This past weekend my wife was cleaning out some boxes she had received from her parents full of school projects from elementary school. Included was a timeline she drew up in 5th grade and after inspection, she came eerily close to achieving every goal she had set out for herself over 15 years ago. She predicted her college playing and coaching career, she predicted the completion of her Master’s degree (to the exact year) and even predicted she’d one day marry a prince. Okay, maybe I made that last one up.
The point is, it is remarkable how much writing down your goals prepares you to achieve them. I write down goals every day, every week, every month, every year and have a bucket-list of lifetime goals I’m hoping to accomplish in my personal and professional life. It’s a way to say “this is where I want to be someday,” if you don’t have the roadmap, how will you ever know where you going (or when you get there?) I’ve included some of the following tips for creating a goal list. This is the year to dream big, work big and live big.
Make your goals SMART
Smart goals are defined as: specific, measurable, achievable, results-focused, and time-bound. Too often people make goals that sound like “lose some weight,” “workout more,” “save more money,” “get a promotion,” but none of these goals define exactly what it is going to take to get there.
