Just like there’s a recipe for chocolate cake, there’s a recipe for goal setting. But if you’ve tried more than one baker’s cake you know that not all recipes are the same.
The ingredients, both quality and amount, will affect the final result. The order and method of combining the ingredients also makes a difference. Utensils, time, temperature and technique add even more variables.
The recipe you choose will determine the quality of the cake you end up with. What are your standards? Do you want passable, good or irresistibly delicious?
Here’s my favorite recipe! I hope it satisfies your appetite for success.
Step 1: Get Inspired
Often people set safe targets to hit – things they’re pretty sure that with a little extra effort they can accomplish. The truth is if our goals don’t make us a little or a lot nervous they’re not big enough! Lying to ourselves about what we really want because we’re afraid we can’t have what we want only leaves us jealous and discontent even after we get what it is we said we wanted.
As Stephen Covey encourages, let’s begin with the end in mind. Answer these questions before moving to Step 2.
- What kind of life, lifestyle, or life conditions do you desire?
- Where do you want to live?
- What do you want your work/career to create for you?
- What inspires you?
- What would your ideal day look like?
- How, where and with whom would you spend it?
- What contributions do you want to make to this world?
- What kind of resources do you want at your disposal?
- If there were no limits, restrictions or obstacles, what would you dare to aspire to be, do or have?
Step 2: Expose Your Buts
Write down all the reasons why you cannot achieve these goals. List every single possible obstacle that could get in the way of you having your dreams.
Keep asking, “Why can’t I have it?” or “Why don’t I have it?” until you run out of answers. Be sure to include all the ludicrous, inane ones too. (Your buts are the contaminants of your old recipe – they must go!)
Step 3: Bust Your Buts
Where did these buts really come from? Whose voice do you hear when they run through your head? Is it your voice, a parent or teachers, that of a coach or neighbor, maybe a loved one or friend?
These beliefs don’t have to be yours, unless they truly serve you. Challenge the beliefs that DON’T serve. What contrary evidence have you ever seen, heard or felt that demonstrates their falsehood?
Identify any person whose achievements are a complete contradiction to your list of buts. List any observation or experience that shows the ridiculousness, absurdity, or untruth of your old buts.
Step 4: Whys Up
No goal is impossible when the WHY behind it is strong enough. Answer these questions:
- Why do I really want this?
- How will it make me feel to achieve it?
- What benefits will it bring to the people I care about?
- Who will I become in the process of reaching this goal?
- Who can I help?
- What will I be able to do for myself, my family and loved ones, my company, community and/or humanity?
What childhood wishes did you want to make come true, for people, animals, the environment or any great cause that could use your help? What legacy would you like to leave? 50 years from now what do you want said about you and the life you lead?
Step 5: Simulate to Stimulate
Fighter pilots, astronauts and racecar drivers use simulators to train for tasks that require precision and exacting procedure. Through a simulator they can get as close to the actual experience without actually doing what they’re being conditioned for.
We can do something similar to prepare for and pre-live the experience of our own goals. We do this by engaging the mind and the body. Here are some ideas.
Create a vision board or screen saver with pictures that represent your ultimate lifestyle and the goals you will achieve to get there. Create a phrase that expresses your goal already achieved and say it over and over again throughout the day.
Write your affirmation/phrases 10+ times per day engaging brain and muscle while you do. Say them while you jump, move around, dance, sing, shout, run or do anything that gets you actively associated to these words and the vision attached to them. This helps move your goal from an intellectual concept, to an emotional experience and ultimately a physical knowing.
Step 6: Chunk It to Slam Dunk It!
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!
When a goal seems too big or daunting it’s time to break it down or chunk it into bite size pieces. For added zest, celebrate after each bite is chewed and swallowed.
Consistent, manageable effort will get you to any goal. This is how you chunk down your goal so you can eat it one bite at a time.
When you get caught up in the mountain of little details that must be handled in order to reach your goal you do a reverse process. You chunk up.
Step 7: Up Your Attitude to Gratitude
Keep a gratitude journal. List at least seven things you are grateful for today.
Being grateful for what we have always seems to put us in a more positive, resourceful frame of mind. The more we notice and appreciate the little conveniences we take for granted the more we stay in this powerful state.
An attitude of gratitude literally accelerates the manifestation of our desires. Our energy is aligned with what we want and it is therefore attracted to us.
Don’t be surprised when your gratitude attitude uplifts the people around you too.

