Personal Goal Planning - Steps to Making Your Goals a Reality

Develop a game plan. Whether your goal is to tackle organizing a closet or become the next Nobel Prize winner, the first thing you must do is decide to do it. Organizing something is simple, make a list and make it happen. Life goals are complex. They deserve a little more effort.

Believe in yourself. Belief is powerful. If you think something is real, then it can overpower you. With that thought, live as if your goal is a reality. The following information is taken and personalized from Tony Robbins' book, Unlimited Power.

Mapping Out Your Goals: Five Rules to Follow

What's the end result? Write it down. Make it an affirmation: I am a writer! The key is to be positive. Plant a seed in you sub conscious and make it grow.

State the specifics. Go in depth with details, make it rich, and spark your senses. The audience roared in a thunderous applause as I walked on to Opera's stage. Flashbulbs blinded me as I autographed my best selling novel at the book signing. The rib roast was rich and tender at the banquet celebrating the release of my book. My examples may be a little over the top, but you are supposed to be specific. While we're here, be sure to set a date, time-line, or term for your goal.

Develop a check system. Have you accomplished your goal? Like our government's system of checks and balances, you have to know when you've made your goal a reality. Am I writing? Do I get paid to write? Has my manuscript been accepted? Have I been published? Differentiate between what you originally wanted and what is happening.

You are in control. Establish that from the beginning. You and only you can be affected. You must not expect anyone else to change in order for you to accomplish your goal. The goal can only depend on your direct efforts to become a reality.

Your goal must be for the good of all. It must not bring harm. It must be beneficial for you and others.

Make it Happen

Everyone has desires. You should list them, give them a time limit, and check that they meet the rules. Writing down your goals is the first step to bringing them to reality. Then pick four that you can bring to fruition within a year.

Do you have the resources to make your dreams a reality? Is it in your character to network to gain the resources necessary to complete the goal? What's holding you back--time? Money? Skill? Most barriers can be broken.

You should take note of past successes, the smallest to the grandest. How did you achieve them? What resources did you use? How did you feel about your accomplishments?

You must draw from within yourself what it will take to meet your goals. Create that character. "We hear a lot about success, but we don't hear as much about the components of success--the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that go into producing it...put together the whole." (207) Think about what it will take, the attitudes, beliefs and behaviors, for you to become who you want to be. Identify your limitations and break through them. Work consistently toward your goals.

Now go back to your four goals. Draft a plan to make them a reality. "...ask yourself, What would I have to do first to accomplish this? or, What prevents me from having this now, and what can I do to change this? Make sure your plans include something you could do today." (209)

Source:

Robbins, Anthony. Unlimited Power. New York: Ballantine, 1986.