clear, and measurable. For example, instead of “I want to make more money,” a more specific outcome might be “I want to make $100,000 in the first quarter of 2017.” Once you are very specific about the result you want, then get busy on creating the strategy to achieve it.

Create a Strategy
Women are often very good at making lists and getting busy, but where we fall short is in having a clear strategy about how to approach the hard work with measurable results. The more time spent up front planning how the goal will be accomplished, the less time will be needed to spend on implementation. You’ll save valuable time and money with even just a few minutes of planning and preparation.

A simple way to create a strategy behind your goals is to break the whole thing down into smaller projects. A project should usually take a few days or up to two weeks to complete. Tasks are then grouped into each project and ordered by priority. This arrangement presents a clear action plan beginning with what needs to be done first, and it prevents work from being duplicated or needing additional revision. Do your thinking on paper. As tasks are completed, cross them off the list (which is really fun for “list” junkies).

Even if you are not perfect, the best way to set and achieve goals is to try. Don’t be hard on yourself; instead, learn from mistakes and always be on the lookout for better ways of getting where you want to be.