Every successful person knows the importance goal setting, it’s key to success in life.  Perhaps the most benefit of goal setting is that it gives you the sense of having a purpose in life.  Instead of living each day unproductively, your goals will propel you to live a productive life.

But of course the key to successful goal-setting and goal-getting is ACTION.  Once you’ve set your goals, you need to make a commitment to always exert a great deal of effort to achieve them.  It’s only through action that you will get results and positive results will continue to aspire you to set new goals and move to the next level.  This will give you a certain feeling of satisfaction for you have proven to yourself that you’re capable of realizing your goals as long as you set your minds and hearts for it.

Goals are the fuel for people to move on with their life.  No obstacles or hindrances can get in their way if they are focused on their ambitions.  They know that they will get what they are aspiring for through perseverance, dedication, and hard work.  For this reason, they are relentless in everything that they do as they are being driven by the goals that they have set for themselves.  This strategy willenable people to improve themselves better as they are motivated to do the things that can help them achieve their goals.

Here are few things you must always remember when setting your goals:

1. First, identify the things that are most important to you.  By doing so, you would be able to discern what you really want to accomplish in your life.  Also, through this, you would be able to prioritize things and eliminate those that are not important.  So that you know what to focus on and not be distracted from your goal.

2. Be serious when setting your goal, no matter how small or big that goal is. As nothing will happen if you’re not serious in what you’re doing.  Goals will be achieved sooner if one has a strong will.  After carefully deciding on what your goal will be, you should live and work your everyday life towards that direction - your goal and desire.  You should not waste a single day in your life.  Again, treat your goal-attaining business seriously!

3. Always remember that a dream would remain as a dream without any action.  That means you should not be afraid of sacrificing and working hard to achieve what you really want in life.  Also, remember that results don’t come overnight so you must not give up until you reach your goals.

So, let’s your goals lead you to a more purposeful life!

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Goals are rarely without obstacles.  If they were easy to attain and without obstacles, you would likely already be doing them, right?  Here are three tips to help recognize and overcome obstacles so you can attain the goals you set for yourself.

Tip #1:  Acknowledge that there are obstacles - it won’t be easy.
Any goal you have set for yourself will likely have obstacles.  The first step to overcoming them is simply acknowledging that fact.  Know that you will have tough times.  Know that it won’t be easy.  Know also that despite the obstacles, you will reach your goals.  You will get through, around, or over the obstacles.  They are there for a reason.  Whether it is to teach you a bit about yourself, to make you appreciate your success when you attain it, or to make you stronger - each and every obstacle you encounter has a positive side to it.

Tip #2:  Educate yourself on what obstacles you’re likely to have.
When you create a goal, you have a few things you can do to help plan how you’re going to attain it.  Educating yourself on potential obstacles is one of the best ways to prepare yourself for success. Research your goal; if you want to lose weight, what are common obstacles you might encounter?  For example, cutting back on sugar may cause some cravings to surface.  Cutting back on caffeine may cause temporary irritability, and taking on a detox diet may cause temporary digestion issues.  Find out what obstacles you’re likely to encounter so you can be prepared for them.  When you’re prepared for them you can overcome them more easily.

Tip #3:  Plan how you’re going to overcome the obstacles.
Once you understand what potential obstacles you might face, you can plan how you’re going to tackle them.  For example, if you know that you’re going to be dealing with sugar cravings, you can have a protein bar solution in your purse, desk drawer and glove box of your car.  If you’re dealing with giving up caffeine and you know you’re going to have headaches, you can plan a few days off of work, grab a bottle of pain relievers, or brace yourself to power through the headaches knowing the reward is on the other end.

When you recognize potential obstacles, it gives you the power to anticipate them and plan how you’re going to handle them so you aren’t tempted to give up on your goal.  Recognizing and planning for obstacles empowers you to succeed.

how to overcome obstacles, overcoming obstacles tips

Everyone, at some point of his or her life, has dreamed of being somebody special, somebody big. And how many times have we dreamed of being rich, or successful, or happy with our relationships? Often, we dream big dreams and have great aspirations. Unfortunately, our dreams remain just that – dreams. And our aspirations easily collect dust in our attic.

This is a sad turn of events in our life. Instead of experiencing exciting adventures in self actualization, we get caught up in living from paycheck to paycheck, fulfilling the dreams of other people.

