Making Good Goals
Here is an example of a well-written goal:
Don’t say soon, say a specific date. That locks the date and objective in your mind, so you know what you are shooting at. Write the goals down so they stare you right in the face. Make sure you review your goals often. The last part, and most important, is that the goals are yours. Don’t change careers because someone told you to; do it because you want to.
The best goals are ones that are slightly out of your reach. If you have $30,000 in debt and your budget says you could pay off $28,000 this year, then set a goal to be debt-free. Find an extra job that will make up that $2,000 difference. Make up your mind that your debt is not going to get the best of you. Show your debt who’s boss and become a harder worker while you’re at it.
Keeping Goals in Balance
You should set goals in each of those areas because it provides good balance in your life. If you are focused on your career and nothing else, you’re a workaholic. Only spending time with your family will lead to a flabby gut and busted budget.
Balancing your goals helps you get the most out of life because you get momentum for each area. When you exercise, it makes you feel better and gives you energy to pursue career opportunities. When you do that, it gives you something exciting to talk about with your family. That can help your spiritual walk, and so on. The momentum from accomplishing something spills over into other areas. It really happens!
Rewarding Yourself
You’ve heard that doing a good deed is its own reward? Goals work almost the same way. If you commit to losing 10 pounds and then do it, you reap the rewards that come with it. Your clothes fit better, you feel better about yourself and you have confidence. The vast majority of people make New Year’s resolutions, and that same vast majority forgets those resolutions a couple of weeks later. But when you accomplish your goal, you can walk with your head held high.
If you’d like a little more than that, try this. Give yourself a reward that is unrelated to your goal. You might not want to celebrate losing five pounds by going out for ice cream. However, you may want to treat yourself to a movie. You may want to have fun eating out as a reward for finishing a book.
Get creative here. You know what you like as well as what you are working toward, so don’t do things that are counter-productive to your goals. But make sure to reward yourself, because you are winning!
Mission statements turn your vision into action. As you do any serious goal setting or personal/business planning, you should sit down and write out a personal mission statement. This says in concrete terms who you are, what's important to you, and what you want to accomplish in life. Once you know who you are and what you want, you can then write out a second mission statement for your business or organization.