Goal Setting 101 

Here is some essential reading about Goal Setting. Please read this guide before you create a goal on GoalSetting1.com. It will save you time to formulate your goals better. Whatever your goal may be, it is important and interesting to know how to manage your goals efficiently.

Goal setting is a very powerful technique that can give you strong returns in all areas of your life.  By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know what you have to concentrate on and improve. Goal setting gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation. It focuses your acquisition of knowledge and helps you to organize your resources.

By setting clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. You can see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. 

A goal must have a purpose!

Make sure the goal you aim for is something you really want, not just something you think "It would be cool if I could..."

When setting goals it is very important to remember that your goals must be consistent with your values. Do not waste time on goals which are out of scope or you would lose interest soon.

Every goal should have a purpose. If you have goals without a purpose you will soon lose interest, especially for long term goals. The purpose is and should be the driving part. Purpose-less goals will sink in the sand sooner or later. I guarantee you this!

So ask yourself right now. "What is the purpose of my goal and why is this goal so important for me?"

An Example

Goal: to learn Spanish (intermediate level)

Bob's Purpose: The purpose to learn spanish is to communicate with my wifes parents. My wive is originally from Spain and her whole family does not speak English well or not at all. I want to be able to communicate with them in Spanish on the phone or when we visit them. My wife and I raise our 4 month old baby in English and Spanish. I want to be able to understand and speak with my kid in both languages.

Kim's Purpose: I am a great Salsa fan so I thought its cool to learn Spanish. Its always good to know languages. This might help me in the future for my job search.

In the two above examples one goals fits its purpose the other not. Well, to be fair, Bob's purpose is more consistent then Kims's purpose. Bob will likely be still on track after one year, while Kim might switch to Samba and now wants to learn portuguese.

By all means, write down your goals!

Create a roadmap by writing down your goals. This is a MUST! If you do not create a roadmap you will waste time on things which are not essential for your goal, lose track and finally give up. It is like you are lost somewhere. With a proper map you will find back to your main way and the more detailed this map is the faster you find back to this way. We all get lost once a while, it's human. :)

The roadmap includes always

• What is my main Goal
• What does my goal include and what does it not include
• Set Milestones and the corresponding dates for these milestones
• Write an action plan

It is also extremely important to review your roadmap frequently. Sometimes we realize we have to revise a goal as circumstances and other goals change. To change a goal is never a failure, it is a victory as you had the insight to realize something was different. You might set your milestones to high or to low because you did not have plenty of information at the time you created your first roadmap.

Remember, the more detailed your roadmap is the more likely you are to accomplish this journey.