Is Just Setting Goals Enough?

If you're a strong believer in the "Law of Attraction", maybe just setting Goals is enough to start making progress towards the achievement of your aspirations (read more on Wikipedia here, or on Steve Pavlina's blog here).

However, this is rarely enough.

For starters, just setting your goals doesn't actually move you much closer to them. Even if you just live by the "law of attraction", you'll need to continuously re-enforce your belief in your ability to achieve the goals, by regularly reviewing them and/or using techniques like daily affirmations. Steve Pavlina advocates the use of a "belief board" for this.

Furthermore, even advocates of the "Laws of Attraction" are quick to highlight why goal setting alone fails: http://darrenhardy.success.com/2009/12/db10-why-pt1/.

In summary, you need to use your goals to create plans, and execute those plans through action.

If you already have a routine of setting yourself to-do lists, of forward planning and actually successfully completing the tasks you've set yourself, then maybe just formalising your goals and reviewing them regularly will be enough: through regularly review, your thoughts and actions will start to align to these goals and you will progress towards them.

However, if you don't have a good track record of forward planning, you're going to need to use your goals to work out a plan going forwards. What do you need to do to achieve your goals? How can you break these things down into smaller steps? Do you need to do some things before others? What is the first thing you need to do? When will you do it?

The great thing is, as with everything, even small changes can have a massive impact if they're consistently applied.

For example, if you get into a routine of setting yourself a small to-do list on a daily basis (e.g. 3-5 achievable things that, if completed, will give you a sense of success at the end of the day) and combine this with the regular review of your goals, you will find yourself making immediate progress. By combining these tasks, your to-do list will align with your goals, so small actions taken on a daily basis will make small steps towards your longer-term goals. Regular reflection on achievements made against these small tasks will also create a feeling of success that will spur you on to continue with your routine, encouraging you to do more and more.

These small steps all add up - and the sooner you start, the sooner you'll notice results. So if you haven't started already, start now! I promise you won't regret it!