But you know what? Life could be so much better, if only we learned to aim higher.

The most common problem to setting goals is the word impossible. Most people get hung up thinking I can’t do this. It’s too hard. It’s impossible. No one can do this. However, if everyone thought that, there would be no inventions, no innovations, and no breakthroughs in human accomplishment.

On the other hand, some people suffer from dreaming totally outrageous dreams and not acting on them. The result? Broken dreams, and tattered aspirations.

If you limit yourself with self-doubt, and self-limiting assumptions, you will never be able to break past what you deem impossible. If you reach too far out into the sky without taking actions and working towards your goals, you will find yourself clinging on to the impossible dreams.

Try this exercise. Take a piece of paper, divide it into three columns and write down some goals in your life. Under one column, list down things ‘you know you can do’. Under another column, write the things ‘you might be able to do.’ And under one more, list the things that are ‘impossible for you to do.’

Now look at all the columns every day and strive to accomplish the goals that are under things ‘you know you can do’. Check them when you are able to accomplish them. As you slowly are able to check all of your goals under that heading, try accomplishing the goals under the other column - the one that reads ‘you might be able to do.’

As of the items you wrote under things I could do are accomplished, you can move the goals that are under things that are ‘impossible for you to do’ to the list of things ‘you might be able to do.’  As you iterate through this process, you will find out that the goals you thought were impossible become easier to accomplish. And the impossible begin to seem possible after all.

You see, the technique here is not to limit your imagination. It is to aim high, and start working towards that goal little by little. However, it also is unwise to set a goal that is truly unrealistic. Those who just dream towards a goal without working hard end up disappointed and disillusioned.

On the other hand, if you told someone a hundred years ago that it was possible for man to be on the moon, they would laugh at you. If you had told them that you could send mail from here to the other side of the world in a few seconds, they would say you were out of your mind. But, through sheer desire and perseverance, these impossible dreams are now realities.

Thomas Edison once said that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Nothing could be truer. For one to accomplish his or her dreams, there has to be strong belief, actions and discipline. But take note that 1% has to be a think-big dream, and not some easily accomplished one.

So dream on, friend! Don’t get caught up with your perceived limitations. Think big and work hard to attain those dreams. As you step up the ladder of progress, you will just find out that the impossible has just become a little bit more possible.

achieving goals, how to set goals

Creating goals is one way of making empowered changes in your life. But how do you create an effective organizing goal? Here are a few simple steps to help you.

1. Write it down.

Writing down your organizing goal makes it more real to you. We tend to stick to our written commitments better than our verbal commitments. Saying you are going to do something is one thing. It creates more resonance with you and a better likelihood that you will stick to your goal if you write it down. Even better, write it down every day from now until you have actually accomplished it.

2. Make it a goal that will make you feel better about yourself.

Think for a moment about the number one thing in your life right now that if you got it organized, would make you feel 10 times better about your life. You know what it is, that one thing that would change how you feel if you got it organized today. Maybe it is an area of your home or of your office. Maybe it is getting your schedule organized or getting your morning routine to go more smoothly.

The reason why it needs to be something that will make you feel better about yourself is because you will be a whole lot more likely to take action on that goal if it is something that will make you feel better about you. It is one thing to be happy that your living room is organized. It is a whole other ballgame to feel better about who you are as a person because you finally got your schedule organized and you are no longer showing up late everywhere.

3. Make it specific.

Writing down a goal like “I want to get my life organized” is not going to help you. Get specific with your goal. The more specific you can make it, the better off you will be. Something along the lines of “I am going to organize my kitchen” is much better and gives you a clear idea of what you are going have actually accomplished once you meet your goal. What exactly does an organized life look like anyway? I know I have not accomplished this one and I am a professional organizer!

The one caution I have here is that you not make your organizing goal too specific. So having a goal of getting the kitchen utensil drawer organized would not be a good one. Setting organizing goals like this means you would be setting a new one every day! Your target here is to have an organizing goal that is general enough so that it is going to take you at least one month to reach it but specific enough so that you have a definite end in sight.

4. Make it measurable.

This goes hand-in-hand with getting specific about your organizing goal. The best way to make your organizing goal measurable is to give it a specific timeframe. So if your goal is to get your kitchen organized, then give yourself a date for when you will have that organizing goal accomplished. Then circle that date on the calendar, put stars on it, whatever you need to do to make that date stand out for you.

