It is just as difficult to reach a destination you don’t have, as it is to come back from a place you have never been. A man walked up to the counter inside of a gas station and said, “Sir, can you give me directions?” And the man says, “Sure, all you have to do is go North on 185, then take a left off of exit 12, go about ten miles and then make a right at the first light.” You are asking for directions and life is giving them to you in a very detailed way but there is only one problem you never stated where you wanted to end up. Therefore, life is granting you options many of which you are following because if all you know is that you do not want to be here, anywhere else sounds good.

 No one ever accomplishes more than they set out to accomplish. No one will admit to being mediocre or worse yet striving to be that however our actions speak so loudly that others cannot hear our words. The things we do daily determine our greatness. A goal is not a goal until that goal has a deadline attached to it. When you set a deadline to a task your subconscious goes to work to start to solve the problem. In this case the problem would be trying to achieve or acquire either material or some form of relational. If you do not have a goal the dream is just really wishfully thinking. There is no such thing as an unrealistic goal, only unrealistic time frames. Therefore, use this as a general rule of thumb when beginning with the goal setting process. First come up with the goals which you desire to accomplish and then attach a date to each goal. Second is to go back through your goals and double the amount of time that it will take you to accomplish that goal. I have learned the hard way that there is a much better outcome with your goal setting experience if you go this route. A goal is not a goal until it is written down. As the Bible says in Habbakuk 2:2, “Write the vision and make it plain so that those who read it may run with it.”

 You can go where you want to go, do what you want to do, have what you want to have and be who you want to be if you know exactly what those things are. In the book “Chicken Soup for the College Soul” there is recorded that a study done on groups of Harvard students that found that 80% had no specific goals, 15% had goals that were only thought about and 5% had goals that were written down with deadlines. Thirty years later these students were reevaluated and found that of all the students who had been studied that the 5% who wrote down their goals with deadlines attached not only accomplished and superseded those goals but had a greater net worth than the other 95% of their class combined. If this is true for one of the most prestigious colleges in America how much more is this fact true to you and I who have never had the privilege of attending such a school. Further studies have been shown that only 3% of Americans commit their goals to paper. J.C. Penny said, “You show me a stock clerk with a goal and I will give you a man who will make history. Give me a man without a goal and I will give you a stock clerk.” I believe that we all could find some use for the wealth of someone of Penny’s status but can we find use of his strategy that allowed him to acquire his wealth. You see the greatest secret about success is that it is not a secret. Anyone who has ever succeeded has written a book, spoke at a conference or recorded a instructional tape or CD in order that they might teach others how to follow in their footsteps. Once you get to the top you realize that there is plenty of room up there and you strongly desire that others will come up with you.

With all this information there are still reasons why individuals do not set goals for themselves. I believe that the number one reason is because they have never been sold on the idea. If someone truly understood the importance of goals in their life I do not believe that they would sit on their hands and do nothing. Others fear failure and secretly do not set goals because they are scared that they will not achieve them. In response I agree with Robert Schueller who said, “I would rather dare great things and fail more than attempt nothing and succeed.” Fear of the unknown is a great opposition that holds up back from our destiny. We have all had projects whether they were at work, or at school that we simply did not know how to accomplish. So most of us placed those projects on the shelf until we had to pick the project up and work on it or we would miss our deadline (goal) set by our boss. (Did you catch that?) Once we did we figured out the project and realized how simple the task was. Goals are no different. In fact I encourage you to try and write them down and just mess everything up as long as you do something. You will learn the method that works best for you. The other issue is that of self-esteem. A poor self image will hold you back in every area of your life. You cannot do anything great until you first love yourself and believe that you are a person of worth.

So how in the world do you set goals? First I recommend that you aim to make a list of about 100 things you really want out of life. Does one hundred seem overwhelming? Well, start in an area where you feel comfortable begin thinking about everything from trips to Tahiti to having a date night with your family but just make sure that you write them down! Then reorder your list from the most important goals to the least important goals you wish to accomplish. Remember just start from where you are. You do not have to be the all-time greatest goal setter overnight. Just go as far as you can see and then stop. But once you take a rest and look again you will notice that you will always be able to see a little further than from where you started from last. Your goals must be big and make you excited. Athletes perform better against tougher competition, while those same athletes compete mediocre against weak competition. This is precisely how upset victories occur in games. The predicted champs are playing half-hearted while the underdogs are throwing everything they have against the better team. This is how your goals must be. Your goals must be enough to make you excited and just barely out of your reach. To say that I am going to make a million dollars next year when you are currently making forty thousand is like saying that a high school football team is going to beat the Chicago Bears. I do not care how excited you are that is something that is just not going to happen unless God decides to part the Red Sea again. Your goals must be long range and keep you motivated throughout that time period. Your goals also must elicit daily activity so our mind and body will remain focused on task. Have you ever had those lazy days where you just plan nothing? Well, the inevitable happens, which is nothing. Lastly they must be specific. You need to know in minute detail. Goals must be personal. I recommend really not sharing them unless you are married or have a business mentor in your life who can tell you accountable. The reason is most people do not mind you getting ahead, just not ahead of them. So a lot of times they will try to discourage you from pushing ahead while masking it with their concern for your well-being. There is a book that is called “The Dream Giver” that describes this process better than any I have ever found. 

Recommended Reading:

Magic of Thinking Big 

As Konrad Adenaver said, “We all live under the same sky but we don’t all have the same horizon.” 

Let’s say that you wanted to set a goal of an income of $100,000 a year when your current income is $30,000. Is this a goal? This is not a goal because it does not have a deadline or plan to get there. How are you going to make the one hundred thousand dollars and in what time frame are you giving yourself to generate this salary? Are you going to make it through your current job in the form of promotions or are you going to start a business on the side in order that supplement the income? Lets say that you are going to start a business on the side and you are giving yourself seven years to accomplish the task. So in order to generate the extra seventy thousand dollars you plan to write a book on the side. Therefore, you commit to yourself that you will write two pages in a day in your book until completion. 

See You at the Top – Zig Ziglar 

Let me challenge you go after your insecurity for 30 days!!!!!!!!