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Part I:
What a Goal Is
Simply put, a goal is a
little piece of the ideal life that you dream of making
real. It describes the next destination on your journey
to your dream’s ultimate fulfillment.
A dream is a lofty thing, a sweeping panorama of a
lifestyle you want to create. It’s your overarching
vision of the life you want to live. A goal grabs a
chunk of that dream and lets you get busy actually
living it—one doable step at a time.
If your ideal life were a
movie, a goal is the description of one small scene in
it.
Goals bring dreams down to the right here, right now.
And that’s the secret to their power: they work in the
present, the one and only place where you can put your
choices into motion.
Suppose that part of your dream is to create a vital and
vibrant body for yourself, glowing with health, stamina,
strength and flexibility. Goals help you live pieces of
that dream today: Today you do some
strength-training. Today you choose wholesome foods. Today you
walk a quarter-mile.
The Famous SMART
Formula
Part of the greatness of goals stems from their concrete
nature. The more exactly you know what you want to
achieve, the more likely you are to succeed. Most goal
experts suggest that when you write your goals, you use
the guidelines of the SMART formula: Make your goals
Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and
Time-Bound. And while that’s definitely useful advice,
you don’t have to conform to formulas to make goals work
for you. You just have to know what you want and to
decide you’ll do whatever will move you in its
direction.
It really is that simple!
What you will find
throughout this site are tips and techniques that others
have found helpful in shaping your goals in ways that
will naturally lead you to stick to your decision to
move toward their realization, no matter what. Try
them out and find the ones that work best for you.
The Three
Families of Goals
All goals fall into one of
three families:
* Things You Want to Have
-- Tangible objects you
want to own or have access to using. Material
possessions.
* Things You Want to
Do -- Experiences and adventures you want to enjoy.
Contributions you want to make. Ways you want to
express your talents and abilities. Achievements
you want to accomplish.
* Things You Want to Be
-- Personality and character traits you want to
develop or strengthen. Attitudes you want to
acquire or express more consistently. Positive
habits you want to adopt.
The first two families of
goals are easier to work with than the third because
they're tangible. If you are just getting started
with goal-setting, you will experience surer success if
your goal is either a "having" or "doing" goal.
But with a little practice, you will find you can create
powerful goals for the third family, too.
Casting Your
Spell Almost
universally, goal experts agree that the one
essential thing you must do to make your goals
empowering is to write them down. The act of
writing them--whether you use a pen or word
processor--solidifies them. It takes them from the
realm of imagination into the realm of mental focus.
Think of writing your goal as waving your magic wand to
initiate the spell that will begin to make your dreams
come true. It's the act of writing them that lets
your brain know you're serious, that you have formed an
intention to make something happen.
Action Steps You
Can Take to Begin
1. Without worrying
about the best way to do it, begin writing down things
you might want to turn into goals. Some people
enjoy buying an inexpensive notebook to use just for
their goal-play. Others make notes on their
computer in a goals file. The important thing is
to begin writing down your ideas about things you would
like to have, do and be.
2. Spend a few
minutes every day exploring this site. New
articles on goal-setting, success and motivation are
posted frequently in
The
Goal-Getter's Galleria. Click
through some of the other pages here at
Making Goals Work to get ideas
about goals you might want to create or for insights on
how to create them.
3. As you drift off
to sleep at night, ask yourself what you would really
want your life to be like if you could make it into
anything you desired. Then notice what ideas come
to you as you drift off, and what ideas pop into your
mind throughout the next day. Add the ones you
like to your list of potential goals.
Part 2:
What Goal Setting Will Do For You
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