Now that you’ve spent the thorough time needed to honestly assess your beliefs and values, it’s time to identify your life goals. Get a notebook and start brainstorming.

• Start by defining success for yourself in each of the life areas. Be as specific as possible.

Personal Development, Social/Friends/Family, Finances/Wealth, Romantic Life, Health and Fitness, Recreation/Relaxation/Fun, Career/Professional, Spiritual Development

• In each of the life areas, where do you see yourself ten years from now? Five years from now? What would bring you joy in each of these areas?
• Write down at least three statements that say what success will look like there.
• If someone were to ask you ten years from now if you are successful in your career, what would you tell them?
• Next, ask yourself why these things are important to you. Why do you value a life lived by those measures? Do those measures of success reflect your beliefs, or are those someone else’s measures for success? Do any of those statements lead you toward an ultimate goal in life? Which speaks the loudest to you? Now, you’re ready to state some goals.

Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change. ~ Jim Rohn

Goal Setting

Rather than simply setting big goals that are do far into the future you can’t really imagine them, we’re going to focus on setting some smarter goals. In this case SMART is an acronym that can help you create goals that are achievable and actionable.

First, we identify something SPECIFIC you want to attain to help you reach your definition of success in the future. How will you MEASURE whether you have actually achieved your goal? Is this something you can ATTAIN or are you setting yourself up for failure?

Is the goal you are setting RELEVANT to your beliefs and values? Without this, it will be hard to stay motivated in your efforts to reach this goal.

What is your TIME frame for meting this goal? Setting a goal that takes years to accomplish doesn’t provide you with many opportunities to feel successful in the interim.

A deadline helps you create a plan, as well, so be specific about when you want to achieve this.

Write it Down

Earlier, when you articulated your beliefs and values, you wrote those down. This serves as a record for yourself, and it is something that can help you hold yourself accountable to what you believe to be important in life. The same is true for your goals.

Writing your goals down and putting them someplace that will remind you of them frequently can keep you focused on what you said you wanted to achieve as well motivate you to do something every day that gets you closer to attaining them.

Have Priorities

You can’t accomplish twelve goals all at once. And you won’t accomplish anything when you are trying to do everything. Identify one or two key areas where you know you need to make progress first and start there.

Concentrate on these elements first, then move to other areas when you have achieved some success.

Divide the bigger dreams into smaller, more manageable steps, and you’ll start to see progress toward your end result.

Take Action

Goals are good, but they are only the plan. You have to start doing things to make those goals a reality. Use your beliefs and vision to guide you but create an actionable plan with specific checkpoints and steps you can take.

What’s one thing you can do today to bring you closer to your final goal? Write down your plan, refer to it often, make adjustments as necessary, and be sure to reward yourself for achieving these smaller accomplishments.

It’s not what we have in life but who we have in our life that matters. ~ Margaret Laurence