Goal Setting Tips That Work

We’re a few weeks into the year… how are you doing with your New Year’s goals/resolutions?

Resolutions can be a powerful tool for your succes, but the catch is, once you make a resolution, you have to work to make it come true. Just as sticking to a diet can be tough, so can sticking to business goals.

If you’re an entrepreneur (or want to become one), you may be looking at January as an opportunity to make changes or take other action. How can you stay just as motivated in six months – or maybe even in six days — as you are now? (or were three weeks ago when you set your goals)

Over the years, I’ve found that it helps to be selective about New Year’s goals and to think about how to implement them. If you want action, you need an action plan. Goal setting is the best way I know to transform lofty resolutions into bottom-line results. Research shows that when entrepreneurs set measurable goals for themselves, they’re more like to achieve them. That’s why I’ve decided to share with you my top 10 SMART goal setting tips that work.

Top 10 Goal Setting Tips That Work

Top 10 Goal Setting Tips # 1. Record your goals and action plans on paper. Whether you write them down or type them, the very act of recording them will help you flesh out your ideas. Once your plans are complete, you’ll have a detailed roadmap with directions to follow.

Top 10 Goal Setting Tips # 2. Review your goals and plans regularly. Make a monthly, if not weekly, appointment with yourself or with a team member to review. This will help keep you on track as time unfolds. Personally, I like to review my yearly goals on a weekly basis with my team so that each week, we’re taking the necessary steps to move toward our goal.

Top 10 Goal Setting Tips # 3. Push yourself without being ridiculous. Choose goals that excite you and make you stretch — but also are within reach. Focus on attainable goals that you can realistically reach within the year. You want to create a habit of being victorious in accomplishing your goals. If your goals are always “pie in the sky” and unachievable, you create a habit of failure.

Top 10 Goal Setting Tips # 4. Set an action plan for your goal. Write down exactly what you’re going to need to do in order to achieve the goal. If you were going to start a business and wanted to attract investors, you would obviously need to have a business plan to show them you’re a serious business person. My recommendation is to take the same seriousness and apply it to your goals.

Top 10 Goal Setting Tips # 5. Go for quality, not for quantity. Better to have three or four solid goals than a long wish list you’ll never get through. You can always add more goals later once you’ve accomplished the most important ones.

Top 10 Goal Setting Tips # 6. Be specific. Example: Rather than “Have a stronger social media presence,” go for something like “Gain 1,000 Twitter followers” or “Create a blog with 10,000 monthly unique visitors.”

Top 10 Goal Setting Tips # 7. Set deadlines along the way. A timeline for completing steps towards a goal gives you an action plan. If you have one big goal, try breaking it down into smaller pieces and setting shorter term goals that will ultimately lead up to you accomplishing the big one.

Top 10 Goal Setting Tips # 8. Share your goals with others. These “witnesses” can help hold you accountable. The law of commitment says that we have a natural tendency to want to remain committed to accomplishing what we’ve told other people we’re going to do. This “pressure” will increase the chances you’ll do what’s necessary to accomplish your goal.

Top 10 Goal Setting Tips # 9. Tape your goals to your bathroom mirror (or some place else where they will be highly visible). They won’t do you any good if you stick them in a drawer and forget about them. You want to maintain top of mind awareness. What’s not on the top of your mind, get’s forgotten.

Top 10 Goal Setting Tips # 10. Stay flexible. The unexpected may force you to revise, recalibrate or scale back. That’s okay as long as you’re still moving forward. These should be addressed in your monthly check in with yourself.

Still want some more help on setting those goals? Great news is there are several great smart phone applications with goal setting tips that can assist you. Here are just a few I recommend.

Another resource to check out is one of my previous blogs that’s gotten thousands of visitors that will give you many more goal setting tips. Click Here to learn the most tips on goal setting and to see a video of explaining them.