8 Steps to Successful Goal Setting - Or, How to Write Your Vision and Make it Plain!

There is not a success mentoring expert alive today who won't tell you that you have to get some clarity over your goals - and the best way to do that is to write them down.

"If you don?t know where you?re going," wrote George Harrison, "any road will take you there".

If you don't set clear goals you "won't get nowhere" - true: but the somewhere you get to could be anywhere, which is rather like "getting nowhere fast" - or even "getting nowhere slow", depending on your pace!

On the other hand, Emerson observed that,

"The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going."

I love the first four words of that quotation: "THE WORLD MAKES WAY..." If you have a clear goal and a strong will, the world becomes pliable to your intention. That is an amazing and empowering thought if ever there was one!

In short, you have far more chance of realizing your dreams if you first set clear goals. You have to "write your vision and make it plain" - and here is my recommended procedure for doing so:

1. First of all, fix in your mind a clear picture of what you want. A vague idea lacks vigour and is of little value. Write down exactly what you want.

For example, don't just write, "I want a new house", but instead write "I want a stone-built, detached house with six bedrooms, set in two acres of land in the Yorkshire Dales, England. (They don't come cheap, by the way!) You will find the process is much more fun when you are particular and write everything down than when you just have a vague notion in your head somewhere!

2. Once you are sure that you know what it is you that you want, whether it is a physical object or some other goal, it is time to make your vision plain.

Visualize it, touch it, hear it, go suck it even, if that helps!! Imagine moving into your new house, smelling the fresh Yorkshire air, the wind and the rain(!), and hear the sheep bleating in the dales and hills.

3. Make your goal such that you can measure your progress and know when you have achieved it. How will you know when you have achieved it? In this case, owning a new house is easy - you?ll know you?ve achieved it when you?ve moved in!

However, if your goal is a vague one such as to "succeed in business", it won't be so easy to measure. You need to define what you mean by successful. How much money will you be making? How many new customers will it take to make that much extra money? Be specific.

This is a vital step because you need to know exactly what you are aiming for. Also, a clear vision is more motivating because it gives you something definite to work towards.

4. Make sure you are pursuing a goal that is realistic and achievable. I don't mean that you should lower your sights. Think big; set goals that challenge you, but in order to reach a distant destination you will need to set up a series of milestones, minor goals that you know you can achieve.

Each time you reach one of your goals it will give you greater confidence to keep on keeping on towards the bigger goals that lie ahead until you get to the place you set out to go to...

5. Next, place your goal within a clear timeframe. If you don?t do this you will not be motivated to take the necessary action TODAY and every day. Goals that start with "One day I want to..." simply won?t work because "some day" is never TODAY!

Some people don?t like setting timeframes because they are worried about missing the mark. However, the point is to give your vision a sense of urgency to get you moving towards your goal.

If you don?t hit the date quite on time this does not matter as long as you are getting there - and you?ll be getting there a lot quicker if you have a sense of urgency generated by a target date.

6. You'll like this one! Think about how you'll reward yourself when you reach your milestones and ultimately, your goal. It is good to treat yourself each time you achieve a goal. It will also fire you up to achieve yet more and give you the motivation you need to go for yet bigger goals.

7. Write down all the steps you must take to reach your milestones and your goal and work out when you need to get them done, then put these target dates in your diary. Refer to them every day and stick to them!

8. Finally, write a concise statement of your goal that encapsulates the vision and the time frame. Write it in the present tense to make it real.

For example: "By September 30th 2010, I am living in a $950,000 stone-built detached house that is set in two acres of land in the Yorkshire Dales. I can hear the sheep bleating and the shepherd whistling to his sheep dog while I reward myself by relaxing over a bottle of wine in my beautiful English garden."

And if that is what you really want, the act of writing it out so clearly should be enjoyable and fill you with the motivation and inspiration to achieve it.

Look over your goals each day and implement the steps that you wrote down in your statement. As you progress towards your goal you might want to make some changes and modifications as your priorities and perspectives change. That is fine.

The main thing is that you have written down your vision and made it plain; now the world can do nothing but MAKE WAY for you to achieve your goal.