My caution on this one: make it a realistic date. Don’t overestimate what you can do. You are better off overestimating the time it will take you to get it finished than underestimating it. Yes, there is psychology at work here. If you get your organizing project done in less time than you estimated that it would take you, you will feel better about yourself and about the organizing project. It will also help keep you motivated so that you do more!

5. Believe you can do it and get excited about it!

If you don’t believe that you can accomplish your organizing goal, guess what, you won’t be able to do it. And if you know with certain knowledge that you can do it, that’s even better. When you know, and I mean really KNOW you can do something, you get the power to do it. If this is an organizing goal that you have set for yourself repeatedly but that you have yet to follow through on, ask yourself why. If it is a goal that isn’t really all that important to you, if you can’t get excited about accomplishing it, then don’t bother because you’re not going to get it done anyway. The way that you stay motivated towards achieving any goal in your life is by getting excited about it, by getting excited about how your life is going to look and feel different once that goal is accomplished. If you can’t work up some sort of passion for this organizing goal, pick a new goal.

Jill Borash is a professional organizer and author of 5 Simple Steps For Organizing Every Room In Your Home who believes in empowering people to take charge of their lives, homes and offices through organization. Jill

Mark Twain once said: “The secret of getting ahead is getting started; and the secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small, manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”  More than a century later, this is still true and that’s why planning is so important.

Plans are crucial in developing and maintaining your ambition for success.  They’re also extremely helpful when you’re trying to reach a goal.  Whether you’re deciding to quit smoking, lose weight, begin an exercise routine or any number of health goals, a plan will not only help you reach your goals, it will help you stay motivated.  Here are a few items to include in your plan:

Goals

Of course you likely already have a goal in mind.  Maybe you want to lose weight, quit smoking, exercise more or feel less stressed.  A good goal is a goal that is measurable.  For example, how much weight do you want to lose?  How much do you want to work out?  Good goals are also timely.  When do you want the weight gone?  When will you absolutely have your last cigarette?  Your goal also needs to be realistic.  Does your goal make sense for your lifestyle?  If you want to run five miles a day but you work ten hour days, it might not be feasible.  How can you make your goals fit into your life?  Maybe instead of five miles a day, you run three miles a day during lunch and ten miles on Saturdays.

Rewards

How are you going to reward yourself?  Rewards are important for keeping the motivation alive.  However, they can also derail you from your goal if the rewards are inappropriate.  For example, if you’re on a strict, no sugar plan and you reward yourself for a week with no sugar by eating a piece of cake, then you just set yourself back.

However, if you reward yourself with a massage, a night out at the movies or a treat that you would enjoy that isn’t full of sugar, then that is an appropriate reward you can look forward to and feel good about.  Make the rewards fit the accomplishment.  If your large goal is to run three times a week and you’re starting with an initial goal of running once a week, reward yourself for running once a week with a smaller reward like a new song for your iPod.  And when you reach the goal of running three times a week you, reward yourself with new running clothes or a new pair of jeans.

Steps you’re going to take

Any large and lofty goal needs a plan, a plan that will include steps to take to achieve your goal.  For example, if you set a goal of losing 50 pounds, how are you going to do it?  Certainly losing 50 pounds cannot be accomplished overnight.  Perhaps a tiered plan of losing five pounds a month would be easier to achieve, with the end goal of losing 50 pounds in ten months.  Now you can break down each month into tangible steps. For example, losing five pounds a month will likely require dietary and physical lifestyle changes.  What will you need to change in your life to reach your goal each month?

What will you do when you have setbacks?

Setbacks will happen to most people, just like bad days will happen.  It can be extremely helpful to plan how you’re going to handle any setbacks.  For example, will you journal about the setback to help you understand why it happened?  Will you rally your support group around you when you feel on the verge of a setback?  How will you make setbacks okay?  How will you power through the tough times and keep working toward success?

What you’ll do when you attain your big goal?