How do we live an extraordinary life? One full of amazement, and one that you live with passion? It is an interesting topic, and with so many people wondering what the key to happiness is, it is worth considering. In this article, we will look at what I call Bliss++.
In my life, I have always sought to live an extraordinary life. As a life coach, I have seen many people ask what is the key to happiness. But happiness and money are totally different things. Though many people believe that more money will make life more happier. The truth is that emotions such as happiness begin with us.
So, what is an extraordinary life? Think about it for a moment. What is an extraordinary life? For me I have managed to create what I think is an extraordinary life, and I call that Bliss++. It includes my ideal health, wealth; success, professional life, and all other areas that I feel need to be included. Bliss++ is my view of what car I want, what dream home I want, and how I want my relationships to be.
For you, you can consider your own Bliss++. You can call it what you want. However, what you call it should mean something to you personally. And every time you think of the word, it should conjure up visions in your imagination of your ideal life.
For many people who achieve great things, goal setting is behind what got them from a to b. From mediocrity to success, however, they choose to define it. I can wholeheartedly agree that goal setting is essential to be able to live an extraordinary life. Ask 100 people about where they are going, if they have a vision, if they have a worthy ideal, and you will find only 4-7 people out of hundred can give you an answer.
Setting goals is all fun; however, it is easy to get stuck there. Goals can be empty by themselves and needs a vision. That vision begins when you go through thinking about what you really want. What would make an extraordinary life for you?
Think about it. Look back here, read this, bookmark it, and send to friends. And most important of all remember. And remember to define your extraordinary life. It is crucial, as Solomon the wisest of them all said that without a vision people perish. And with that wisdom it does not require being a Christian, catholic, protestant or any other denomination. It requires simply thinking about how you want your life to be.
You might not achieve it exactly. It may take a day, a week, a month, even a year to create the whole picture. But, while you are creating the vision, you can start taking action on those goals you have formulated from the vision. If you shoot for the Moon and miss, at least you will have landed amongst the stars.

Wow. I remember when I first started writing. I wish I’d known then what I know now! But don’t worry – I’m going to tell you what I know now, so you can have a super fast and successful start to your writing career.

I did ok in those early days – a few letters got published in some big magazines, I got the odd article accepted here and there in some low profile magazines, and one or two short stories received publication and a few complimentary copies.

But as I say, I wish I’d known then what I know now. I was doing ok, but I was aimless. I had no real direction to go in. If I felt particularly inspired, I might write a couple of articles in one day; I remember once writing three in a single day and getting every single one published. But then I’d bask in the glory of my success for weeks… and it was ages before I summoned the muse to write again.

This is a real stumbling block for the newbie writer. If you have real ambitions as a writer – if you want to get published (and paid for), and you have a list of magazines tucked safely under your pillow that you dream about getting published in someday… you need a plan. You need a goal.

This is something I never realised until a few years ago. You can be the most talented writer out there; you can be the next John Grisham, the next JK Rowling, or the next Stephen King… but it doesn’t matter a jot if you don’t have a plan for how you’re going to get there.

Goal setting can make the difference between doing okay, and getting a few pieces published here and there, or making a successful, full time career as a writer. Even if you only want to keep your writing in hobby status, setting goals for yourself can mean that hobby brings in several hundred pounds a month extra, and puts your name in several well known magazines every month.

So how do you go about setting goals?

Well the first and most important thing you need to do is to be honest with yourself. Grab a notepad and pen, and settle down in a comfy chair where you won’t be disturbed. Ask yourself what you’d really like to achieve with your writing. Be honest – don’t neglect to write something down because you don’t think you could ever do it, or it’s too hard, or you don’t think you’re good enough. This is like the ‘what would you do if you won the lottery?’ question – go all out and dream!

Would you like to write a book? Get a short story in a world famous magazine? What’s the one thing you’ve always wanted to achieve with your writing?

