When I used to set goals, one of two things usually happened. The first is I set goals that were far too high for me to reach, and the second is that I set goals that were so easily accomplished they are usually completed before I finish writing the goal on my “goal list.” This presents a problem - which usually resorts to me not having any motivation to do anything at all.

This is when my lazy side would wake up and tells me to ask someone else to make my goals for me, which was all well and good (I usually accomplish goals set for me by other people) but it just fed the non-motivated monster that lives inside of me, plus it allowed me to only excel to the point my motivator suggested for me.

Being self-motivated is key, but knowing what goals to set is a back-door key.

At a presentation class I attended earlier this year, one of the other students told the following story (he didn’t know where it came from):

A king who had no heir was growing old and couldn’t find a worthy successor. Knowing that he didn’t have much time, he decided to give his kingdom to the first man who could shoot an arrow over the widest river in the land.

First the knight and guards approached the line and shot their arrows, but they all fell short of the other side of the river. Then the countrymen and the servants of the king approached the line. All of them again pulled back their bowstrings and shot their arrows and again they all fell short and floated down the river.

Then a lone stranger stepped forward and aimed his arrow high. All the other men laughed at him, saying that his arrow was for sure going to land in the river. The man released the arrow from the bow and the arrow flew high in the sky and landed several yard past the bank of the other side of the river.

Everyone gasped, but the king was true to his word and granted the stranger his kingdom. “Can I ask you one question?” the king asked, “How did you shoot your arrow so far, when no one else came close? How did you aim for the other side of the river?”

The man laughed and answered, “I wasn’t aiming for the other side of the river, I was aiming for the far mountains.”

That got me thinking. Maybe it isn’t so bad if I make grandiose plans as long as I am reaching the goals I need to be reaching and then at least I won’t get stuck meeting small goals that don’t allow me to excel. But there still needs to be balance.

So I have developed over time a few tips I keep for myself in making (and keeping) my own goals:

Make Reasonable and Smart, but Stretching Goals

Make your goals a little out of reach, but not so out of reach that you cannot achieve them. If your doctor says you need to lose 40 pounds to be healthy, but no more than 60, decide to lose 55 pounds.

Look at what you want to get accomplished and write it down. For instance, I would like to write 50 hubs by the end of the year. Currently, we are in the third week of August. There are approximately 20 weeks left this year, so I will have to average writing 2.5 hubs a week. Personally, I think that is a lot of work, but it is possible. Even if I never my goal of 50 hubs, I will still have, most likely, written more than 10 or 20 – I will have accomplished more than if I had set my goal at 10 hubs, because I would have worked harder.

Push yourself harder than you ever have in the past. Is it possible you to lose 40 pounds to be healthy? Is it possible for you to lose 55 pounds and remain in the healthy zone? If you answer yes to both questions, why not shoot for the higher goal?

Look for balance in your goal, but put a little more weight on the side that will stretch you further.

Keep Your Goals Simple and Specific

When writing down your goals (yes, you should write them down), do not say, “My goal is to lose some weight and be healthier” or “I want to write more hubs.” Write down exactly how much weight you need to lose or how many hubs you want to write and by when you want to reach your goal.

If you don’t want to do that, you are taking the easy way out. You can go out and lose a pound by starving yourself one day and crossing your goal off your list. It will not have fixed the overall problem that you need to lose 40 pounds in order to be healthy.

Write out your goals and make sure they have detail. Change “I want to buy a house” to “I want to buy a 3-bedroom house in this area of town by the end of 2012.”

Make Mini Goals within Your Larger Goal

Even after writing all of the above, I hate having to wait to accomplish goals. So set mini goals in with the bigger ones. “Lose five pounds in one month.” “Save $2500 by the end of the year toward a down-payment.”

Reaching smaller goals periodically will help you keep smiling as you work to reach your bigger goals, they will also make your larger goals seem more achievable. Reaching goals can be very hard work – especially for the larger goals – and small steps of achievement will boost your confidence that the goal is reachable.

