Learn to Set Goals You Can Actually Achieve

A Secret to Setting Goals and Actually Reaching Them!

Broken dreams, unfulfilled goals. Sound familiar? Most people looking back on their lives can see a long trail of dreams and goals that ended in failure.

With the very best of intentions, we go through cycle after cycle (can you say New Year's resolutions?) of coming up with plans, goals, and waves of willpower that will finally have us "hanging ten"on the big one that will surf us into our dreams.

Then, after a few weeks, months, and for some people only days, we realize that we are right back to doing what we were doing before and another set of hopeful wishes has joined the junk pile. We don't mean for it to be that way, and we are 100% sure the day we write down our goals this is the one time, the final time, the mother of all goal setting that will surely be the one we finally stick to. Alas, here we are again. The last resolution, the last set of goalsare behind you wondering where their master has gone, and here you are reading about how to keep that from happening next time.

There is good news! YOU CAN DO IT! Why do I know? How can I guarantee your success? Because I�ve been there in the same spot you are right now. I have cycled through the same pattern over and over. Not anymore though. Okay, not nearly as often as before. I won�t say �never,� but I rarely fall into the same cycle of disappointing myself. I can�t say that I have been able to keep every goal that I have set, but I can say that for the most part, I am able to set goals, take positive action, and do what I takes to reach my goals.

I want to share 10 secrets about how YOU can set your goals, whether personal, financial, or spiritual, and how you can keep your goals from falling apart like in the past.

Secret One: Set goals that are actually achievable

Have you seen pictures of the people who put huge disks in their lip to stretch it out? Or, maybe you have seen the people who elongate their necks with rings stacked on top of each other. And then there are the guys who stick swords down their throats.

Do you think they were able to do these things right off the bat? Did they just decide one morning to take the largest disk, the most rings, or the longest sword and get the job done. No. They started at the beginning with the smallest first and worked their way on up. One major reason that people fail to reach their goals is they have created goals that are too grand in scope. They are unrealistic and unachievable. Sadly, we are not taught to realistically assess our own abilities or determine our current level of discipline.

If you have spent 10 years putting on 150 pounds, don't think you're going to lose it all in six months and keep it all off. If you have never developed good eating habits, don't make a goal that you will never eat sugar again starting today because it will take about three days to blow that one.

If you've never kept a rigid schedule or developed any kind of habits concerning goals, don't think you're going to change your entire life in one day. You won't. You have to work up to big change by setting achievable goals of small change.

Here�s an example. Your goal is to earn and save $200,000 in one year and be able to do 200 push-ups in one sitting. If you are not a hard worker, if you are not disciplined and educated regarding your business, you will not have the ability to make that kind of money. Similarly, you won�t be able to crank out 200 push-ups tomorrow either.

If you want to be able to do 200 push-ups at a time, start with a goal of two. After you are able to do that, increase it to 10, 20, and then 50. If you set achievable goals, you will be motivated to continue and you will be enthusiastic about your progress. Make your goals reachable. Don�t make the mistake of setting �sky high�goals with the intent of impressing others. That is a recipe for failure.

In order to save $200,000, start with a small goal of saving $20. Then, make $100 and save it. Suggestions for increasing your savings would be to quit spending, stop playing the lottery and eating out five nights a week. Set an attainable goal of saving $500. Then, once you�ve done that, increase your goal to $1,000, then $5,000.

The secret to achieving your goals is taking baby steps. Underpromising and overachieveing will keep you feeling motivated and successful instead of feeling like a failure because you had unrealistic expectations. How do you begin a walk from New York City to Los Angeles? One little step at a time. You may even have to begin with one step a DAY. That�s the mentality you need to make your goals a reality.

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