With focus, you create a powerful laser-like ability to accomplish things. However, it is extremely important that you stay focused on your goal, rather than just concentrating on working hard. Many people, including some leaders, believe that hard work is all there is to it. Unfortunately, a person can work hard with efforts focused in the wrong direction and come up short. Hard work does not guarantee success. It is a component, but you need to focus your hard work and efforts towards the result you want to achieve. With concentrated effort, you can accomplish much more with greater ease. However, before you can focus, you must know one thing: what is your goal.

you must know where you are going

When people talk about leaders having a vision, they are simply saying that the leader knows what outcome he wants. Vision is nothing more than a clear picture of what you see for yourself, your organization, or the world in the future. A powerful and compelling vision can be exciting and energetic. But most importantly, a clear vision provides direction and meaning. Without vision, without goals to work towards, a leader and the organization he leads cannot focus their energy toward the desired results. Without goals, how can you set priorities? When a leader has a clear vision and goals, the chances of achieving them are much greater. Because goals are so important, and focusing without them lacks the ability to achieve the greatest success, the remainder of this article will be a brief introduction to setting and achieving goals.

Setting and Reaching Goals

There are countless resources on goal setting. Many of these are very good, and people who follow them achieve better results and live more successfully. Unfortunately, not many people actually design their own lives. Studies show that most people do not formally set or achieve goals. Many people spend more time planning a vacation each year than the important things they will accomplish or achieve.

Goals should be set in all areas of your life. You must have balance. Areas to consider setting goals include: Mental goals, such as learning more about a subject and improving yourself; Fitness goals, such as participating in an exercise program and eating healthy; Family goals, such as spending time with your wife or husband, children, and extended family; Social goals, such as attending community events, joining a local service group, or socializing with people in your industry to share ideas; Spiritual goals, such as attending a religious service, reading the texts of the great religion, or simply being more useful to people; Career goals, such as doing what it takes to get a promotion or lead your company to success; and Financial goals, such as owning your own home, getting out of debt, increasing your net worth to gain financial independence.

Once you have determined in which areas you will set goals, you must commit to writing them down. Studies show that committing goals to writing increases the likelihood of reaching them. In a “Forbes” interview, Lee Iacocca said that “writing something is the first step to making it happen.” There are many ways to write down your goals. Different books and courses have a variety of forms for recording goals, subgoals, and the mission statement that governs them. For the purposes here, just commit to writing down your goals. No need to record them in an expensive journal or complicated flowcharts. In fact, it’s often best to keep it simple. Just make sure they are challenging but achievable, measurable, and have specific timeliness and commitment to the role. If you do this, you’ll be way ahead of most people, and if you do it for your business, you’ll have a better chance of success at great levels. Now that you’ve committed to putting your goals on paper, let’s look at how we can make them SMART.

Many books, articles, and courses teach SMART goals. It’s a good acronym to use when beginning to set your goal. SMART goals are simply:

Specific

Vague generalities do little to inspire us. Our minds need specific goals to work on. You must state exactly what you want to achieve. Provide enough detail to eliminate indecision in determining exactly what to do. To set specific goals, you need to answer the six “W” questions: who, what, where, when, which, and why.

Measurable

How will you know if your goal has been achieved or not? A measurable goal has a result that can be evaluated. You must have measurable progress and you must establish concrete criteria to measure that progress. Measurement helps you stay on track, meet target dates, and experience the high of achievement when the goal is achieved.

Reachable

When you identify and set specific goals that are important to you, you begin to discover ways to achieve them. You go the extra mile to develop attitudes, skills, and abilities to achieve every goal you set for yourself. You can achieve almost any goal you set for yourself, if you really want it and are willing to make the necessary sacrifices to achieve it.

Realistic

Goals should represent the things you are willing and able to work for. You can set it high and still be realistic. Only you can determine what is too high. Your belief and commitment that the goal can be achieved represent whether or not it is realistic. This cannot be stressed enough, it is your decision whether or not a goal is realistic. What is realistic for one person may not be for another. Your goals should be within the realm of your credibility.

Prompt

A goal should have a time frame. We are driven by deadlines, and setting deadlines for our goals is a powerful motivator. It should not be placed too far in the future, or it is too easily postponed. At the same time, it should not be too tight, making it unrealistic and daunting. If you don’t set a time, goals tend not to happen. It’s too easy to think that you can start at any time and never do. Without a time frame, there is no urgency to start taking action towards your goals, towards your dreams, towards your success.

Setting goals is powerful. Use the SMART acronym to help set the goals you will achieve. Once established, remember to focus on your goal and stay focused until you succeed. Getting off track and veering off in different directions will get in the way of true success.