“What are your life goals?” is one of those questions that can put people in an uncomfortable position pretty quickly. Most answer this question by laughing it off

What exactly are life goals? Simply put, they’re the things you would like to accomplish in your life. Life goals are the big things to work for and accomplish such as getting married and having a family, starting your own business, becoming a big-time executive, or traveling the globe. Life goals are essentially everything you want to do in life before passing on. They’re the stuff people remember you by when you are no longer around.

Why are goals so important? Setting goals gives you purpose, and they help you to guide your life. Think of life goals as your North Star. They’ll guide you where you want to go, but it’s still on you to choose the path to get there.

Most people already have a decent idea of what they truly want in life, they just haven’t taken the time to write it down. If that’s you, great. If you have no clue what you want, that’s okay too, I’ll walk you through it.
Even if you’ve already gone through a similar exercise as I’m about to describe, try not to brush off the following activity just yet. Maybe it’s been a while and some of your goals have changed. Maybe there’s a few more things you really want that eluded you before. It may be worth it to go through and rework your plan a bit.

Many people think that setting a goal destination is having a dream that is there in the far distant future but will never be attained. This proves to be a self-fulfilling prophesy because of two things:
Firstly, that the goal isn’t specifically defined enough in the first place; and secondly, it remains a remote dream waiting for action which is never taken.
Defining your goal destination is something that you need to take some time to think carefully about. The following steps on how to plan your life goals should get you started on a journey to your destination:

1.Make a list of your goal destinations

Goal destinations are the things that are important to you. Another word for them would be ambitions, but ambitions sound like something which outside of your grasp, whereas goal destinations are certainly achievable if you are willing to put in the effort working towards them.
So what do you really want to do with your life? What are the main things that you would like to accomplish with your life? What is it that you would really regret not doing if you suddenly found you had a limited amount of time left on the earth?
Each of these things is a goal. Define each goal destination in one sentence.
If any of these goals is a stepping stone to another one of the goals, take it off this list as it isn’t a goal destination.Find a quiet place to sit and work on this section for 5-10 minutes. If you find yourself hitting a roadblock, try getting up and going for a walk, or perhaps taking a shower. Some of my most inspirational thinking has come from my time spent in the shower.
Think about everything in your life that is really important to you.
Think about the couple of things you’ve really been pondering lately or your biggest struggle in life.
There are plenty of areas of your life you can set life goals in: careers, family, friends, other relationships, schooling, spirituality, traveling, fun, charity, money, health, and many more. These are just some to get your brain churning.
Write down anything and everything that comes to mind - all of the things you’d like to accomplish and those that sound fun or exhilarating to you.

2.Think about the time frame to have the goal accomplished

This is where the 5 year, 10 year, next year plan comes into it.
Some goals will have a “shelf life” because of age, health, finance, etc, whereas others will be up to you as to when you would like to achieve them by.The things you come up with during this exercise, by no means, have to be your definitive life goals for the rest of your life. As I said before, people change and so does what’s important to them. Just try to focus on the things that are important to you currently.
Look at what you’ve written down from your brainstorming session.
Narrow that list down to the things you absolutely couldn’t live without doing - those are your life goals.

Next try to clarify each of your goals with a specific target and a clearly defined outcome. You should be able to picture what your life will be like when you achieve the goal.
Pat yourself on the back for identifying what’s truly important to you.

3.Write down your goals clearly

Write each goal destination at the top of a new piece of paper.
For each goal, write down what is it that you need and don’t have now that will allow you achieve that goal. This could be some kind of education, career change, finance, a new skill, etc. Any “stepping stone” goals you removed will fit into this exercise. If any of these smaller “goals” have sub-goals, go through the same process with these so that you have precise action points to work with.Once your goals are defined, the next step is creating a plan to get there.

Many life coaches recommend using the Simpleology system devised by Mark Joyner. It’s called backward planning and is a method used by the US military.
To summarize, think about the last step needed to accomplish just one of your goals. If climbing Mount Everest was on your list, then literally your last footstep onto the summit should be what comes to mind.

4.Write down what you need to do for each goal

Under each item listed, write down the things that you will need to do in order to complete each of the steps required to complete the goal.

These items will become a check-list. They are a tangible way of checking how you are progressing towards reaching your goal destinations. A record of your success!!!Before that, you’ll need to come up with a team to do it with, a conditioning regimen to prepare yourself, travel plans, and much more. Work all the way backwards until you land on the first step that you need to take. It should be something actionable and achievable in the very near-term.
If you’ve done the exercise correctly and wrote everything down along the way, you’ll have a step-by-step plan for exactly what’s needed to accomplish your goal.
The rest is making it happen

5.Write down your timeframe with specific and realistic dates

Using the time frames you created, on each goal destination sheet write down the year in which you will complete the goal by.
For any goal which has no fixed completion date, think about when you would like to have accomplished it by and use that as your destination date.Work within the time frames for each goal destination, make a note of realistic dates by which you will complete each of the small steps

6.Schedule your to-dos

Now take an overview of all your goal destinations and make a schedule of what you need to do this week, this month, this year – in order to progress along the road towards your goal destinations.
Write these action points on a schedule so that you have definite dates on which to do things.Once you’ve planned out each one of your life goals, you may feel slightly intimidated, and that’s okay. After all, these are your life’s biggest accomplishments to-be. The best way to start checking them off your list is to work on them one at a time.
Let me repeat. One at a time.
Choose just one of the things you’d like to accomplish, preferably the one that’s most important to you right now, and put your plan into action. Start adding the steps you drew out in the previous exercise onto your calendar and deciding when you’re going to take each step.

7.Review your progress

At the end of the year, review what you have done this year, mark things off the check-lists for each goal destination and write up the schedule with the action points you need for the next year.
Although it may take you several years to, for example, get the promotion you desire because you first need to get the MBA which means getting a job with more money to allow you to finance a part-time degree course, you will ultimately be successful in achieving your goal destination because you have planned out not only what you want, but how to get it, and have been pro-active towards achieving it.If your goal is something that’s going to take several years to accomplish, what can you do this year to get that much closer?

What can you do in the next few months?
Your goals become a lot less daunting when you focus on the smaller, more accessible steps you need to take to achieve them. Believe me, I feel overwhelmed in the little things I have to do day-to-day.

I’m constantly reminding myself to take things just one step at a time. It makes everything manageable.
Once you’ve got all of your preparation done, it’s on you to go after it. Remember to choose just one life goal and focus as much energy as you can into it. If it’s something you truly desire, then motivation shouldn’t be a problem

PLAN YOUR GOALS.......

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