Setting Goals: The Right Way, Part 2
OK, so now you have your goal book and you have written down who you are, what you want, and what you need to do to get what you want. You have set your goals. Many people talk about “short-range”, “medium-range”, and “long-range” goals. I don’t directly disagree with this. I believe that goals can be fit into these categories. However, I don’t believe it is necessary to categorize them. Goals are goals, and if you follow this methodolgy, you will see that there really is no time limits set to achieving goals.
If you recall from my last article, your goals are what you need to do to get what you want, and the only way to fail at your goals is to either quit or not give it 100% effort. That statement in itself shows that there really are no “time constraints” on your goals. You accomplish your goals when you get what you want. If you don’t get what you want, then you keep working at your goals until you do. Throughout my career, I often joked with people that I “never lost a match”, “I was only behind in points when time ran out”. While this is amusing and usually got a chuckle from the other person, I was dead serious about it. It is really the same mindset. I didn’t get what I wanted, but I did not fail by any means, I just ran out of time, but I was going to keep working at my goals until I did get what I wanted (which was success).
So, it is my opinion that you do not need to “categorize” your goals into time constraints, but you do need to consistently update and adjust your goals. As you get certain things you want, or as those things may change, you may need to adjust your goals (what you need to do to get them). This is the reason for the book. You MUST look at the book on a daily basis and you MUST re-evaluate what you want and what you need to do on a weekly basis. You must read your goal book every single day and then once a week you need to adjust things if you feel they need adjusting.
OK, one more time: Read the book every day. Adjust and rewrite what you want and your goals to achieve it every week.
I cannot emphasize this enough. If you want to be the best student in your class, you need to look at you class notes and study every day. You need to do your homework and you need to spend the time writing down what you have learned. I won’t go into all the deep psychology behind all this, but as an expert who has done this his whole life and been successful at it, I can confidently say that if you do not study your goals everyday and evaluate them weekly, your level of success will NEVER be what you want it to be.
So, over time, your goal book will begin to evolve and take on a life of its own. Your goals and what you want will start to merge with your success and what you have achieved. You will be able to clearly look back and see what you have done and how the process has truly worked. Your goal book will eventually become almost a “scrap book” of your success. As I was growing up, my goal book turned almost into a magic book. It was as if all I had to do was write down in this book what I wanted and it would come true.
So go out and get your book today and start making your dreams come true too.