Setting specific goals for yourself is a great way to motivate yourself and hold yourself accountable for your actions. One great way to set goals for yourself and really stick to them is to put those goals in writing (perhaps even in a blog).

Maybe you have read the work of various bloggers who have set goals for themselves in their blogs in the hopes that by stating their goals publicly and in writing, they will be more inclined to hold themselves accountable because they will actually feel compelled to follow through and actually achieve their goals.

Weight loss blogs are a classic example of this kind of public goal setting. More specifically, many bloggers who blog about their weight loss efforts like to state their specific goals in their blogs and then keep their readers posted about their progress in achieving these goals. For instance, a blogger might set out to lose twenty pounds in four months, and after stating this goal in their blog, they may post about their progress (and/or their setbacks) as they strive to achieve this long term goal.

A great example of a blogger who set a goal for herself and then actually achieved it is the blogger Julie Powell, who decided that she wanted to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child’s famous cookbook in a year’s time. She accomplished her goal, but it was not always easy and she documented every step of her journey, including all of her emotional ups and downs, in her blog, which was later turned into a best selling book and then a 2009 movie, “Julie and Julia,” starting Meryl Streep and Amy Adams.

In essence, all goal-oriented blogs document their authors’ journeys toward achieving their stated goals. And everyone loves a good journey story. That’s why these kinds of blogs make for such compelling reading. But even more importantly, they make for a very compelling writing experience for the blogger. It’s not easy to track your progress for all the world to see, especially on those days when the journey toward achieving your goals is not going terribly well at all and you feel like giving up.

Sometimes bloggers who set goals in their blogs actually attract regular readers who cheer them on when they are doing well and are on track to achieve their goals. And those same readers can also help comfort them on days when they are doing a less than stellar job of achieving either their short term or long term goals.

Speaking of short term versus long term goals, it is usually wise to set both kinds of goals for yourself. For instance, to return to the previous example, if a weight loss blogger’s ultimate goal is to lose 20 pounds in four months’ time, then he or she may want to lose five pounds (give or take) during that first month, another five during the second month, and so forth. (In this example, the twenty pound weight loss would be the long term or ultimate goal while each set of five pounds would be the short term goals.)

Of course, if you are not a fan of writing publicly about working toward your goals in a blog, then you might want to keep a private diary documenting your journey. Whether you document your journey in public or in private is not really important and is simply a matter of personal taste. The important part is holding yourself accountable so that you can achieve your stated goals. Sometimes setting goals that seem like they could be out of your reach can provide you with just the push you need to achieve them.