Goal setting contains the elements of fun and fulfilment. Are you surprised to know about that statement? Have you been setting goals all your life and still end up having a difficult time sticking to them? Struggles in setting and meeting your goals only take place when you allow them to have control over yourself. You may say, ‘Easier said than done.’ Yes, setting a goal may be hard, but definitely it IS possible and attainable!

Setting your goals is not meant to be tough. Rather, it implies pleasure from doing what you wish to achieve in life. In the first place, reaching your vision and getting your desires should result into passion and zeal, instead of resistance and negativity. If you sense yourself being resistant and negative about it, free your mind from any thoughts and focus on your goal alone. How strong is your desire to accomplish that target? Answering this simple question can bring you back in the game and move on to reach the finish line.

Truths About Goal Setting
In order to see results in the goals that you set, it is wise to know of the facts about this seemingly challenging yet fulfilling task.

• The goals that work best are those that are specific and realistic. Take it from the experts; successful people became who they were because they pointed out specific as well as realistic goals. “I’m going to plant a tree tomorrow” is a better and more realizable goal than saying, “I’m going to help in preserving the environment.”

• Achieving results from your goal may take time. When you set a goal, you cannot expect to see instant results. Things that you don’t usually do will take time before you get the habit of doing it. You already have a regular routine; adding at least one activity will have your brain go through adjustments. Patience is necessary in goal setting.

• Reminding yourself of your goal allows you to stick to it. Saying your goal over and over again will help you be reminded of what you want as well as what you are striving for. If you are comfortable about writing your goal, grab your journal and write it down. Each time you do these things, you are helping yourself to actually make it happen.

• Gratify others and fail in your goal. Although a goal may be rooted from or inspired by someone, see to it that you set your goal because you simply want it, not because somebody wants you to. People may have the power to influence you but you have the option to make the final decision. Staying on track and keeping your goal may be impossible if you are doing it out of obligation.

• Encountering obstacles does not suggest failure. While in the process of reaching your goals, slip-ups are a possibility. Those can be hindrances but should not be allowed to stop you from succeeding your goal. Treat each of them as part of the process and use them at your benefit. Everyone commits mistakes but only some choose to learn from them. Better become one of these few people and find satisfaction in achieving your goal.

• Tell people of your goal and become more encouraged to fulfill it. Sharing your goal to other people may encourage you to work more on it. In fact, you can receive tips from other successful individuals on how they conquered goal setting and made it goal possible.

Similar to learning, goal setting is a continuous process. Once you have accomplished one, you move on to the next as you live a more fulfilled life, knowing that you are a very admirable achiever.

Traditional goal setting methods suggest that a good goal should be SMART; that is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.
These are certainly fine qualities and they make for a very clever acronym.

However if we look at them more closely, we can see that two of those letters are unnecessary. We can easily cut them out and have our goals be no worse off.

As I am about to demonstrate, we really need only 3 letters: S, R, and T.

A solid goal then should be:

Specific – what exactly do you want? You need to know exactly what you are working for, otherwise how will you know when you’ve achieved it?

Weak goal: Become rich. How rich is rich? How will you know that you have achieved this goal?!

Solid Goal: Have £100,000 in my bank account within 5 years. This is much better! Now you can start breaking it down further and create milestones for your goal.

As you can see from the above, a goal that is specific is by definition also measurable, meaning that we don’t need to worry about the letter M. By making it specific, we make it measurable automatically!

Realistic – Ask yourself- is it really possible for me to achieve this? Some things are just not possible, no matter how hard you work at them.

For example, as much as I would love to be a professional basketball player the fact that I’m 5 foot 8 and have never played basketball in my life means that it’s supremely unlikely to happen. I accept this and rather than dwelling on what I can’t do, I focus on things I know I can achieve

By the way, I’m not suggesting for a moment that you sell yourself short when goal setting. By all means be ambitious. Actually, I’ll repeat that: BE AMBITIOUS!!

In fact, it’s often better to be over-ambitious than it is to be under-ambitious when it comes to goal setting.
“Aim for the stars and maybe you’ll reach the sky”
As you can see a realistic goal as outlined above is no different than an attainable one. The effect is the same.

Timely – Although the word timely may sound a little mysterious here, all it actually means is that your goal should have a time limit. If you are anything like me then if you don’t have a deadline you likely will not push yourself to get things completed.

When you introduce a time limit however, you are immediately guiding your subconscious mind towards success and towards achieving that success ASAP!

Weak goal: Complete my novel. When will you complete it?! Publishers give authors deadlines for a reason!

Solid goal: Complete my novel by the 31^st of December 2011. Much better! From here, it’s easy to break your goal down into specific actions that ensure your novel gets written before the deadline.

In the words of Peter Druckers, “What gets measured gets done.”

Incidentally, this explains why SolidGoals.com is such a HUGE HELP in hitting your targets.

Not only do we help you to set your goals and to break them down into milestones along the way, but we also make sure that you stay on track by emailing you when the time limits for your milestones are approaching.

These features may seem fairly small individually, but when you combine them you can skyrocket your chances of achieving your goals. We literally HARRASS you into getting the success you deserve!

Best of all, you can meet other positive people who share your goal and are excited about supporting you on your path.

So there you have it, the three qualities that make a goal SOLID!! Please don’t just read them and nod your head – go and put them into action.

Set some goals NOW!

1. Start with a big goal in mind then break it down into smaller tasks.
These tasks should take less than half a day to achieve. The satisfaction of crossing each item off the list propels you toward the end result faster.

