4 Goal Setting Steps for the Beginner

You’ve heard about setting goals all of your life and now you are ready to commit yours to paper. Congratulations! Follow these four easy goal setting steps for success.

Define Your Goal

Sounds overly simplistic, doesn’t it? Maybe you just want to lose a few pounds or buy a new car or house or improve an important relationship. What is it you need to define? Regardless of what category your goal falls into, break it down into simple, manageable steps so that you will know exactly what it is you need to do to reach your goal. For example, if your goal is to buy a new house, how much will that house cost? How big will it be? Will you need to move across town or across the country to occupy it once you have it? See what I mean? Define exactly what your goal entails so that you can come up with the specific steps you will need to reach it.

Define Your Purpose for Setting and Reaching This Goal

Why are you doing this? Sticking with the example above, why do you want to buy a new house? Is it so your children will have a stable and secure place to live? Is it so you will never have to pay rent again? Knowing exactly why reaching this goal is important to you is an important part of the goal setting and reaching process. Define your purpose and you will fuel your goal setting muscles.

Define Your Assets

What do you have going for you regarding the realization of this goal? For example, if your goal is to buy a new house, what does your credit report look like? If you don’t know, obtain a copy of it now because this could be an important part of your goal reaching process. If you have excellent credit, note this on your goal setting sheet; this will empower you during times of discouragement. If you need to improve your credit before you can reach the goal of buying a new house, you have just identified a step you’ll need to take as part of your house buying goal. By defining your assets that relate to your goal, you will succeed not only in empowering yourself with the range of assets you already have available to you regarding the realization of your goal but you will identify additional steps that need to be taken as well.

Define Your Liabilities

Liabilities don’t have to be negative. Think of them as positive steps you need to take to reach your goal. For example, if you don’t yet have the job you will need to have in order to make mortgage payments on the house you want to buy, it is important to realize that now and set a goal that will aid you in paying for the house once you get it. By defining your assets and liabilities you will be able to recognize the steps you need to take in order to realize your goals. Don’t worry if you get sidetracked and come up with ten smaller goals that need to be reached in order to realize your major goal. That’s all part of the process and will fuel you as you take steps to make the big dreams come true!