Yesterday, I shared the first characteristic of successful people: having a clear, compelling vision. Successful people know what they really want in life. Their vision ignites their passion, clarifies their purpose, and helps them find greater meaning in life. Today, we are looking at the second characteristic of successful people: having written goals. Successful people use goals to turn lofty ambitions into consistent action and a compelling vision into reality!
Written goals are important for many reasons:
· Written goals focus your thinking.
· Written goals help you identify and track the necessary steps to accomplishing them and accomplishing goals provides you with confidence to tackle more complex goals.
These are the key elements for setting goals that get results. Goals must be:
· Specific and clear
· Measureable
· Achievable (but challenging)
· Results oriented
· Time framed (incremental)
Once you have set a goal, define a clear finish line so you know when you’ve achieved it. This is done by putting your goal into the following formula:
Go from “X” to “Y” by “When”
Examples:
· Go from $1 million in sales per month to $2 million by December 31.
· Go from 225 lbs. to 175 lbs. by December 31.
Once you’ve established your goals and defined a clear finish line, identify 2 or 3 actions to take to move you closer to your goal. The 80/20 rule states that 80 percent of results flow from 20 percent of activities. So, ask yourself, “What critical actions, if done with excellence, will have the greatest impact on achieving my goal?”
Having discipline around this process will enable you to discover things about yourself you may have never known. Your confidence will grow as you develop your competence and soon you will have established a track record of goal accomplishment. But not just goal accomplishment… goal accomplishment vital to fulfilling your vision!
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