2. Keep a tidy work area.
If you spend most of your time sitting at a desk make sure you keep it tidy. A tidy desk means a focused mind.

3. Wake up at the same time every day.
If you wake up at a specific time each day your body won’t get confused about when it should be awake and asleep. A tired, confused body is an unproductive body.

4. Surround yourself with supportive people.
If you can get encouragement from people and celebrate the small successes you have working toward your goal it will greatly increase the chances of achievement.

5. Use a social goal setting website.
Using a goal setting website to announce the goal publicly makes you accountable for it. A website to consider for this is Solid Goals.

6. Write daily to-do lists.
This is probably the most important thing of all when it comes to staying on track. If you can set a list of things to do each day and stick to the order you will notice massive improvements in your performance. Again you can use any of the goal setting websites listed above to store your to-do lists online.

7. Keep a dairy in your pocket.
When you head out the door make sure you have some way of storing notes. Mobile phones are useful but if you prefer the old-fashioned way then a pocket-sized notebook is perfectly fine.

8. Purchase a whiteboard.
A whiteboard is the easiest way to store notes when you’re not out of the office/house. If you have a bright idea then you can just scribble it on the whiteboard where it’s in plain sight most of the time so you won’t forget about it. Try and use different coloured markers to keep things interesting.

9. Reward yourself with a break.
If you have been working hard at your goals and ticking off those to-dos ahead of time then you deserve a break. Make sure you treat yourself to your favourite foods and entertainment. Remember, this is a small reward so don’t allow yourself to indulge too heavily. The big reward comes when you finish the goal you set out to achieve

Goal setting is not an easy process, but there are a number of tried and tested tips and techniques that have proven to be effective to help you stay in sync with all your plans.

Set simple and short-term goals
We all need a feel-good factor from time to time and setting goals that are simple helps you stay focused and encourages you to work on the larger goals that you set too. Short-term goals guarantee victory and help you create a bigger and larger plan for their future that might also help them realize their dreams. These goals give you a sense of accomplishment, empower you, and help you stay on track.

Write down all your goals
Writing down all these goals and posting them in a place where you can see them each and every day is extremely important. It ensures that you stay committed and also presents an incredible opportunity to renew this commitment. It is not wrong when experts suggest that people who do not write their goals down will not be able to achieve them. You can also try sharing these goals with your friends, business associates, and family and share these goals only with people who believe in and encourage your growth through their positive attitude.

Set realistic goals
If you set goals that are unattainable, you are setting yourself up for failure. Your goals need to be realistic and the time frame that you set to achieve them must also be practical and sensible. Unrealistic goals that remain unachieved tend to be extremely de-motivating and discouraging.

Prioritize your goals and be flexible
There are some goals that may be more important than the others. You must try and prioritize your goals both in terms of the time required to attain them and per the investments of time, money, and energy that each of them demands. The tasks that you choose need to help you move forward and they should not hold you back or stop you from reaching your peak potential. Flexibility in the order of prioritization of these goals is required because there are situations wherein you may have to reevaluate, cancel, or adjust the timeline of the goal.

Set long term goals and reward yourself
Once you are comfortable and familiar with the entire process of goal setting and feel confident enough about it, start experimenting with long-term goals. By definition, long-term goals are those which last for more than a few months; they could be for an entire year or for the next 40 years. These goals are great ways to plan your future and help you push yourself, challenge you, expand your growth, and help you retain your focus always. Celebrate your success with every milestone that is achieved along the way. This makes the process fun and interesting.

Having short as well as long terms goals is extremely important because goals are excellent motivators and propel you to work towards something that will be truly satisfying and rewarding towards the end.

There are various types of goals that we set during the course of our lives. Some of these goals are public, other are personal; some are set at an individual level while others are set for an entire group, as a whole. The company Solid Goals makes the process of goal setting and tracking their progress extremely easy and also a lot of fun through their goal setting website solidgoals.net. They have created and designed their website taking a number of key factors associated with goal setting into account and this is clearly reflected in the multiple features and options that users get access to as soon as they sign up for an account through a simple, quick, and easy registration process.

The website not only enables people to be more accountable for their goals but also helps them keep track of their progress. It combines the thrill of social networking with the focus and commitment required during goal setting. To kick start the process of creating a goal, members are asked to enter the title of the goal that they have in mind with an option to make it invisible to the public. These privacy settings come in handy when people want to keep their goals private. Besides, they always have an option to make them visible or open to the public as and when they choose to do so.

Once the title of the goal is created, a description of it along with any other information needs to be entered. This takes a member to the next part of the goal setting process where they can start creating their preparation lists before they start working on attaining their goal. For example, if your goal is to lose weight, your preparation list would include A. Buying a pair of comfortable gym shoes B. Looking around for a good gym C. Creating a suitable diet plan and workout schedule. The same list can be replicated for different goals that people have in mind. These preparation lists streamline the goal setting process and make it extremely systematic and organized.

Each and every goal also has milestones associated with it. The milestone feature signals the level of progress. The more specific the milestones, more attainable are the goals as these are the determinants or indicators of your overall progress. The ‘Keyword’ option helps members categorize the goal by choosing relevant and meaningful keywords that closely tie in with what their goal is all about. For a weight loss goal, the keywords could be ‘gym,’ ‘weight,’ ‘diet,’ etc. These lists of keywords are separated either using a comma or a space.

An intuitive and user-friendly interface enables users to view their current and completed goals as well as those they have subscribed to and support.  Additionally, members who have Facebook accounts can also post their goals, comments, and blog posts to their walls. A blogging feature enables people to blog about each goal they set and using the friends feature, members can view people who follow them and vice versa.