The Best Advice Ever: Goal Setting

Written on Tuesday, August 16, 2005 by Dus10 D :: 3 Comments

"If you do not know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere"
- Henry Kissenger (1923 - ), US Secretary of State

If you want to end up nowhere, you do not need goals. Most people, however undisciplined they may be, do not want to end up nowhere. This is why you need goals. Goals help you measure your progress. If someone says they want to be rich, how do they measure if they achieve "rich." They cannot do that if they do not define it. Your goals must be measurable, definable, and attainable. If your goals do not meet these criteria, they will not work.

This idea is pervasive. It applies to debt reduction, building financial independence, lowering your cholesterol, everything.

I am a very goal-oriented person, I always have been. It lets me know when I need to move on to something else. This is probably why I never became an Olympic swimmer; I met my swimming goals in high school, and then became bored with it. I am always working on something. Right now, I am working on my BS and a business. Next year, I will be working on my MBA and investment properties. A couple of years later, I hope to be working on my JD and buying a farm (do not let your heart be troubled, I will not be practicing as a lawyer... I hope).

Here is another piece of advice about goals. This idea comes from the accounting joke: You keep a set of books for yourself, a set of books for your partner, and a set of books for the IRS. While I do not advocate this for accounting (it is fraudulent), I do advocate this for goals. When I set goals, I figure out the shortest realistic time to complete these goals. This becomes my "books." I have to be the toughest on myself, because no one else will be. For my partners, I loosen it up, so that if I stumble, I can still look good in their eyes. For customers and others whom my goals are shaped, I keep the most loose set of goals; this is so my partners and I all feel comfortable with the client. This way, you work towards your own goals, as hard as you can. If you stumble and still make it according to the goals you state for others, you still win. If you make it to the goals you set for yourself, you are a superstar, in their eyes.

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