Setting Winning Goals Starts With Being Honest With Yourself

When you sit down to set goals it is a pivot point that affords you the opportunity to reflect on your past and start anew with a clean slate and new hope.

Goal setting often triggers regrets for the things you’ve things left undone, for time that was squandered, and for opportunities lost. It can also be an opportunity to celebrate accomplishments, positive changes, and progress.

Most people don’t set goals for the very reason that it requires effort and self-awareness. You must think and reflect. Setting goals requires risk and accountability. It requires you to be accountable to the only person in your life to whom you are really accountable – YOU.

Frankly, it is about honesty and being true to yourself. It is an opportunity to make key decisions that will shape your future.

The Three Questions That Matter Most

Yogi Berra quipped that “If you don’t know where you are going you might end up someplace else.” I love this quote because it so succinctly describes they way so many people aimlessly walk through life. No plan, no direction, no idea where they are going.

Here is a brutal truth. If you don’t have a plan, you will become a part of someone else’s plan. You can either take control of your life or allow someone else to control you to enhance their life.

It’s your choice and that choice begins and ends with the three questions that matter most:

• What do you want?
• How do you plan to get what you want?
• How bad do you want it?

Start with defining what you want, building a plan, and writing it down. Set goals. Not fleeting wishes and hopes. Real goals that mean something for your career and life. This means gathering up the discipline to stop what you are doing, sit down, and actually think about your future.

Write it Down

To reach any big goal requires you to move through a series of small steps. These steps to success must be defined, written down, and measured against deadlines.

Writing down your goals and plan makes you unstoppable. When you write down your goals, ink on paper, you tap into a powerful motivational force.

A written plan forces action. Something inside of you begins to drive you forward constantly pushing you towards your destination. It is there, written in stone, and it cannot be ignored until it has been accomplished.

Success is Paid for in Advance With Hard Work and Sacrifice

Desire is the only thing that trumps procrastination. Therefore, the most important question in any endeavor is “How bad do you want it?”

More often than not, getting what you want is more about what you are willing to give up rather than what you are willing to do. What you want and what you are willing to do to get what you want must be equal or congruent.

Achieving your goals means sacrificing what you want now for what you want most.

Goals and plans don’t matter if you don’t have the desire and unwavering will to achieve them.

You will face adversity, hurdles, roadblocks, and disappointment. There will be temptations that, like sirens, distract you from your goal, causing you to forget your plans and go off course. You’ll face mountains to climb, uphill battles you’ll to fight, and excuses for why you can’t do something.

Your future has not been written. It is completely within your control. Take a moment today to answer these three critical questions and get to work setting winning goals for a brighter future.

In Jeb’s comprehensive Goal Planning Course he walks you step-by-step through the process of setting winning goals.