Goal Setting: How to Do It and
What It Does for You

A lot of people talk about goal setting.  It is very good for you for a number of reasons.  One, it let’s you track your life; it gives you a map of where you would like to be.

Does goal setting answer all of our questions, and solve all of our problems?  No.

Ever get a map from “AAA”, and ask them how to get from New York to Los Angeles, and ask “AAA” to give you the most direct route, or the scenic route?  You get maps back from them that are highlighted and show you which path to take.

Goal setting is taking your life and deciding not only where you want to go in life, but also how you are going to get there.

I have been goal setting most of my life, and a lot of goals that I have set never come true.  Now, you may be saying to yourself, if you set a goal shouldn’t you always get there?  Well, sometimes you do and sometimes you don’t, but if you never set any goals do you end up lost somewhere between New York and Los Angeles (metaphorically speaking).

But if you have a map of the way to get from New York to Los Angeles, and stop along the way and discover Chicago and love it, then you can adjust your goals when you get to Chicago and live by the lake, have a family, and live happily ever after.  There is nothing wrong with changing your goals.  In fact, people who don’t change their goals are sometimes what we called obsessed, and are considered by many to be ill.

But there is also an art to setting goals if you want them to guide you on your path of life. 

Here are some tips: If you write down, “I want to be a millionaire,” that is what you are going to get. Wanting to be a millionaire.  It would be better if you wrote I am millionaire, and stuck that on your mirror in the bathroom.

Good goal planning requires some visualization, the ability to close your eyes and use your imagination to see yourself, hear yourself, and feel yourself be what it is that you want.  You need to want it, see it, hear it, and feel it.  I speak in front of people, and that means I see myself giving my speech and how people are going to react, and I always see myself getting a standing ovation, even though there’s a few times I’ve instead been heckled. I don’t see the heckling in my mind, and fortunately I haven’t been heckled in quite some time.

I saw myself acquiring wealth, and I did.  I saw myself saving money, and I did.  But there are many things that I have set down on my goals, that did not happen, and I had a change of mind of where I wanted to go in life.  That is OK too; it is OK to change.

Something that you might have been willing to pay a price for, you no longer wish to pay that price.  You may get married, and decide that it is time to do something different in life.  You may find that you don’t like what you are doing so you change direction in your life; it is OK.  Goal setting is getting that map, but if the map didn’t have any roads on it what good would that be?

Here is a map with some roads on it so you can fill in the blanks and achieve some turbo power with your goal setting.

First New York, what do you want in your future?  (I am writing from Los Angeles at the moment.) And what might be the next logical step for you in acquiring the near future, your medium-range future, and going deep for your long-range future.

I have worked with a lot of people that when they goal set, they either go long or short, but not medium or all three.  Now remember I said this can change. In fact with many of my employees we goal set monthly, and “adjust” our goals.  In this example I might say my short-term goal is get to Denver, then we will slide to Chicago, hop a train and head for Pittsburgh, then all aboard as we shuffle off to Buffalo, then off we go to New York, New York.  Our future was broken down into short-term, medium-term and long-term goals for our future.  Let’s say it is winter, we get to Denver and we see that a detour to Dallas, then Atlanta, then up to New York would be better.  See, we changed our route to get to get to the same place because we are active in our goal setting.  Perhaps we found a reason to stay in Atlanta, so we never get to New York, which is OK too, as long as we are adjusting our goals to meet what we want to see in life.  This can be the same at work, and if you were going to work at something, wouldn’t your life be a good thing to work on, and spend some time with in creating a career?

The second thing we want to work at is what is happening now.  How do we see ourselves?  If we are not looking positively toward ourselves, it is tough to see a good future.  When I was broke, and feeling like a broken man with no friends, I decided that I could get stuck in those thoughts, or instead focus on the thoughts that I am a good person with lots to offer and I am going out to succeed in life, and sell some cars and make some money and find a place to live.  I am now a good person – and not just because I succeeded financially.  What you need to feel successful is going to depend where you are in life.

Right now at this very moment I have founded Life Motivations, and my now is running the company so that everyone in the company is successful, and that we are able to help lots of people who are looking for help in life.  That’s why we it will cost them no money other than to have Internet access so they can read and see all of this information that we are putting on the web.  And I hope that they in turn help someone else to be able to be better at life, and provide what they need to motivate them right now.  In my future I hope to sell a couple of books too.

