3 Simple Ways to Make Goal Setting Effective

Goal Setting really is the secret to success, once you get over the hurdle of initially thinking of what you want to do in life thoughts and ideas flow freely.

1. Just Do It. I always used to procrastinate with my goals. "It's ok, the goals are in my head" or "What if I don't achieve my set goals?". Before you start making excuses for yourself, just start writing stuff down. Your first one or two may seem a bit stupid, but you will get better at writing your goals after a while.

2. Review your goals everyday. One of the worst things you can do with goal setting is write them once and forget about them. If the goals are out of your mind you will find it hard to achieve them, obviously. When I started goal setting, I used to write the headings of my goals out on a bit of scrap paper, eg. Better Paying Job
or Make $50000 Cash. This is an excellent way to keep focused, the goals can be written on anything, a napkin, whiteboard, back of an envelope etc. The best thing is that you don't need to keep what you have written, you can throw it away afterwards!

The idea behind this is that every time you write those goals, your awareness is shifting to thoughts on how you can achieve the goals and you are effectively brainstorming solutions for those goals.

3. Take action! Obviously if you just write "Win $5 Million in the lottery" and never go and buy a ticket you will have a 0% chance of actually winning the lottery. The same applies to your standard goal setting. Identify your goals and really work for them, eg. If I were to have "Higher Income" for a goal, I obviously would be looking around for opportunities to do so, be it a raise, another job or an investment.

Set your goals in concrete, but make your path in sand.