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Life planning and setting life goals should be easy. After all, we all have hopes, dreams and preferences about how our lives will play out, don’t we? We grow up being told if we want something bad enough, we can get it. “If you can dream it, you can do it,” we’re told time and time again. This is America, the land of opportunity, isn’t it? Yet staying on track and remaining motivated can be difficult. The possibility of failure is terrifying enough to make many a person just give up before he or she gets started. Sometimes it helps to borrow from the wisdom of someone who’s been there, done that. Why not begin your journey by learning the basics about how to set personal goals and achieve them too?

One book about setting life goals that’s been getting a lot of attention lately is “The Magic Lamp: Goal Setting for People Who Hate Setting Goals” by Keith Ellis. This 256 page book tells readers how to have greater focus and stronger follow-through when it comes to reaching goals. The Magic Lamp touches upon dreams of getting more money, buying a new home, seeking a promotion, attaining better relationships and finding more fulfillment. Turn your life ambitions into an amazing adventure, rather than a dull chore with the methods put forth in this book. One reader says, “Since reading this book, I’ve started exercising regularly, getting up 30 minutes earlier to work on my dream and stopped beating myself up in the process.”

Another setting life goals book to check out is “Having It All: Achieving Your Lifes Goals and Dreams” by John Assaraf. In this book, you will find advice on how to identify your strengths and weaknesses, evaluate your life, create a vision, set up goals for the next year, use the law of attraction, meditate to stay on course and reprogram the mind for success. “I read the first edition and it changed my life forever. Now, with the two new chapters on ‘Your Powerful Brain and The Laws of Earning Money’ it’s destined to become a classic, like Think and Grow Rich,” writes one reader who gave the book five stars. Another reader comments, “I enjoyed it because of its uniqueness, simplicity, scope, practicality and the author’s sincerity.”

For students, setting life goals is especially important. Teenagers can read about how to set personal goals and achieve them in “What Do You Really Want? How to Set a Goal and Go for It — A Guide for Teens” by Beverly K. Bachel. The helpful forms and advice in this book are combined with inspirational quotes from teens who have tried effective techniques and succeeded in personal goal setting. Bachel’s chapter-closing “Think It & Ink It” sections prove to be very thought-provoking to direct children toward greater introspection. “The book also has worksheets to help kids clarify their values, goals and action steps. Those seem like a great conversation-starter for parents and kids — I can’t wait to learn more about my son, and for him to learn more about me, as we discuss our goals and dreams,” one parent writes, while admitting that she was going to fill out some of the worksheets also.

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Goal setting can run the gamut from personal achievement goals, like running a marathon, gaining a promotion or buying a home — to aspirations in the workplace, like securing a new client, running a successful promotion or raising more money. Setting initiatives is much more than just throwing ideas out there, however. You must also have the ability to create goals that are realistic and the drive to follow through with them. First we must understand the answer to the question: What is goal setting?

When looking at “What is goal setting?” the first step is obviously conjuring up the objective. Traditionally, a good goal is defined as one that is written, challenging, achievable, specific, measurable and time sensitive. Creating goal setting worksheets will help you stay focused and chart your progress. All of your initiatives need not be challenging, but you should have at least one challenging goal to motivate you further. Choosing tasks that you feel are achievable is the key. Sometimes others around you may not believe you can achieve a particular goal, but as long as you’re sure — that’s all that matters. Your plans must be specific so you can best visualize what you want and feel an emotional tie to achieving that end, which will keep you motivated the whole way through. Having a way of measuring your success is important, whether it’s in time, dollar signs, pounds or an end result. You should have a general deadline for your goal to motivate you — whether it is one week or one year.

Next, in the discussion of “What is goal setting?” think about setting a goal strategy. One strategy may be to choose your objectives and write them down into a life goal list. Another goal strategy might be to look at this list everyday to remind yourself what you intend to do. A third strategy might be to identify obstacles that might get in the way of your goal and then problem solve. A fourth strategy could be to prioritize your tasks to ensure everything gets done. Most strategies involve creating an action plan to reach long term goals.

When discussing “What is goal setting?” things like organizing, managing time, remembering and focusing should be included. Poor skill sets in any of those areas can thwart your best efforts to succeed. You must write a priority goal list on a piece of paper if you wish to get ahead in life. You must make time to pursue your dreams, even when you are impossibly busy. You must remember to always be striving for your ambitions and stay focused on your long term needs, rather than just settling for short term wants. Goal setting may not come naturally, but once you learn the basic principles, you are likely to see big changes in your life.

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Couples sometimes begin setting goals for their relationships by writing down five specific objectives for areas such as mutual support, problem solving, individual development, structural goals, financial goals and family goals. Once these are written down, both individuals should review each other’s lists and look for similarities or differences. Over the years, the couple can evaluate how they’ve helped or hindered the achievement of long term goals. They may need to revise their goals or set new ones over time. In dysfunctional relationships, a third party mediator often aids in providing goal setting tips.

Setting smart goals often begins with mutual support objectives. Couples need to establish how interdependent they’ll be, how to help one another grow and how to include others in the relationship, without losing support and intimacy. The ground rules for communication are usually established in this stage of setting coalition goals. Couples will need to be on the same page as far as how long they’d like the relationship to last. If the relationship is for the long haul, they’ll need to set goals on how to nurture mutual intimacy throughout the years to keep the flames of passion burning. They will also need to look for ways to have fun in the relationship. During hardships, couples will need to know when to pull closer and when to leave some space.

