How to make your dreams come true

Would you set out on a major journey with no real idea of your destination?

Many people feel as if they're adrift in the world. They work hard, but they don't seem to get anywhere worthwhile.

A key reason that they feel this way is that they haven't spent enough time thinking about what they want from life, and haven't set themselves formal goals. After all, would you set out on a major journey with no real idea of your destination? Probably not!

Why Set Goals?

You would need a map to show the way to go. A map will show you where to turn or slow down for the traffic lights, where to stop to refuel and where to speed up. It shows you the rivers, mountains, forests and deserts of life. If you have a map, you will know how to go round the unfruitful of treacherous patches to get to your destination.

Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your vision of the future into reality. Without setting goals you cannot create the future you want.

The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts. You will also quickly spot the distractions that can, so easily, lead you astray.

Goal setting is used by top-level athletes, successful business-people and achievers in all fields. Setting goals gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation. It helps you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life. The saying, ‘Time is money’ is real. If you waste time, you waste opportunities in your life to make money by creating something to sell or by working to provide a service.

When you set sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. You will begin to see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. You will also raise your self-confidence, as you recognize your own ability and competence in achieving the goals that you've set.

How to set Personal Goals

There are various ways of setting goals. Before you go on, grab a piece of plain paper to write down your ideas. Set your goals according to what is most important to you in your life. So, let’s say living a wonderful life in your old age is important to you. Then, you need to create your "big picture" of what you want to do with your life in let’s say 10, 20 or 30 years time. Now ask yourself what having a wonderful life is and what age old age is to you. Write it down. Next list the goals you need to achieve to realise your “big picture”. This could be to have to have a peaceful and beautiful home, a loving husband, £100 to spend each week, to live in a rent free home, to have a nice car and a driver, to travel on holiday twice a year and so on.

Now pick the first dream that is, to have a peaceful and beautiful – and ask yourself how you can create such a home. What would you need to do? How long will it take you realistically? You would probably need money to buy or rent the home and decorate it. Then ask yourself how much money you would need, how you will get the money and how long it would take to get the money. Do you have enough money coming in at the moment? If not, are you thinking of getting a second job or creating more income? How much specifically do you have to save each month? Have you though of where the house would be? How big you want it to be? Bungalow or a storey building? A garden or not? Town or village? You need to take each point and break it down the same way.

You continue to break them down into smaller and smaller targets that you must hit each day to reach your lifetime goals.

Finally, once you have your plan, stick it on the wall where you can see it everyday and you start working on it to achieve these goals.

TIP: What I do is that I have a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, 5 yearly and 10 yearly goal sheet on which I list all my targets and then I tick off the targets as I achieve them. When you watch yourself achieve everything you have planned, it makes you feel peaceful.

You achieve your full potential when you start the process of goal setting by looking at your lifetime goals. Then, you work down to the things that you can do in, say, the next five years, then next year, next month, next week, and today, to start moving towards them.