Be Serious About Your Goals and Keep Your Goal-Making to a Minimum

I am the poster-child for making lists of goals. If I were to be honest with you, I would have to admit that in my head I have a list of 50 or so things I want to accomplish. If I were to be honest with myself, I would have to admit that I probably will never be the next Leonardo Da Vinci and amaze future generations with my scientific knowledge, my strange inventions, and my artwork that is vast enough to fill 30 major museums. Why will I not reach this goal? Well, first of all, I am not a brilliant genius and second, I am not serious about that goal. If I were, I would be cutting people open in my garage to study their anatomy and drawing all the time. I don’t do either and frankly, I don’t have the desire to do either.

Don’t write something down on your list of goals that you have no intention of working toward. It will only fill up space on your piece of paper and you will sigh every time you see it because you haven’t done anything to reach that goal. Only write down goals you intend to reach, not random ideas that you think would be cool to have next to your name in a future history book.

Don’t take the paragraph above the wrong way. MAKE HISTORY – but do it in a way you want to accomplish. Don’t be the person in history who had the most unreachable goals.

Additionally, only have a few goals at a time. I like to work toward 3 to 5 goals at a time. That way I can prevent burnout and not stretch myself to thin by trying to reach more than I can handle.

Research and Plan

Usually if you make a goal you have information about how to reach it, though this is not always the case. For instance, I know I would like to buy a house, but I don’t know anything about how much to save, where I go, what legal documents are involved, etc.

Find out information about meeting your goal, tools that may be available to you and tips on doing it the right way.

After you are done researching, write down your method of reaching the goal underneath the goal, or by the goal, or wherever you want. Just write it down. It is now your game plan.

Don’t get discouraged if your plan looks hard: strategize on your plan as well. Is there anything that you left out that could help you reach your goal?

In the end, you will still probably have to work hard to achieve your main goal. You will have to make sacrifices. You cannot lose 40 pounds when you drink 2 liters of Pepsi a day (if there is a way to do that – please let me know – that is the diet I want to be on!).

Don’t give up – Get busy.

Don’t Depend on Excitement, Depend on Commitment

When I set a goal I get excited. I think about all the neat things that will come with the accomplishment of my goal. I run on that excitement for a few days, then I get worn out with the realization of how hard it will be to reach my goal.

If you can keep your excitement through the whole process, power to you. Run on the excitement, but those of you who are like me, make a commitment to reach your goal no matter how hard it may get.

This is another reason to make your mini goals. It will help renew your excitement. Consider rewarding yourself at each mini goal, but don’t get carried away with the reward. For example, you may want to reward yourself with a delicious treat after losing your first five pounds. If you think that would be fine, go for it – but have a cookie instead of a whole cake.

Accountability

Tell one or two people whose opinions you trust about your goal. Get their feedback and ask for their accountability.

I do not recommend telling everyone about your goal or telling people you know will put you and your goal down. I have one or two friends whom I will tell my goals. I have told other people in the past and have had them tell me how impossible my goal was or point out that I am weak and have failed in the past at meeting goals.

Find people who will keep you positive, not feed you negative thoughts that will get you down. Don’t stretch yourself too thin by having to meet with several different people about your goal or hear too many ideas about meeting your goals. A lot of ideas are good, but too many ideas can make it hard to focus.

That being said, when a chance to meet your goal with someone else (such as a mutual weight loss goal), seize that opportunity. Meeting goals with someone else can be a lot easier and more enjoyable.

Start Working Now

If you are reading this hub you obviously want to make a goal and are trying to find out how to accomplish one for a change. Now that you have a few ideas to help you make good goals, don’t wait any longer. Write your list now. Start working today.

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." ~ John Wooden, Member of the Basketball Hall of Fame

"Your life is not little, and playing it small doesn't save the world." ~ Jillian Michaels, world-known fitness trainer

The above hub is copywrited under my name. Please do not use anything about this blog without first checking with me. If you have any comments or suggstions, either about my writing style or about the content of this hub, please leave them. I would like to know what you really think. Thank you for reading.