Let’s say you want to write and publish your own book. That’s a big goal. But you can do it – if you go about it in the right way. That’s where goal setting comes in. But you need to know how to do it properly – and for maximum effect.

First of all, write your goal down on a Post-It note. But don’t write it as if it’s something you want – write it as if it’s already happened. So you’d write something like this:

“I am a successful published author, and I make £1000 every month selling copies of my book online and in bookstores.”

This might sound a little strange, but it really works! The key is to write your goal down as if you have already achieved it, and then stick the Post-It note where you will see it often – ideally right by your computer screen. By doing this, you will impress the message upon your subconscious, which will get to work for you and start making your dream come true.

Sounds even stranger now, I’ll bet! Well, the subconscious is an amazing thing, but you don’t really need to understand a great deal about it for this method to work. The simple reason it does work is this – the subconscious cannot tell the difference between what is real and what you tell it is real. Whatever messages you bury into your subconscious, it will make them come true.

Think about it. Have you ever noticed how people who are down on their luck are convinced it’s because they’re naturally unlucky? And then something bad happens to prove it? And that convinces them even more… and so on, in an ever downward spiral?

And think about someone you’ve met who always seems to be doing well? They’re always optimistic, always looking for the best in every situation… and they always seem to be ‘getting lucky’?

Both these types of people have ultimately created their own surroundings. The person who expects to succeed does exactly that – because they work towards that goal, and their subconscious drives them there. The unlucky person expects to be unlucky because that’s what always seems to happen to them – so that’s what their subconscious ‘mirrors’ back to them.

So get your subconscious working for you, and think about what you would really like to achieve as a writer. I have used this technique for some time now, and I can tell you it’s amazing what starts to happen when you trust your subconscious and stick that little Post-It note where you can see it!

A while back, I set a goal to get some e-books published. I wanted to be earning £1000 a month by writing and selling articles and e-books, so I stuck my note on my computer monitor, and I found myself looking at it probably twenty or thirty times a day.

Within a couple of weeks of doing that, my first book was on sale with an online publisher, and I had an agreement with a second publisher to write another one for them. In the same short space of time, I found a website on which I could display and sell my articles (check it out at www.constant-content.com/?aref=5038 – I thoroughly recommend it), and sold a couple within five days of each other. It felt like I’d just ‘got lucky’ and stumbled across all this information… but I know it’s because my subconscious knew what it needed to do, and went for it like a heat seeking missile!

And all thanks to that Post-It note!

So you can see what’s possible. Think about what you’d really like to achieve, and set yourself some goals today. If you follow the technique above, I promise you you’ll be celebrating in no time!

Go to it – and enjoy the journey.

I’m going to get straight to the point with this article so give it a quick read and enjoy. I hope it helps give you some insight on accomplishing something you have wanted to do for awhile.
It might sound ridiculous that goal setting could actually hold you back from completing tasks and dreams you may have. But it seems like everyone tells you should be setting goals for everything you want to accomplish, short tem and long term. Goals can help you sometimes, but in some cases they just lead to constant frustration and they actually bring you down.
Let’s look at this a little closer with an example a lot of people might set forth as a goal. Many people jump online and are looking to start a business online as a way to make money from home and let’s say they set a goal to make $10,000 in their first month. They do this because they seem tons of people making large sums of money in very little time so they think, $10,000 a month, that shouldn’t be to hard.
But what happens when you only bring in $1,000 in your first 30 days online. If this is pure profit you might still be happy but this is no where near reaching the goal you originally set out to meet. So naturally you would feel like you failed to reach your goal and you may be a little disappointed in yourself.
If you continue to not reach this goal month in month out it starts to addup and really weigh on you. Goals have there place and I’m not saying that they are bad and you shouldn’t set them but you need to realize that you should not be emotionally attached to your goals.
An alternative approach would be to set certain milestones for when you want to accomplish things and start out small. Build your confidence by accomplishing smaller feats and if you over produce then it will be a nice surprise. You have to have some sort of end result in mind but break it down in to a day by day task. This makes it a lot easier for you to handle by just knowing everyday you have to complete a few small tasks and over time the snowball into accomplishing great things.
Another helpful tip is to really imagine your lifestyle everyday as if you have already reached the lifestyle you want. His helps crystallize your vision and gives you the fortitude to continue even when you feel down.

