It’s the end of January and the phrase “New Year’s Resolution” is fading quickly from our consciousness. Most of our resolutions, if we made any, are probably failed memories. What we really need now is a simple way to set some goals for the year and to find a way to accomplish them.
We have covered goals quite extensively on this site, but today I want to offer up a simple goal setting solution. This is so easy you can do it in a few minutes, but it may have a profound effect on your life. It was devised by one of the leading motivational speakers of our time, Brian Tracy.
Brian talked about this simple technique in his book, Success Secrets of Self Made Millionaires. This is a profound little book based on Tracy’s research into the lives of Millionaires and what helped them get there.
Brian says that one of the most important things that was apparent in everyone that he studied was goal setting. He devised a simple four step process that anyone can take to get started on this path to success. Here are the instructions…
- Take out a sheet of paper and write down ten goals you would like to accomplish in the next 12 months. Things you want to have, do, or become.
- Look at all ten goals and ask yourself this question. If you could only accomplish one goal on this list, but you could accomplish it in 24 hours, which one would would have the greatest impact on your life? Brian says in most cases it will jump out at you. Write the goal down in bold writing and set a completion date.
- Turn the paper over and write down twenty action steps to accomplish this goal. This step will be easy at first but will become harder as you progress down the list. Don’t stop until you have filled in all twenty.
- Each day take at least one action step to accomplish your goal
This is about as simple as it gets but Brian has had amazing feedback from people who have tried this simple technique. With this simple four step process, participants have gone on to create spectacular businesses, amassed fortunes, and have gone on to change the lives of others.
Why not try it for yourself today?
To make this even easier for you, I’ve created a two sided MS Word document called the Top Goal Worksheet that has ten boxes on the front and twenty on the back. Just download the file, unzip it, and open both sheets in Microsoft Word. You can add text to the document in Word or print it plain to fill in with a pen or pencil. When you are ready, print it front and back on both sides of a sheet of letter sized paper.
To fill it out, just follow the four steps above.
Brian notes there is a risk in not taking these steps. If you don’t set goals you may end up on Someday Isle… someday I’ll do this or someday I’ll do that. Don’t let this happen to you.
Once you have your goals set, you may want to download our Goal Setting Toolkit, to carry your goals with you wherever you go.
Make a resolution… no more resolutions…
