How to Set Goals in Life: Proven Strategies for Effective Goals Setting

We all know that setting goals is one of the most important things that we can do.

Goals give us direction in our lives and provide a target for us to go after.  They force us to get outside of our comfort zones and push ourselves towards achieving something that we want.  They're essential to life.

Unfortunately, most people don't set goals or even know how to set goals properly.

It's often during New Years that people set goals because that's what they “think they should do”.  Or, they set goals but don't even look at them again.

In this video blog, I'm going to reveal to you how to set goals the right way.  This video blog is meant to be a step-by-step “Goal Setting Workshop” that can guide you to set your own goals and more importantly, achieve them.

Watch the video below:

(Click here to watch on YouTube)

How To Come Up With Goals

I have many people ask me, “How do you come up with goals for yourself?”

Every year (and every month), I'm always setting new goals for myself that you can see in my Monthly Goals Reports.  I openly share my progress and the results that I'm getting in my life.  I hold nothing back.

The way that I come up with these goals is based on my ultimate vision that I set for my life.  This ultimate vision is really just a compilation of goals that I've set for myself that are 5, 10, 20 years or more in the future.  I share a lot of this in my Life Plan video blog that details how I set visions for each area of my life.

I believe that having long-term goals is extremely important, as that is what motivates us to set the shorter term goals.  The long-term goals act as a compelling future that we're moving towards.  It's what we're doing this all for.

A simple exercise that you can do to come up with your goals is to brainstorm.

Image that you're a kid and it's Christmas.  You're asked the question, “What do you want for your life?” and there are NO LIMITS for what is possible.

If you were a kid, you'd say anything that comes to your mind.  That's the point of this exercise – to get rid of any fear or doubt that would hold you back.

You'd want to take 10-15 minutes and write out in a journal everything you can think of.

Here's some examples:

• Make $1,000,000
• Live in a penthouse
• Drive a Lamborghini
• Live in a mansion on the beach
• Travel 3 months out of the year
• Have a six pack
• Build a school
• Reach and impact 1,000,000
• Read a new book every month
• Learn to scuba dive
• Get married to the woman of my dreams
• Get my black belt in karate
• Own an island

You don't need to worry about them being specific just yet.  This is just a brainstorming process.

When doing this, you want to think about goals for EVERY area of your life.

What do you want for your physical body?

What do you want for your emotional well-being?

What do you want for your relationships?

What do you want for your finances?

What do you want for your career or business?

What do you want for your spiritual life?

What do you want to contribute?

What do you want to experience in this life?

It's also best to do this exercise in a peak state.  Make sure that you're feeling good, upbeat and positive.  This will affect the goals that you come up with.

Next, after you have your list, you want to put a time frame next to each goal.  I learned this process from Tony Robbins.

For example, some of your goals might be 1-year goals, others will be 3-years, 5-years, 10-years or 20-year goals.  Just write the number next to each goal.

For example, making $1,000,000 might be a 1-year goal.  Driving a Lamborghini might be a 3-year goal.  And owning an island might be a 10-year goal.

Out of the 1-year goals that you've selected, which are MOST IMPORTANT for you to accomplish this year?

Narrow down your goals to a few that you want to set for yourself this year and achieve.

In my case, I like to make sure that I have goals for each area of my life.  However, in some areas (like business), I will have multiple goals.

There's no limit to how many goals you want to set for yourself, but I recommend setting a number you can realistically handle.

Now, you should have a handful of goals that you've set – but we're not done yet.  There's still some things we need to do to phrase our goals the right way.

How To Set Goals The Right Way

Writing down and phrasing your goals properly is something that a lot of people miss the boat on.  If you haven't written down your goals or phrased them the right way, then they're just a wish.

Instead, we need to make them practical and achievable.  The way we do that is by using the S.M.A.R.T. philosophy.

S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym that stands for:

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Realistical

Timeline

This means that your goals must follow all of these components.

If you've seen the way that I phrase my goals in my Monthly Goals Reports, you'll see how I ensure I'm meeting these guidelines.

For example, here was one of my goals for 2014:

I will easily move into the Sheraton Wall Centre penthouse on the 48th floor in downtown Vancouver by February 1, 2014.

As you can see, this goal was written out a very specific way.  Here's some things to learn from it:

• The goal is written out in a sentence that can be repeated again and again.
• The goal is phrased “I will”, not “I want”.  It pre-supposes that it will happen.  You can also use the language “I am” or “I have”, which pre-supposes it's already happened.
• I like using words like “I will EASILY” or “I will HAPPILY” in my goals, to make them more compelling.
• The goal is SPECIFIC, which is the “S” in the S.M.A.R.T. philosophy.  The more specific your goals can be, the better.
• The goal is MEASURABLE, as it has a timeline for achieving it.
• The goal is ATTAINABLE, as it's something that I know I can afford and is available to live in.
• The goal is REALISTIC, as it's not “too out there” and I have certainty that I can achieve it.
• The goal has a TIMELINE, which was set to be achieved by February 1st, 2014.

I always include all of these components in my goals.

To set a financial goal, there is a right way and a wrong way of doing it.

The wrong way would be “Make more money”.  It isn't specific (doesn't state how much money), has no timeline and isn't compelling.

Instead, the right way would be:

I will easily make $1,000,000 ($84,000 per month) through my online businesses and enjoy the process, by December 31st, 2015.

The amount of money makes it measurable, so that I can track my progress.

The timeline makes it so that I can measure it as well and ensure that I achieve it.

And by making it realistic and attainable, I have belief and confidence that I can achieve it.

I'm not a fan of setting unrealistic goals for the short-term.  I believe that the unrealistic goals should be the long-term ones, as they are part of our vision.

All of my goals have always been slow and steady improvements from my previous ones.

For example, with making money online.  My first goal was to make $1 in my online business.  Then $100.  After that, $200.  $500.  $1000.  And it slowly climbed up to over $70,000.  But I've always done it the same way.  I set goals that I KNEW I could achieve and were attainable for me.

Of course, my long-term goals can be considered “unrealistic”, but I know I will achieve them by following this method that has worked for me.

How To Manage Your Goals

Once you've set your goals, I recommend that you create a system for managing them.

First, write them out.  Make sure you can see them everyday.

I know some people that like to write out their goals daily.  I do that sometimes, but often just have them up on my white board in my office.  This way I'm forced to focus on them.

Next, review your goals often.  I checkin with mine on a weekly basis, as well as a more thorough one in my Monthly Goals Reports.

You need to continually measure yourself and change your course of action to ensure you reach your destination.

One of my favourite goal setting programs, The 100 Day Challenge, has something called “After Action Review”.  It's a process that you go through every 2 weeks to see where you're at with your goals and make the necessary changes.  I go through a similar process as what they teach in that program.

Once your goals are set, now it's time to actually achieve your goals.

I've always used mastermind groups or online programs to help me achieve my goals.  One of my favourites is The 100 Day Challenge, as it helps motivate you and hold you accountable during the 100 days in pursuit of your goals.  It will push you and keep you on track.

The same can be accomplished with a group of friends where you meet every week or an accountability buddy.  I've gone through the 100 Day Challenge with my own mastermind group and we base our group off the lessons taught in that program.  It's only open certain times of the year, but is worth going through.

Click here to learn more about the 100 Day Challenge.

I wish you best of luck with achieving your goals.

If there's any questions you have for me, leave them below, I'll do my best to respond.