Have you ever read the autobiography of a great financier or businessman of the past? How about the biography of a successful inventor or scientist? Most of the great achievers in life were natural born goal setters. They started at an early age to challenge themselves to reach the next objective. The rest of us need to develop the skill in order to make our dreams into reality. Goal setting forms a road map to the destination of fulfilled dreams. You know you want to achieve the goal. The question is how to get there.

Goals are best organized by area of life and then by the “due date.” For instance, if you want to really achieve the life you dream of, it is a good idea to set goals in areas like social/community life, spiritual growth, and health/fitness as well as job, career, or finances. Focusing only on your career, while it is a central issue, can make you into a lopsided work-a-holic who is really not enjoying life in spite of achieving your goals.

Once you have a general idea of the direction you want to go in the different areas of life, think about where you would need to be in three months from now if you were to reach your ten year goal. This takes some consideration, and it is not essential that you get it perfect. In fact, perfectionism will actually keep you from reaching your goals.

Perfectionism, by the way, tends to exacerbate procrastination, which is a major killer of goals and dreams. Often the reason we procrastinate is because we have trouble making up our minds. The reason we have trouble making decisions is that we are afraid we won’t make the perfect decision. In fact, you may be putting off making goals right this minute! Don’t let fear of a less than perfect job of goal setting keep you from taking the first step in setting them.

Think also about where you need to be in six months, or a year, or three years, in order to eventually achieve that dream life. Would you like to be a successful speaker, writer, athlete, or performing artist? Then goal setting will help you get your educational requirements and practice schedule nailed down. These dream professions are never attained without hard work and many hours of disciplined practice.

Here is one word of caution, though, as you dream big, and write down your goals. Make sure you are being realistic about the outcome of these goals. Do they conflict with your basic feelings about ethics or morality? Or are you thinking that reaching a certain goal will fulfill your every emotional need? We are complex, holistic beings who have a range of needs. No one goal, dream, or even person will ever fill that bill. Some find a great deal of peace through their religious faith, but there will still be challenges that test even this rock of stability. Keep this in mind as you set those goals and dream those dreams.

Different people read goal-setting articles for different reasons. Some may need to reorganize their lives and they read such articles to help them go on with life. Others may plan to achieve a higher degree of success at the work place and therefore look for such articles. Some may feel that their outlook towards life needs a reformation and they read goal setting articles to help turn their lives around. So, different people read goal setting articles for different reasons but they help them all find their way, no doubt. Goal setting articles can help you with these factors of your life:
1. The impersonal and objective attitude of a goal setting article can be a blessing to the reader. Many people refrain from attending seminars or counseling classes because they often fear that the speaker may strip them of their pride. Very often we see people from the audience verbally lashing out at the speaker because of something that he may have said to hurt them. This normally comes because the speaker has in fact hit the nail right on the head, and nobody likes hearing about their weaknesses do they? Well, when you read an article on goal setting, you may feel the same pinch, but the fact that you have felt it from a piece of paper helps you control your anger and give the writing some serious thought. However, you need a lot of character to let a goal setting article help you. A speaker may convince you to stay back in the seminar and hear him out, but an article cannot stop you from throwing it away!
2. Easy access to the information. When you attend a seminar that you just love, there is nothing that you could go back to; to refresh your emotions and thoughts on the subject except to wait for the next time the speaker holds a seminar which may be weeks or months away. With an article however, you can re read it as many times as you would love to. Another aspect is that on online articles on goal setting over the internet. You can re read web pages and you can also save them on your PC for further reference.
3. The monetary aspect. Goal setting seminars can cost you a lot of money to attend, except when it is at a church. An article on the other hand, is usually free for all to access, unless it is a book we are talking about.
4. The objective aspect. We are often overcome by the attitude of others at seminars. We clap when the crowd claps their hands, even if we have not truly understood the message. An article on the other hand, helps you really understand the topic at your own pace, without distraction and influence from the environment.

