Goal Setting- Self Improvement Bootcamp - Day 4

Today, we are going to cover a very important area, Goal Setting.

The first thing that I want to do is differentiate goal setting from Desires. When I talk about desire, I generally refer to something more emotional, a feeling, the more intense the better. Goals are more specific tangible directives.

Many people have spoken about a Famous Yale Study of students and the importance of setting goals. Others have talked about a Harvard study. Neither of them exist. This is an urban legend that has been around for many years. With that said, I know first hand that goal setting works. In fact, I know first hand that every single person sets goals, whether they call them goals or not.

If you and a friend want to meet for dinner and set up a date for next Wednesday, you’ve just “Set a goal”. The Goal is to “Meet your friend for Dinner”. If you actually meet your friend, you have succeeded. Your goals might not always be written or formal, but we all have goals. My general philosophy is since we’re setting goals anyway, we might as well do a good job at.

With that said, I want to talk about a system for setting goals. It’s actually been turned into an acronym - SMART.

? S is for Specific
? M is for Measurable
? A is for Achievable
? R is for Relevant
? T is for Time Framed

When I completed my first book, Self Improvement: The Top 101 Experts, I set a sales goal for the book. We officially came out with the book as an ebook in March of 2004. My complete goal was to Sell 10,000 copies of my book by the end of the summer. It was specific, 10,000 copies. It was Measurable. It was easy to measure. It’s a number.

After evaluating other ebooks on the market, I felt it was Achievable. I also felt that my goal was very relevant to my business. It was time framed. I wanted to do it by the end of the summer, and the SMART goal technique actually worked. We hit the 10,000 mark by the summer and it was very exciting.

Goals can be made in every area of your life. You can have career and Professional Goals, Income Levels, Social and Personal Goals , Spiritual Goals. It’s endless. I want to continue with another great quote comes from Maxwell Maltz, the author of Psycho-Cybernetics. He said that: “People who say that life is not worthwhile are really saying that they themselves have no personal goals which are worthwhile. Get yourself a goal worth working for.”

I want to share with you a few more ideas to help you achieve your goals.

One way is to get a goals buddy. It’s like a workout buddy. You set goals and hold each other accountable for it. It’s harder to break a goal when other people are holding you accountable for it. Another idea is to Develop a Master Mind Group. A master mind group in its simplest description is a group of people that get together by phone or in person, perhaps weekly, or monthly to help each other with their goals. They hold each other accountable and help generate ideas for each other. One idea that ties into Goals is to Find out your Life’s Purpose. Figure out what you were put on earth for. If you know that, it will drive you toward the completions of all of your goals.

On a more practical level, I suggest that you clearly prioritize your goals. Use a numbering system. What is your # 1 priority, # 2 etc, and work on the higher priority items first. And above all, maintain awareness of what you are doing. It’s important to know the status of your goals, so you know what type of progress you are making.

See you on Day 5!