Writing down – and achieving – your goals

Guest post by Beth Jones

Last year our daughter Heather lost over 35 pounds, trained, and ran her first 5K run. This year she finished a kickboxing class for 4 weeks. She inspired me. In January, I wrote down a goal of exercising regularly and of walking a 5K walk/run in the summer 2011. Last night, with God’s help and Heather’s encouragement, I accomplished that goal. It all started with writing down my specific goal.

Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, and many other successful people emphasize the importance of writing down your goals.

“Wrote it down, put a date on it, listed the obstacles I had to overcome, identified the people, the groups, the organizations I needed to work with, spelled out a plan of action, set that time limit in there, and identified all the benefits to me. It was only when I did that, that the goal became a reality.” ~ Zig Ziglar

“Committing your goals to paper increases the likelihood of your achieving them by one thousand percent!” ~ Brian Tracy

“Goals in writing are dreams with deadlines.” ~ Brian Tracy

If you’re not achieving your goals yet, are you writing them down? This 5K showed me a couple of things that I want to share to encourage you.

Spend some time with God and write down your goals. What does He want you to do? There is something about the physical act of writing them down that makes them more concrete and motivates you. Writing them down keeps them on your mind and in front of you all the time.

Write down yearly goals, monthly goals, weekly goals, daily goals. Plan intentionally with your vision in the forefront of your mind. Where do you want to get to? What is today’s priority task to get you to where you want to be?

What tools do you use to set goals? I use several different ones for goal-setting and to-do lists: a Franklin Covey Dayplanner, sticky notes, a Dry Erase board in our kitchen, a Google calendar, and my cell phone. I may not write all my goals on all of these, but I use each of them regularly.

Write down specific goals. Write down the details of your goals with a deadline. If you write, “I want to have a successful business one day,” you may never accomplish your goals. If you write, “I want to earn a 6-figure annual income this year with my business,” then you have far more chance of achieving your goal. And if you write, “This month I want to make $10,000 extra income through the new home study course I just created,” that is even more specific. It’s concrete; it’s something specific to aim for now. Vague goals yield mediocre results. Specific goals give you a laser focus to accomplish what is in your heart to do. They keep you on target.

Break down your goals into smaller chunks. How will you reach that goal? Brainstorm in a mastermind group. Call your coach for a pow-wow. Write down ideas on sticky notes and plaster them on the wall, arranging them in a sensible order. Do mind-mapping. Let’s take the example of having a successful, 6-figure annual income business.

How do you do it? List the steps to get there, such as:

• setting up a WordPress website/blog;
• creating an opt-in form on your site with a compelling offer for people to sign up on your mailing list;
• frequently recording and uploading videos;
• beginning to write and do article-marketing;
• creating great content for your tribe;
• getting new clients;
• networking;
• becoming active and connecting with your followers on social media;
• creating products that your specific niche needs and wants;
• continually learning through education and training;
• having knowledgeable and successful coaches and mentors who are pouring into you, etc.

Break down your goals into practical, doable, daily steps, but just get moving – and don’t ever quit!

It’d be nice to just sprinkle gold pixie dust over ourselves and be like Tinker Bell, with things magically happening in our lives. But if you seek God’s will for your life, write down your goals, and work hard, you’ll find that you will achieve your goals. Keep setting new goals, aiming higher than you think you can do, and becoming all that God wants you to be. God has a great plan for your life. He created you for a specific and great purpose for His glory. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

Beth Jones is a Christian speaker, writer, wife of 18 years to Ray Jones, and mom of 3 beautiful daughters. Her mission is to encourage and empower women to fulfill God’s great purpose, through daily intimacy with Jesus and through pursuing their passions. You can learn more about Beth at www.BethJones.net and http://womensbattles.com.