It appears everyone is offering goals webinars, seminars, courses and programs this time of the year. I have taken dozens and all of them were worth my time and effort. Not one was identical and the majority of the information was different. I recommend you develop what works for you. What has worked for me and I have had a lot of personal success with goals, is:
The goal must be written down but you may not have to ‘see’ it daily but maybe you do. You will find both ways taught. What works for you is all that matters.
A goal is an object or event towards which PLAY is directed in order to score. Do not collapse the score with the goal. If you do, play will disappear. Ultimate success is tied to the score and each accomplished goal is a success itself. Add more play!!
How goals, how you intend or want to accomplish something are a waste of time. They are designed to keep you from the ‘what’ goals above.
Goals are secret UNTIL you have reached them. You may want one person to ‘hold’ them for you if that supports their fruition.
You don’t need to know or break them down into every single little task. Any worrying about how to get it done produces the wrong energy for me. Many will disagree with this but many little doable daily goals supporting something far off in the future has always killed the fun for me. I hold the goal, in crystal clear, specific detailed existence in my mind. I then follow the appearance of what and where to have it happen, what I call ‘bread crumbs’. What I need to do today will appear!
Too many goals also kill the fun, the play and the likelihood that any goal will come into existence. Personally, I think too many send out the wrong message and quite possibly more than one are in opposition to one of the others. I personally have only ONE goal.
There are no impossible goals. The timeline may require adjustment for accomplishment as long as you do not quit.
Everything is possible for him who believes. – Mark 9:23
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. – Matthew 7:7
Stop worrying! Have fun and play all the way!
What and how do you set goals that have worked for you? What hasn’t worked?
How Life Works 
There remains a rest… good word Michael!
I agree that too many goals also kill the fun, and also it’s easier to loose track
Reblogged this on Vashon Media and commented:
What are your goals? Personal and Company?
Nice post here.
I have several goals and I look at them periodically. However I am not the best goal setter in the world… but I seem to do all right!
Mine is to travel to Austin safely and return back in one piece with new internet marketing knowledge 🙂
Nice to be heard and very nice to learn from the most experienced Path Finder !Added so much of SureFire into this Blog:Ice doe not melt here;Ice burns ;ie Iceburner ! Go Great;Stay Great !
You seem to have this all worked out. I will start following your format especially having too many goals.
I guess my lesson about goal setting is much like a lesson that I continue to learn about so much of life. I am happier when I am KISSing. Keeping my goals simple and straightforward provides the laser like focus that I need to get them done.
The goal I set out for 2013 was to be more social and connecting with more people in 2013. And it ‘s been 12 days and I am going pretty good. Well another 352 to go 🙂
i need to get a goal book!
We all need a goal or we become stale
Simple and to the point. I like the secret goal step. This was a crystal clear post.
Thanks. My goal is to get my first tween book series edited, illustrated & self published. Breaking through the fear of showing people my writing and having them read it.
Goals can be fun, but only when they are kept specific and simple.
Interesting post, Michael, and I agree with you on “too many goals also kill the fun, the play and the likelihood that any goal will come into existence.” But I do write down the tasks needed to accomplish the goal, this helps me staying focused.
Thanks or the post. To set a goal is to focus your thoughts into action. With so much to distract us today, focus is more difficult. Thanks. Got this from a derek halpern post on why bloggers fail. He asked, What website in your niche would you like to post on as a guess, to you could help your site gain traffic. He asked us to set that up as our goal for this month. For me at http://www.yourwellnessnhealth.com it was to get a post on http://www/smallbusinesstrends.com in one month.
Great article! Goals should always be geared around pleasure more than avoiding pain. In order for your goal to be realized, it must become your passion, especially if it is a goal you have been struggling with for many years!
that are many ways to achieve the goal… so, be careful when choosing.
I agree there are so many offering advice at this time of year. Keep it simple and consistent is the best rule I think
“Everything is possible for him who believes!” Amen for that =) http://markkutauriainen.com
You’re absolutely right!
Good thoughts.
Nice article, I find following my passion is more successful for me than goal setting
Great article with great thought !! Thanks to share !! Have a great weekend !!
Fits my NYR: drink more, worry less. Ha ha. No, really, great post, Ice.
Very interesting article about Goals, thanks for sharing
Great article – and you’re right – when you worry about doing things right, when you stress out over how to write your goals or how to complete them – you send the wrong energy out and make it harder to achieve them. Love this article and I will be sharing it. Keep it up! 🙂
I’ve heard a lot of people say that one will succeed if one does not quit particularly in Internet marketing, but sometimes I think that this is nonsense. Sometimes what one is trying to do is impossible, and it is necessary quit, and find something else to do that works. What if what you’re doing is the wrong thing with no possibility of success? In that case, quitting is the only possible path to success! Sometimes we have to quit in order to succeed! Otherwise we might spend our lives doing something that is is useless, and will never achieve anything.
K.I.S.S.
I certainly agree with you that play is very important…for so much more than just achieving the goal too…
I like the inspiration
Very true, especially about them being secret until you have reached them.
Hello Michael,
Great post! I agree that you will succeed if you don’t quit. When one says not to quit, he/she means not to give up on the dream of making a sustainable living (or whatever you desire) online. As one of my mentors, David Vallieres, says, “Fail faster: By doing so, you eliminate what doesn’t work so that you can figure out what does work to lead you to success.” That’s presuming you do not make the same mistakes again; thus, the importance of learning what doesn’t work so you don’t do it again!
As for me and my goals, I feel that if there is a large, long-term goal to accomplish, it can help to break them down into smaller goals- it’s almost like chapters in a book or levels in a video game- if you succeed on conquering a level, you get closer to your goal, but you haven’t reached the “ultimate” goal yet.
In fact, thinking about it more, it’s very much like a video game, especially an action or an RPG (role-playing game) that I played when I was younger- you have stages and tasks to accomplish (whether it’s gathering power-ups to make your character stronger or defeating an end-of-level boss character to move onto the next level). All of these help move you toward your ultimate, long-term goal.
So, in essence, the power of gamification helps me to set smaller goals that I can achieve relatively quickly that help to propel me toward accomplishing my much larger goal. Then, when I do accomplish that larger goal, I’ll set another larger goal (much like in a game, when you defeat the final boss character, you’ll often start over at the beginning to complete the game again, sometimes with the enemy characters getting faster or more difficult to defeat- this can signify a new challenge to complete).
I feel that having smaller goals can give you the momentum to help complete a larger goal; if you try to accomplish a larger goal all by itself but don’t accomplish it right away and/or take longer than expected to make progress, it can help to distract you, thinking that you should change your long-term goal because you haven’t recognized any notable, tangible progress toward your larger goal. By accomplishing the long-term goal in steps with smaller goals, I feel it can help keep me on track and more focused toward achieving that larger goal.
Thanks again for the post and informative discussion- greatly appreciated!
Good advice here, Michael. It’s easy to lose sight of the primary goal or to become disillusioned about its achievability by being bogged down in the minutuae of the ‘little steps’ and the timeline to achieve it.
Brilliant article, goals and experiences move us…
Thank you ever so much! 🙂
I have found after 18 years on the internet that I do better if I set a goal for every program I join. Small goals to start and as I attain the goal, set a new goal to reach, but never allow the goal for one program to intefer with the goal of another program.
Personally I always find it better to plan goals and next year in December the last 2 weeks of December while everyone is thinking about Christmas
I always love your articles, but this one really hits the spot.