Setting goals has its own special magic. When we transform desires and fantasies into tangible ideas and goals and commit them to paper we are taking a powerful step toward attaining what we want in our life.

New Year is the traditional time for setting goals. As we anticipate a new year anything can seem possible. As the year rolls on and reality sets in, these goals so often disappear into oblivion. By the time mid-year arrives, our goals are often long forgotten.

Yet mid-year is a great time for planning and reflecting. Setting mid-year goals can be a powerful way to take stock, refocus and renew our commitment to the goals we have.

Here are 8 tips for a powerful mid-year goal setting session:

1. Get yourself a goal book

If you don’t already have one, go out and buy the best, brightest and most appealing writing book you can find. This goal book can become your planning place, your anchor, a reference point, your doubt processer, an evaluation place, your bright ideas holder, your dream catcher, your inspirer and your celebration place. Revisit it often.

2.Revise your goals

If you have written goals earlier in the year take them out and work though them one by one. If not, think back to the mental goals, hopes and dreams you had at the beginning of the year.

Ask yourself:

* What have I achieved so far this year?

* What has changed in my life since the beginning of the year?

* Are the goals I had then still relevant for me now?

* How far have I come with each of my goals?

* Where do I need to go from here?

* Am I prepared to put in the effort to achieve my goals?

* What might stop me?

* How will I overcome this?

3. Rewrite your goals

Write or rewrite your revised goals for the rest of the year into your goal book.

Make sure you keep your goal-setting SMART.

SMART stands for:

SPECIFIC

Vague, unclear goals, without focused energy are likely to go no where.

MEASURABLE:

We need to know where we are with our goal setting process. By breaking our goals into small, measurable tasks we can congratulate ourselves each time we take a small step. This is uplifting!

APPEALING:

Boring goals tend to fizzle out long before they come to fruition. Our goals need to hold special energy and excitement for us. That way our passion will keep us going when we feel like giving up.

REALISTIC:

It’s pointless setting goals that are so far out of reach that they seem unattainable. This is setting ourselves up for failure. To achieve our goals we need to be able to believe in the possibilities we aspire to.

TIME LIMITED:

Open-ended goals can lack power. By setting goals with time limits we are committing our energy to working toward making active steps.

4. Set up mini goals

Take your main goal and ask yourself:

* Realistically, is it possible to achieve this goal by the end of the year?

* If not, how far can I get towards achieving this goal by the end of the year?

* What are all the steps I need to take from here to achieve this?

* What are my next 3 steps?

* What are the next 3 after that?

5. Work out a time line for the rest of the year

Ask yourself:

* What do I need to achieve 1 month from now in order to be on track to achieve my goal by the end of the year?

* How about 2 months, 3 months, 4 months, 5 months and 6 months from now?

Take out a large sheet of paper and divide it into 6 parts for the 6 remaining months of this year. Write the tasks that need to be done in each segment.

Transfer these into your goal book as a month-by-month action plan.

6. Write a positive statement

Write down a positive statement that reflects where you hope to be with this goal at the end of the year. Write this in the present tense as if it is already achieved.

For example:

“It’s 31st December and I’ve successfully saved $5,000 and I’m off to Hawaii for a glorious holiday for 1 week.”

7. Visualize your achievement

Spend some time creating a rich fantasy about how it will be when this goal is achieved. Use your imagination.

* What it will feel like, look like and be like.

* What will you say about this achievement?

* What will others say to you?

* How will you feel about yourself?

* How will you celebrate?

Bring your emotion into this fantasy. The more real and compelling it seems the more

energized you will become as you move towards this outcome.

Our imagination sets the blueprint for our future successes. All successes happen in the mind first. We ‘grow’ into our successes through using the power of our imagination. The clearer the blueprint the more natural it will be when we achieve our goals.

7, Revisit your goals often

Your goals need to be kept warm and alive. Read through your goals regularly – at least once a week. Try to do something towards your goals every day. Spend some time every week writing in your goals book.

Lists are a powerful means of reflection.

Try listing:

* What I’ve accomplished so far is…

* New possibilities are…

* Things that are blocking me from moving forward are…

* My advice to myself is…

* The positive outcomes I see for the future are…

8. Reward yourself

Keep track of your progress month-by-month and take pride in each and every step you take. As you achieve your mini goals, reward yourself well. Each acknowledged, successful step creates the impetus for the next successful step.

Happy midyear goal setting. And don’t forget to enjoy the journey!

Success is a “Premeditated Act”. It begins by setting goals. That explains why goal setting is an essential and important step which many of the success and prosperity coaches encourage when mentoring a student or giving advice to clients.What is a goal anyway ? What is effective goal setting ? First, you need to have your goals written down. That way, you will constantly remind yourself what are you after and not short change yourself. Do you know someone who told you that they wish to achieve something in the new year and ended up achieving nothing ? They get so hyped up during the start of the new year but because they did not have their goals written, they gradually forgot about them as time passes.So, write your goals down. Use some Psychology Tactics to boost your self-motivation. Eg: you want an Audi R8. Get a picture of it and paste it beside your goals. You want a dream vacation to Tihiti.. do you have a picture of the island ? Paste it at your bedroom door or your restroom so that you constantly remind yourself of your goals. – GoalSecond, you need to PLAN your goals. Yes. Goal setting is not just about writing down what you want, but also what you are going to do to achieve it. I say again, write down your plans and your strategy in achieving your goals. The plans will be like a check list towards your goal. With your plans written down, you will be able to know what needs to be done and what has not been done. As you all know, Planning without action leads to nowhere. Action without planning doesn’t always move you in the direction in which you want to go. A lot of people make this mistake when setting goals. They don’t plan… and the end result, they settle for less. – PlanningThird, you need to set a time line for your goal. Goal setting is not effective when it does not have a specific time line. Let me just say that a GOAL is a specific measurable and Time Bound end in which you take specific action until achieved. With a specific time line, you can measure your efforts and your current status vs your goals. Let say you wish to make an additional $25,000 in your income by Jul 2009. Come March, you are only making an additional $500. Now you can measure your efforts vs current status vs your goal. Do you need to step up your effort ? What have you not done ? What else needs to be done in order to expedite your performance, efficiency towards your goal ? – TimeLine Last but not least is doing what you have set out to do. I believe all of us know that we can have everything in the world, but we need to work for it.. so.. Action is the word.. – ActionI wish to share one of the most valuable lesson I’ve learnt over the past years — Jean Paul Getty, one of the wealtiest man the world has ever known once quote this Secret of Success >> G.S.A Know what it means ? set your Goals, Strategise it, and take massive Action…