What is in that past of yours?  Well forget the past, I don’t know it, and don’t care.  What are you doing right now?  Your past is going to determine your reputation, so if you’re doing something that you don’t like, stop it and do something you do like and are proud of.  What have you done in your past that was good?  Why don’t you dwell on that for a while instead of sticking to what is bad.  I see that all the time, some people just want to dwell on the bad and the ugly all day long.  Stop it, try staying focused on the good all day long about yourself and see how you feel at the end of the day, as opposed when you are thinking about all of the bad all day.  You will feel much better and be able to get significantly more done.

Okay, let’s put this into our goal setting: What is one thing you would like to do for other people?  This is really important, because it is true. You must be able to give in order to receive.  Maybe today it is just a kind word for a member in your family.  Maybe a kind word for someone at work; it does not have to cost money to do something for other people.  Beware though; people are not used to kindness, so they may think that you are weird at first.

Let me share with you a short story. It was Christmas Eve, and when I got home from work about 4 or so, my wife sent me out on a last minute errand to get something at the store because we were having dinner for the relatives over at our house.  I got into the car, I drive a big BMW, and headed for the store.  Down the residential streets the speed limits are 25 miles an hour or less.  I see an older couple in an old Ford, and one of them had left the keys in the trunk. I could see them dangling, and knew that they were going some place for the holiday dinner, and I also knew that the keys looked like they were going to fall out before they got there.  So I speed up to catch them to let them know about their keys. I pull up beside the driver, and he yells at me that the speed limit is 25.  I try to tell him about his keys, and he shows me a particular finger on his hand and speeds up. I try one more time with the same result.  So I arrive at the store and pull up to the curb to park.  I get out of the car, and see the older couple stopped at a light, so I go over and knock on the door. I was dressed in a shirt and slacks, having just come from work, and the man starts yelling at me, his wife rolls down the window and I say “Lady your keys are hanging from the trunk.” I back up, she gets out of the car, grabbs the keys, gets back into the car, and he speeds away giving me a hand signal again.  I came home and told my wife, and she said, “Are you crazy! You might have gotten shot.”  I told this story to one of my managers at work and he said, “What, are you crazy? You might have gotten shot.”  I thought I was doing something nice.  I have been undaunted ever since, still trying to do nice things for people every day.  Even if they don’t feel better, I do.

You know what you need to take care of yourself.  Give yourself a general (such as “I will have a proper cardiac-friendly diet and lifestyle”) and specific health goal (like “I will lose 30 pounds and have less than seven percent body fat”).  I don’t need to tell you what you know yourself, but let yourself live in good health, or least as good health as you can.  There are a million books out there to help you be healthy. Pick the one that suits your life and go for it.  Just starting out thinking healthy is good enough for a start. They are not kidding when they say all you have is your health.  You will feel better and be able to have a better self image by just thinking specific and general health, and then starting to do something.  It will be a big boost of confidence.

You will need a monetary goal (which is where too many people make the mistake of starting and finishing). How much money do you need, and then what are you going to do with it?  You need to know what you are going to do with it, so you can visualize what you are going to do with the money in the theatre of your mind.

What is one thing that you are grateful for in your life, for which you can give thanks? This is an important affirmation in goal setting, because it gives you strength and purpose.

What other observations do you have that you would like to guide your life towards? Write those observations down. 

Everything needs to be written down, thought out, and be what you really want in your life, or you will not work toward your goals.

Everyone has had a class in school that they did well in, and another that they didn’t. As you look at your own life, could it be that you liked one class and not the other?  If you are goal setting and you don’t like what you have decided to do with your life, do you really think it is going to happen?  Of course not.

Be honest with yourself. Stretch yourself, love yourself, and be good to yourself.  Write down what you want in life, and use it as a guide. It will help you a lot. 

A roadmap to life:

• Uses your imagination,
• Sees yourself in the future,
• Sees what is good about your present and past.

Pat yourself on the back.  What are you going to do for other people?  Keep thinking about your health.  What do you want to buy?  What are you grateful and thankful for in your life? And what else would you like in your life? 

There is going to be price to be paid for some of the things that you want, such as sacrifices of time, or leaving some people who stand in your way behind.  Are you willing to pay the necessary prices?

This is a real, specific way to get the most of your goal setting. Good luck and good goal setting.

It will be easier than you think!