How To Set Goals

Now that we know what our gaps are, it's time for us to set some goals. We needed to do the other steps first though, in order to set our goals properly. This is step three of the Route tough success formula. This is where the rubber meets the road. So let's jump in and set some goals. Let's talk about the most important ingredient for a fulfilling life. Goals. Goals are the subsets of your mission. And your mission is just a global goal. The bottom line is that successful people set goals. The more specific and focused the goal, the greater your probability of success. Top level athlet Successful business people and achievers of all fields set goals. Setting goals gives you long term vision and short term motivation. Goals are a trigger for your behavior. They focus you in on the knowledge you need to acquire. They also guide you to where you should be spending your time and energy so you get the highest return on these valuable limited intrinsic resources. Goals are what take us forward in life. They're the oxygen to our dreams. They're the first steps on every journey we take and likely the last. It's very important that you realize the significance of goal setting and just as important that you apply this knowledge in your life. Remember, knowledge will not apply itself. Now, there are certain principles that should be followed when setting goals. All major goals should be written out. Goals that are not in writing are far less likely to be accomplished than those that are carefully written out. The likelihood of achieving a given goal in writing is 1000% greater than an unwritten goal in your head. It gets more embedded deeply into your subconscious mind when you put it in writing. And your subconscious mind is a powerful force when working to achieve your goals. Next, be very specific when writing out your goals. What exactly is it that you want to accomplish? Third, have a specific measurement so you can track progress and be sure you'll know when the target is met. Times, amounts or other specific units of measurement are key. Goals should be challenging. In other words, not too easy, but also attainable. You should encounter obstacles, but know that they can be overcome with persistence and an excellent plan. They are in alignment with achieving your mission. And finally, goals should be time bound, meaning that they have start time and a deadline. A goal without a start line rarely gets started, and a goal without a deadline rarely gets completed. So now step five in our goal setting process is to actually state our goals in writing. Since we've done a gap analysis, this should be much easier. For each of the categories, state the specific goals you need to accomplish to close the gap. Remember that they should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound. We're going to get to this in the project planning phase. A crucial part of any goal setting process is to be sure that you have a strong reason to achieve your goal. This is known as your purpose. You need a strong why this goal needs to be done. The reason for this is that goals take effort. If you don't have a good reason or purpose or why you should expend the effort, you won't do it. This is especially important when you encounter obstacles like not wanting to get out of bed. When you want to work out, right? You want to go to the gym, you're like, oh, I don't want to get out of bed. But if you have strong purpose, you get your blank out of bed and hit the gym. Having a strong purpose is also a great procrastination and distraction buster. It helps you to get started. Now. My favorite example of purpose is depicted by the parking lot of a gym. What does the parking lot of a gym look like in the winter? It's usually pretty empty. Why? Nobody has to really show off their body in the winter. We're all bundled up. But what happens in the springtime? What season's right around the corner? Summer. I'll tell you what season, right? All of a sudden the gym parking lots are full. Why? Because summer's coming, clothes are coming off and they need to get their bodies into shape to show them off because they want to attract a mate. So they hit the gym regardless of whether they feel like it or not. That's what purpose is and that's why it's so crucial for your goals. Make sure you have a strong purpose for any goal that you set so you're incentivized to fight through any obstacles that come between you and and achieving your goal. Now step six in our goal setting process is to come up with a strong purpose for each of your goals so you have a strong reason to follow through on the execution of your plan and achieve your goals. In summary, when you go through the process either by yourself or ideally at our workshop or with a coach, which increases your probability of success. This is what you should have so far for each area of your life, like health, family, career, finances, social life, et cetera. Number one, the category within the area. So exercise would be a category. Then you'll do your gap analysis. Where you currently are, what your target is, and what the gap is that needs to be closed. Set a specific goal. That's number five. And don't forget to have a strong purpose for achieving the goal.