Often setting goals for solving problems aren’t discussed beforehand, but must be talked about after the first real conflict. Personal planning includes looking at different ways to resolve conflict in a healthy and productive manner. Couples will need to talk about what their short term goals for a conflict may be. For instance, a woman may continue arguing until her mate issues an apology. A man may continue to stew in anger until the woman relents and admits that he was “right.” Following a fight, couples must look at what each party can do to ensure a similar fight does not happen again.

When setting goals, there are several characteristics that should be considered. Goals are usually general in nature and specify that each partner plays a part in the achievement of the goals. The time frame should be flexible, allowing months or years for the changes to be made. They should be written in a clear, understandable language and clarified whenever necessary. They should be agreeable to both partners and guarantee general respect. They should aim toward achieving a healthy, happy relationship and be oriented toward mutual growth. Individuals often find that once they set goals they lead much happier and more fulfilling lives.

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Life planning is part of human nature. Without agendas, aspirations and adventures, our lives would be dull and meaningless. Setting and achieving goals invigorates the soul and gives us a rewarding sense of purpose, while also allowing us to achieve more than we ever thought possible. The greatest personalities, leaders and minds of our time all established personal goals and kept motivated enough to pursue their ambitions. You, too, can achieve whatever you set out to do by following these practical goal setting tips.

One of the most difficult goals a person can choose is training to run a marathon. We can learn a lot about setting and achieving goals from new marathon runner, Darrin Class of Seattle. He said at first, writing down goals and a plan, and tacking the piece of paper up to his refrigerator was essential to working toward his marathon training. “Having the plan taped up on my frig also kept me honest. Whenever I debated skipping a run, I would look at the plan and see all the previous days and weeks checked off and this was usually enough to get me out the door,” he wrote. Over time, though, he needed something else. The plan become more like a taskmaster he served, rather than a motivator, he said. He began challenging himself more by running races and trying to beat his previous times. He also listened to audio books and read magazines from other passionate marathon runners to stay positive and engaged.

Weight loss is another popular area to set individual goals. One technique for setting and achieving goals is to celebrate the little milestones and reward yourself. Many dieters sign up to websites like www.sparkpeople.com to stay motivated. They can chart how many pounds or inches they’ve lost, count their daily calorie intake and record their workouts. It can be inspiring to look at the calendar and see how much progress has been made. Once you lose five pounds, you can reward yourself with a frozen yogurt sundae. Once you lose ten pounds, you can buy yourself a new pair of pants one size smaller! Once you lose fifteen pounds, you can sign up for those dance lessons you’ve always been too embarrassed to take. These little rewards can help keep you happy while pursuing your long term goals.

Setting and achieving goals is important to one’s development. Individual goals must be something you feel passionate about, however. If you’re setting these arbitrary goals to make someone else happy, you won’t be likely to succeed. Staying motivated throughout the course requires a reasonable plan to be posted where you’ll see it each day — either tacked up on the fridge, written down in your agenda or saved on your desktop. You will need to establish achievable baby steps to work toward your goal too. In the end, if you’re truly excited by your goals, you will achieve them.

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Knowing how to manage money is extremely important. A person making ,000 a year can live just as happily as a person making ,000, if he knows how to set goals and accomplish them. You may not be able to change your lot in life completely to get a higher paying job or to obtain more hours at work. You may not be able to go to the most prestigious college or buy a luxury estate, but you can live well within your means if you are realistic. You might have to sacrifice some of your daily indulgences, like dining out every week or buying season’s tickets to the football games this year, but you will find sacrifices are easier with written goals to reflect upon.

The first pitfall people have when setting financial goals is that they aren’t specific enough. “I want to pay off my credit card debt,” says the debtor, which prompts the financial counselor to ask, “Well how much debt do you have?” and “When do you want to have this debt paid off by?” Answering these more pointed questions is part of setting realistic goals. Say an individual owes $7,000 on his credit card bill and, after paying his living expenses, he has $100 of spending money each week. If he were to say, “I want to pay off my debt in six months,” then that would be impossible. Given his situation, he could only possibly pay off $2,400 of his debt, which would also leave him with no spending money and no saved money. A more realistic plan would be to pay $50/week for the next 3 years.

Often a person finds it easy to set goals for their financial future. The hard part comes in implementing those goals. Say you are planning to retire. Basically, there are 3 ways to secure a financial future. You can build alternative income streams, increase money from each stream and reduce living expenses. So, in looking at building alternative income streams, you can invest money in the stock market, invest in a side business, tap into your pension and tap into your social security. To increase income from these streams, you can learn to invest, change your risk tolerance level, call your former employers to collect your pension and hold off on collecting your social security so your pay-out increases. Then, as short term goals, you can focus on reducing your living expenses by eliminating debt/interest payments, living more frugally and choosing low-cost alternative products and services.

The key for you to set goals and achieve financial freedom is to set smart goals. When pondering, “What is a smart goal?” think in terms of specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and timely. First, establish a priority goal list that is very specific. For instance: “I want to have a million investment portfolio,” “I want to save ,000 for a house down payment in two years” or “I want to pay off my ,000 in credit card debt this year.” Next, find a way to measure your progress. Some people create goal setting worksheets or progress lists. You may want to break down your goals into short, medium and long term initiatives to help you along. Third, be sure you have an action plan for saving and investing. You must be realistic about your financial goals, based on your income and spending habits. Lastly, you should set a date by which you’d like to achieve your goals. These factors will help you to achieve your objectives.

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