This is the fun question, once you reach your goal - and you will - what will you do?  Will you celebrate by yourself or with friends and family?  Will you rent out a blimp and announce your success to the world in bright lights?  Will you document your success so you can refer to it when you feel the need to reflect?  Will you keep the ball rolling and set another goal to attain, now that you know how to do it like a pro?  Well, the answers are obvious, once you’ve got it, planning and winning become your second nature.

the importance of planning

Success can not be attained overnight. But, still, it can be attained. Funny how people can be so impatient most of the times. Just observe students in the middle of their school life. Instead of being excited that they’ll soon finish education, they would complain of getting bored and wanting to stop schooling for work or, worse, play.  Employees and office people, by the time they think they have earned enough money for their family, would plan leaving work to just stay in the house.

With these kinds of thinking and attitude, how would one expect to reach his goals in life?

Life is too precious to waste living it without a plan or goal. It is too short not living it to the fullest.  But let’s say you have a goal, a dream or a wish you want to fulfill, would that be enough? The answer would be yes, as long as you have the assertiveness to reach it. It wouldn’t be called a goal if you don’t have the plans of achieving it, right? On the other hand, having a goal without the will to make it into reality is not enough.

Another problem regarding this matter is that people do have a goal but just don’t have what it takes to achieve it, or so they thought. Again, they become blinded by the negativity of their minds. Money, socio-economic status, race, age, gender – these are just a few factors that hinder individuals to think that they have what it takes to attain success that everyone has been dreaming of.

So what if you don’t earn a lot of money? Will that be reason enough for you not to attend school or find a job? How about if you are not among the authorities in your society? Or you’re of a different race? Or you’re still young? Or you’re a female? Should they even be considered reasons to discourage you in turning your dreams into reality? I don’t think so. It is only your mind that says so. Hence, fight it!

What you can do is put your mind into something you want to happen. Say, you want to be a writer. Therefore, think as a writer, feel as a writer, and be a writer. Practice. Read a lot. Grab all opportunities that would make you a writer. Like everything else that we wish to happen, in reaching for a goal, we should make sacrifices – time, effort, responsibilities, etc. After all, success does not come overnight. But eventually, it will. And before anything else, believe that  “You can reach your goals in life”.

how to reach your goals, reaching your goals

If you are bored with life, if you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things-you don’t have enough goals. -Lou Holtz

When you set a goal for yourself your subconscious mind will work day and night to reach it.

In the book “Think and Grow Rich” Napoleon Hill states that your goal has to be specific and have a time frame. An example would be;

“I will earn $5,000.00 per month from my business as (state your business or service) on Aug 1 200? by helping folks learn to have a more successful personal and business life by providing a service of (state here) that will help these new friends and customer’s Personal Development”.

I have changed the way Napoleon Hill suggested how to make your goals a little bit, I do not believe in limiting myself, so I would state this example as over $5,000.00 and before Aug. 1 200?

Another example would be; “I will lose at least 10 lbs. before Aug 1 200? by eating healthy and exercising for at least 1/2 hour 5 days a week.”

Your goals need to be as specific as possible (color, size, shape, ect.) so your subconscious mind will be able to achieve them. Your goals need to state how you will make them possible, otherwise your goals are just wishes.

In order to reach your goals quickly read them (out loud) and/or write them out at least twice every day, once in the morning and once at night.

Your want your goals to be large enough that they make you feel uncomfortable, your goals need to push you out of your comfort zone, if you feel uncomfortable (in a good way) your goals are large enough to make your subconscious mind work.

Write out your major goal and keep it in your wallet or purse where you can read it and see it more often. Make a goals book (I use my Day-Timer) Write out 100 goals that you want to achieve in your life. Like 30 things I want to have, 30 things I want to do or places I want to go to, 30 things I want to be in my life. These goals do not need to be specific yet, just write them down and look at them from time to time, go back to them and fill after you have your list completed and fill in the details, start moving them into 1 year, 3 year, 5 year and 10 year goals.

After you have achieved your goals, mark them with a check mark, a yahoo, I high light mine with a bright yellow marker. My daughters put their goals in a book from a store specifically designed for this purpose, you can glue in pictures, write, draw pictures what ever you like. This is like a dream board.

There are many different ways to make goals, affirmations and intentions. The main thing is to find something that has worked for someone else that feels right to you and do it, keep working on your goals every day and you will reach your goals and dreams.

Lee Stuckey is the owner of Key2Wealth.net, he writes on a variety of subjects concerning the 4 Pillars of Wealth Creation. To learn more about this topic Lee recommends you visit: Key2Wealth.net