by David Stoddard

Created on: January 19, 2007   Last Updated: December 07, 2007

I've done the goal setting things in the past. I heard of the studies where only the successful 3% have goals written down. I had ideas of what I wanted to accomplish. But for differing reasons, I didn't always reach them as often as I would have liked. Some were just ideas which stayed ideas. Others I worked at didn't turn out as planned. So I wondered why.

From what I came up with, some were due to things I was or wasn't doing. Not happy with that as an answer, I looked around for other possibilities. And I came up with my own list of what goals have in common. Characteristics if you will.

A goal must be:

ACHIEVABLE: Just because we may not have done something doesn't make it impossible for us. Odds are, someone, somewhere, at some point in time, has done what we would like to do. That by itself, makes it possible. And, like running the 4-minute mile, what seemed impossible before, is now achievable.

BELIEVABLE: Can we do it? Can we learn how to do what it takes? Do we have the time? Can we find the time? Do we have the self-discipline it will take to keep going to achieve it? Have we made any steps toward it? Have we reached any other goals in our lifetime no matter how small they seem now? As long as we can answer yes to some of those questions, and our goal is within reason, it can happen for us.

DESIRABLE: Whatever we set as a goal, it must have meaning to us. We should have our own set of reasons as to why attaining this goal is important. By knowing why we want to attain something is a powerful force behind our getting it. Things will happen to derail us, but keeping focused on why we do what we do, will help considerably on those days when things seem to be against us.

MEASURABLE: We need to know we are getting someplace. All too often we feel as if we are stuck just because we haven't gotten where we wanted to go yet. We don't always see how far we have come, we just see the long road ahead. By having our goal set up in such a way that we can see the steps we can take, will help provide the momentum needed to keep going.

WORKABLE: Each step along the way is part of our plan to get there. The plan should be written out so we can see what we will need to do next. Plus, it gives us something to mark off along the way. Like a shopping or to-do list, the plan gives us a basic guide for what needs to be done. It's up to us how to work it.

FLEXIBLE: Our plans should provide room for changes along the way. We have learned so much from Murphy's law that whatever can go wrong, will at some point. We need to be able to just go around the problems we face. It may mean adjusting our goal a bit or re-working our plans. But as long as we have room to change, we won't get stuck.

I hope something in this article inspired you to begin looking at your own goals. Well, at least that was MY goal.

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