Goal identification is undoubtedly one of the most powerful ways to set goals that is freely available to anyone’s access. While many have heard about goal identification and they understand why they should engage in long term goal planning, the majority of the people out there still fail to achieve the goals that they have set.
One of the most common reasons people fail to achieve their goals is because they do not understand how personal goal setting works. They thought that all they need to do is to identify a goal, and that’s all.
This is not how it works. Goal identification is more than just writing down your goals. It is more than just having the thought of dreaming and feeling excited when you think about the success you want. And always remember this, if you fail to reach your goals, it is not that goal setting does not work for you, it is because you don’t work.
Here are 10 powerful ways to set goals you can apply to achieve the success you want and live the life you have always desired.
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Make your goals super exciting
The first thing you need to do is make your goals super exciting. Do you know that most people give up on their goals because they lose interest and motivation toward their goals?
If you are earning $1,000 a month, making an additional $100 is not going to motivate you to want to jump out of bed in the morning and work on it. Most people get it wrong because they thought that they can set any goal they want. It is not. The goals you set must be exciting to you that you will look forward to achieving it.
If your goals are not exciting to you, you will never want to do the work when the tough times come.
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Include numbers and make your goals measurable
The second tip is to include numbers to make your goals measurable. It is difficult to measure if your goals do not have any means of measurement. For instance, a goal to “make an online presence” is not measurable, while “building a Facebook fan page of 10,000 fans” is something more tangible.
When you include numbers and make your goals more measurable, you are making them more tangible. And a tangible goal allows your mind to come up with a better strategic plan to reach it.
Therefore, take a few minutes to think about your goals right now. How can you make them measurable? You must be able to tell when you have reached your goals.
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Include a deadline for your goals
A lot of people understand about having a deadline, but having a deadline is not just about putting a date on your goals, you must be committed to the deadlines.
Some people overestimate themselves by including an unrealistic time frame to their goals. For example, when it comes to building a successful business online, many people will set their goals as to earn a million dollar in the first year. While this goal is possible, but for most people who have no experience and have never earned a cent from the internet, this goal is a little unrealistic.
When your goals have unrealistic deadlines that you do not believe in, you will sabotage yourself. You will never want to take action because you know it very well that it is impossible to hit the goal. Hence, set a realistic time frame, and more importantly, be committed to it.
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Review your goals daily
Now, goal setting is not a one-time work, it is continuous and long-term work. You need to review your goals to remind yourself of them each day.
If you are going to set your goals and then put them aside and forget them, you will never reach them. Most people set their New Year resolutions, but they have already forgotten about the goals after the first week of the New Year.
Never allow this to happen to you. Review your goals daily. Condition your goals into your subconscious mind so that you will think about your targets, walk with them, sleep with them, eat with them, talk about them, and dream about them.
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Come up with a plan of attack
Another tip you can apply is to come up with a plan of attack. Once you have identified your targets, you must also identify how you are going to hit them.
Brainstorm and write down all the necessary steps you need to take to accomplish your goals. Things may not go according to your plan, but having a plan is much better than having no plan at all. Just like the saying goes, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
Understanding your plan allows you to see clearly what you need to do each day as you make progress.
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Identify your roadblocks and get rid of them
Another key step to achieving what you want in life is to identify the potential roadblocks you are going to face in your journey and learn to get rid of them.
For example, if you want to start an e-commerce website selling homemade cakes, you must understand what are the roadblocks that are stopping you. Is it that you have no technical skills to build a website? Do you know how to use social media to market your e-commerce website?
Knowing the roadblocks up front is good because you can then find out the solutions and reduce the hiccups along your journey. If you have no technical skill to build a website, perhaps, you can hire somebody to do so, or maybe you have a friend or a relative who can help. When you know the solution, you make it easier to travel through and progress to toward your goals.
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Take consistent action
There is no point to keep talking about your goals because talk is cheap. What you need to do to achieve your goals is to take action. Not just action, but consistent action.
Success may not come to you within a day or two. It requires tremendous effort and patience. Thus, make sure you are able to sustain and take consistent action. Remember, what you do once in a while is not as important as what you do every single day.
So, be consistent. You don’t have to start big or take massive action, but you do need to be consistent and keep moving forward.
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Measure and track your progress
Next, measure and track your progress. This is where people fail too because they are not doing anything to measure their goals. If you are not measuring your progress, how can you tell if you are moving forward or backward?
The first step you need to take in order to lose weight is to measure yourself. However, most people fail to understand this concept and they journey through without doing any tracking.
As a result, they start to lose direction and lose hope whenever they do not see the big results that they want. Tracking and measuring allow you to see the small increments and tiny successes, which you can then celebrate and keep accumulating to create bigger success.
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Improve your strategy
One more powerful tip on goal setting is that you must constantly improve your strategy. Whenever you fail to produce the result you want, you don’t have to feel dejected, instead, treat your failure as a feedback so that you can learn and improve to do better.
Most people lose hope and motivation when they do not get the results that they desire. Never let this happen to you. Failure is extremely normal and please understand that failure is not the opposite of success, in fact, failure is part of success.
If you have never failed before, it means that you have never tried before. Turn failures into stepping stones that shortcut your learning curve and get you where you want to go.
When you study highly successful people like Thomas Edison and Michael Jordan, you will understand that they are not afraid to make mistakes or to fail. They treat mistakes and failures as feedback, and then improve themselves to do better.
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Commit and be serious about your goals
Finally, commit and be serious about your goals. This is where most people get it wrong. They don’t treat their goals seriously. They do not even want to write down their goals. If you are not serious about your goals and dreams, who else will?
Plus, when you are not committed, you will never do what it takes, you will only do what is convenient. Therefore, turn your goals into a commitment. Decide that you will do whatever it takes to achieve them.
If you are not going to be serious about your goals, it is better not to set them in the first place because you are going to fail. Unless you treat your goals seriously, you will never be committed to doing anything about them. This is especially obvious when the tough times come.
Think about it, when it rains and it is cold outside, will you wake up early to act on your goals? Or will you decide to continue to sleep in the comfort and warm bed of yours? The choice is yours.
