S.M.A.R.T. goals, the key to success

No matter what you are trying to achieve in life, it is important to have goals set for yourself.  If you are striving towards wealth, health, or happiness.  All can be achieved through effective goal setting.  Throughout your entire life you have been asked to set goals for yourself.    A goal to walk.  Another to talk. Grab a pencil, pen, or chalk. So many things required with out your knowledge or acknowledgement.  But all required with the hopes that you become a better person!

You may not have realized it, or chose to ignore it.  However, your very well being always teetered upon goals set for your future.  If you do not strive everyday to become better, you become stagnant.  If you have never heard that word or know not what becomes of stagnation, place a bucket of water in your yard and do not touch it.  If the smell does not get to you the creatures that lay waste to your negligence should be proof enough.  But guess what, even those parasites that you would just assume to dump have goals set for how they will provide for the new colonies they have created in that ecosystem.

With that being said I place a call to all of the higher life forms reading this. Realize, If you want a successful business weather you choose to work towards mlm companies, retail, service orientated or otherwise, you must set forth goals for your success.  Now lets get started.  First of course you have to figure out what the goal is for.  

 If you are concerned with health your goal might be to lose weight.  Sounds like a great goal,  but how much weight loss are you trying to achieve? Just to say lose weight isn't good enough.  You need to have something specific to work towards.  So lets say your goal is to lose 10 pounds.  That is specific goal.  But more is needed like a time frame. Because it may take you ten years to drop 10 pound but you've reached your goal.  So was this effective goal setting?  No. For a goal to be truly effective it needs to be SMART.  Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic,and Timely

When you set forth a goal for yourself it needs to be specific. If the goal you seek is vague your chances of reaching it are also.  Lets look at business.  Everyone that owns a business is in it to make money.  Of course there are those that just love what they do and do it for no other reason, however if they do not make money how can they continue to have a business.  You may need to make a certain amount of money to cover expenses so that you can make a profit.  Once you have that figured out  you also need to figure out what you are going to do to achieve it as well as why it is important that you achieve this goal.  Answering the question of why it is important can help you to stay focused and motivated.

Your goals have to be measurable.  If you can not measure it how can you track progress.  You can have short term mini-goals set into the main goal and check them off as you reach each milestone.  Saying I want to be wealthy is not measurable.  However saying I want to make $10,000 a month is because you can track progress of how much you are currently making and track progress made until you reach that goal.  Measuring progress also helps you to stay on track also watching progress being made is great motivation because seeing those milestones being reached encourages you to do more.  “One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his greatest surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't” Henry Ford

When you set forth a goal make sure it is actually attainable.  If your goal is far fetched subconsciously you probably won't commit to it anyway. However when you know your goal can be reached you start to find ways that you can achieve it.  If you have a goal that you want bad enough you will find ways to achieve it, things you may have not noticed before. You have what is called a Paradigm shift.  This is when your
mind shifts towards a greater realization of self.

Lets be realistic here.  If you set a goal for yourself that is just ridiculous or that you have no intention of putting forth the effort to accomplish it just won't happen.  That's not to say that you should not have high expectations. Actually the higher you set the goal the more motivation you have to work towards it.  If you set low expectations you more than likely wont put forth much effort.  Honestly I can not tell you what a realistic goal is.  Only you know your limitations and how far you can push yourself to achieve maximum results.


Lastly, your goal needs to be tangible and timely. As I said in the weight loss example you have to place a time frame on your goal.  By placing a time frame you can measure your success as you reach towards your deadline.  Your goal also needs to be tangible. Meaning something that effects one of the five senses. By doing this and working diligently towards it you can have  a better chance of achieving your goals