Goal Setting

A goal is a specific, measurable result that you want to produce at a determinable time in the future. Your goals are the stepping-stones toward the realization of your dreams, the second key element in the blueprint of your life.

Goals are experiences you have not yet had, places you have not yet been, people you have not met, a level of income you have not achieved, a type of relationship you are not now enjoying, or having something you don't currently own. Like your dreams, there is no limit to the number of goals you can set other than the limits of your imagination. And although goals represent what you intend to achieve in the future, they are always set and worked on in the present.

A study of university business school graduates who had been out of school for ten years was conducted to determine how they were progressing toward their goals. Amazingly, 83 percent of the graduates had set no goals at all. This 83 percent reported that they were working hard and staying busy but had no specific future plans. Another 14 percent had goals, but their goals were mental, not written. However, this 14 percent was earning on the average three times the income of those who had no goals at all. Only 3 percent of the entire graduate group had written goals. That 3 percent was earning a whopping ten times what those with no goals were earning.

The message is clear: goals, particularly written goals, make the difference in your overall level of accomplishment. Among the business school graduates in the study, the short time they spent establishing clear, written goals made a dramatic difference in their income levels.

Establishing goals has a positive impact on your life. But if what you hope to achieve in life is based on your expectations, rather than on working to reach established goals, you are setting yourself up for the possibility of disappointment. Expectations have to do with how you believe other people should behave, and how the world should bend at your command. Your expectations may result in a large amount of grief, whereas established goals will result in a large amount of satisfaction and success.

The winning choice is clear: develop your goals, drop your expectations. It is a mistake to expect that you will accomplish any goal because you deserve it or because there is something in your past that entitles you to it. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as "deserve." You end up achieving in life because of planning and control, not because you have "paid your dues".