Vision is a topic which can often be overlooked, when setting goals. Creating a vision is one of the best steps any goal setter can take. As you read this article, you will discover more about the importance of having a vision, when setting a goal.
I think it was Solomon who said ‘where there is no vision, the people perish’. This quote is something interesting to look at, as it gives us the real process of setting goals.
You see, goal setting is great. You want a car; you set the goal, and get it. You want the house, you set the goal, and then you get it. This is all good; however, a piece of the puzzle is missing.
Getting the puzzle together is an easy process, when we add to the equation a vision. But, what is a vision? And how do you find your vision?
The only way to create a vision is to first know what you want. This is a great point, because any adult generally has tasted enough of life, to know the things you like. From here you can make that as a starting point.
Your vision doesn’t stop with the car, the house, the vacation, etc. It goes further and thinks about how your life will be. This makes your vision needing a kind of 360 degree view of what you want out of life.
From your lifestyle, to the things you own, right down to your relationships. This entire vision becomes the goal. And like a tree, which has small branches stemming from large branches, your vision will represent this tree.
Now, living that dream, we know stems from having a vision. It is the best anyone can ask for, because now, you have all your life planned out.
Now, you have direction, because you know exactly what you want. Each part has a purpose. If you have a lofty goal to own a jet, you know exactly the purpose of the jet, because it is part of your vision.
The abstract, becomes concrete details, as we can see a vision of life. Exactly how we want it to be. This can only happen with a vision, and the vision is what will drive your life and actions.
When you create such a vision, you automatically feel passionate about it. Over time, you will find that more and more parts become reality. Until one day, you find you are living that vision. And the only way to make that work is through visualization and then a system of goal setting to get your plan of action ready.

Why do we need goals to achieve anything in our life? The answer is as simple as allowing our imagination to pave the way of our success. What do I mean by that? Simply put, our imagination needs to have an end result in order for us to be able to imagine ways to get to that result. Let’s do a simple exercise. In your mind try to trace the route of getting somewhere, but do not think of a specific destination. Imagine different streets you might take, or different roads. Having trouble? Your mind needs that destination if you are going to think of how to get there, doesn’t it? Otherwise there are simply too many options to choose from, your mind can’t sort through all of them, it needs to choose one. Goals work very similarly. In order for us to accomplish anything, first we need to envision what is it we want to accomplish, before we can commit to action.
So why is it that it is so hard for us to both set goals and stick to them until we accomplish them? A couple of the biggest reasons are the way we set goals and the way we think about them. This can fall into two categories: we might be setting goals that are unrealistic, or we start thinking of goals as set in stone. Either way, when we do not accomplish them right away we get disappointed and end up abandoning them all together.
To help us make goals that are both realistic and easy to achieve here are a few tips:
- We need to be specific about the goal that we are setting. So “I want to loose 30 pounds” is better then “I want to loose weight”.
- Second, we need to know the time frame of our goal. So if it is something like “I want to develop a successful consulting business”, and we know that this will not happen right away, we should put it in the long term goal category.
- If our goal is big like the developing a successful business example, we also need to break it down into smaller, shorter term goals that you will accomplish first before getting to the final destination. Like “I want to make a business plan for my new venture” or “I want to find partners that will help me accomplish what I set out to do”.
- We also need to know when we will achieve this goal. So if we look at the business example, it can be something like “I will have a successful business when I will be able to cover all my living expenses from the profits of the business, while working only 30 hours per week” It is something very precise that will signal to us that we have achieved a desired goal.
- Here are also other questions we should ask our selves when setting a goal. Is your goal achievable and realistic? Is the time frame for achieving your goal acceptable to you? Are the costs and consequences of achieving your goal acceptable? Do you have all the resources you need to achieve your goal and do you know where to get them if you do not?
Another very important point about goal setting is that goals are meant to be constantly adjusted! If you think of goals as a guideline that highly depends on the circumstances surrounding it, you are on the right track. Situations in our lives change all the time. This is the primary reason why we need to constantly adjust our goal to make them fit into the new situations life presents to us. All we really have to do is monitor how we are doing with our goals from time to time. Make sure that these goals still correspond to our desires, and if they no longer do, adjust them or set new ones.