Do you have goals? And are you achieving them?
Creating clear goals is perhaps one of the most essential ingredients to personal and professional success. To achieve the results you want, you have to know exactly what you’re seeking. That’s where effective goal setting comes into play.

For example, I was in the Smith Barney office the other day. And a successful financial consultant told me he had a hard time writing down his goals. That didn’t surprise me because most people aren’t taught how to establish goals in school.

So exactly what is a goal? A goal is the ongoing pursuit of a worthy objective until accomplished. These words indicate that a goal is a process that involves a chase, obstacles, hurdles, persistence and reward.

How do you create goals that will take you where you want to go? You can enhance your results by setting the right kinds of goals, according to the “Power of Focus” by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt. To maximize your potential for success, the authors say, your goals should be:

• yours
• meaningful
• specific and measurable
• flexible
• challenging and exciting
• aligned with your core values
• well-balanced
• contributing to society
• realistic
• supported

Once you set your goals, you need to determine exactly when you want to achieve them. A three-month time frame is a good place to start because it’s not too far away. Yet, it allows you enough time to establish some significant targets.

When setting goals, it helps to divide your desires into seven categories. For example, your goal categories could be financial, work, play, health and fitness, relationships, personal and contribution. Then devote a portion of your time to accomplishing one significant goal in each of these areas every 90 days. If you’re a real go-getter, you can increase it to two goals. Be sure to set a specific goal, the reason for wanting to accomplish this goal and the date the goal should be accomplished. You can create a simple chart to track this information.

Initially, it may seem too ambitious to complete these goals in three months. But it is possible. Simply start with the smallest challenges and gradually increase the size of your goal. Keep in mind that it’s more important to create seven mini-victories than to reach for targets that are too high.

For example, one of my clients had a goal of doubling his income within 12 months. So in the next 90 days, we figured out what it would take on a per-month basis to double his business. Then he appropriately increased his level of cold calls, mailers, referrals, seminars and networking to boost his business. He didn’t double his business in the first month. But, he did meet his 90 day goal and doubled his business by that time. Having clear goals, a good plan, and someone to challenge him definitely gave him the results he deserved.

And so can you. If you keep your goals in the forefront of your mind and remain persistent, you’ll find yourself achieving one victory after another. Over time, you’ll begin to enjoy more balance in your personal and professional life. And this can lead to greater peace of mind.

“We do not know who we are until we see what we can do.”
-Martha Grimes