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Goals are your personal statements of the results you want to achieve

• Goal: Something that you are trying to do or achieve. Cambridge Dictionary
• Goal: The end toward which effort is directed. Cambridge Dictionary  
• Goal:  The object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result. Oxford Dictionary
• A goal is a result you want to achieve and by when.  Jerry Bruckner
• Goals are your personal statements of what you are truly willing to do to achieve what you really want to achieve. Denis Waitley
• A goal is a dream with a deadline. Napolean Hill
• Intention,  Vision,  Dreams,  Clarity,  Focus,  Begin with the end in mind

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Goals tell you where you want to go in your life

• Your goals are the road maps that guide you and show you what is possible for your life. Les Brown
• There are those who travel and those who are going somewhere. They are different and yet they are the same. The successful one has this over his rivals: he knows where he is going. Mark Caine
• You must know for which harbor you are headed if you are to catch the right wind to take you there. Seneca
• The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them. Denis Waitley
• People with goals succeed because they know where they are going. It’s as simple as that. Earl Nightingale
• We are all on a personal journey and we need to know where we want to go or else we will never get there. Jerry Bruckner
• The shortest distance between two points assumes you know where you’re going. Robert Brault
• The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are. P. Morgan
• Every time you have a desire, in a certain sense you have a goal, something you would like to be, do, or have. Some desires are merely passing fancies, but others stay with us and go deeper.  Our desires and our goals give us direction and focus. They help point us down our path of action in our life.  Shakti Gawain
• Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road. Dag Hammarskjold
• Be clear what you want in life

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Without goals, life has no direction

• Unless you know where you are going then you will not know how to get there. Stephen Richards
• If you don’t know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere. Henry A. Kissinger
• If you don’t know where you are going, how can you expect to get there? Basil S. Walsh
• By losing your goal – you have lost your way, too! Friedrich Nietzsche
• You are not likely to get anywhere in particular if you don’t know where you want to go. Percy H. Johnson
• If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else. Lawrence J. Peter
• Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination. Fitzhugh Dodson
• Clarity

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• Man is by nature a goal-striving being. And because man is ‘built that way’ he is not happy unless he is functioning the way he was made to function—as a goal-striver. Thus true success and true happiness not only go together but each enhances the other. Maxwell Maltz
• We are engineered as goal-seeking mechanisms. We are built that way. When we have no personal goal which we are interested in and which ‘means something’ to us, we are apt to ‘go around in circles,’ feel ‘lost’ and find life itself ‘aimless,’ and ‘purposeless.’ We are built to conquer environment, solve problems, achieve goals, and we find no real satisfaction or happiness in life without obstacles to conquer and goals to achieve. People who say that life is not worthwhile are really saying that they themselves have no personal goals which are worthwhile. Prescription: Get yourself a goal worth working for. Maxwell Maltz
• Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals. Aristotle
• It’s not a social convention or a result of culture that causes us to make goals for ourselves. We’re hard- wired for it! Our prefrontal cortex, the front 1/3 and most evolved part of our brain, is hardwired to help us generate and achieve goals. Being goal- oriented helps us to keep our behaviors on track and use our brain to its utmost ability. Vic Johnson
• Aristotle wrote that human beings are teleological organisms, which simply means that we are purpose driven. Therefore, you feel happy and in control of your life only when you have a clear goal that you are working toward each day. This also means that this ability to become a lifelong goal setter is one of the most important disciplines you will ever develop. Brian Tracy
• Human beings are teleological creatures. We are hard-wired to live purposively, to have direction. Without a target to shoot at, our lives are literally aimless. Without something productive to do, without positive goals and a purpose, a human being languishes. And then one of two things happens. Aimlessness begins to shut a person down in spiritual lethargy and emptiness, or the individual lashes out and turns to destructive goals just to make something happen. Tom Morris
• Everyone needs something to aim for. You can call it a challenge, or you can call it a goal. It is what makes us human. It was challenges that took us from being cavemen to reaching for the stars. Richard Branson

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Setting goals brings great benefits  

• We gain no easier advantage than by relentlessly pursuing our goal while others pursue an advantage. Robert Brault
• The world has the habit of making room for the man whose words and actions show that he knows where he is going. Napoleon Hill
• By concentrating our efforts upon a few major goals, our efficiency soars, our projects are completed, we are going somewhere. Michael Korda

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Goals give meaning, purpose and zest to life

• People who say life is not worthwhile are really saying that they themselves have no personal goals which are worthwhile… Get yourself a goal worth working for. Better still, get yourself a project… Always have something ahead of you to “look forward to”– to work for and to hope for. Maxwell Maltz
• The only real purpose of a goal is to inspire you to fall more deeply in love with life. Michael Neill
• We are at our very best, and we are happiest, when we are fully engaged in work we enjoy on the journey toward the goal we’ve established for ourselves. It gives meaning to our time off and comfort to our sleep. Earl Nightingale
• The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score. Bill Copeland
• When we are motivated by goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need completion, by pure love that needs expressing, then we truly live life. Greg Anderson
• When in pursuit of goals that are both pleasurable and meaningful, that yield both present and future benefit, we are enlivening time rather than killing time. Tal Ben-Shahar
• An important goal gives you a reason to jump out of bed when you wake up each day. Jerry Bruckner
• A grand goal in living is the first component of a philosophy of life. This means that if you lack a grand goal in living, you lack a coherent philosophy of life. William B. Irvine
• As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death. George Bernard Shaw
• I dread success. To have succeeded is to have finished one’s business on earth, like the male spider, who is killed by the female the moment he has succeeded in his courtship. I like a state of continual becoming, with a goal in front and not behind. George Bernard Shaw
• Purpose,  Meaning,  Being fully alive

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Goals help us take control of our lives

• Either you set your goals and, in doing so, have your life governed by choice or you do nothing and have your life governed by chance. Robin S. Sharma
• You control your future, your destiny. What you think about comes about. By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands – your own. Mark Victor Hansen
• Control

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Goals motivate, energise and inspire us

• The most important thing about motivation is goal setting. You should always have a goal. Francie Larrieu Smith
• People are not lazy. They simply have impotent goals – that is, goals that do not inspire them. Tony Robbins
• What keeps me going is goals. Muhammad Ali
• If you are bored with life, if you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things—you don’t have enough goals. Lou Holtz
• Dreams, goals, ambitions – these are the stuff man uses for fuel. Ron Hubbard
• The reason for desires, goals, for finding those decisions or points of focus, is because they are the life- giving things of the Universe. Without objects of attention, or objects of desire, Life- Force does not come through any of us. Abraham-Hicks
• While spirituality provides an efficient and endless fuel for your mind and body, you must burn that fuel with human action towards your goals, dreams, and desires. Steve Maraboli
• Life can be pulled by goals just as surely as it can be pushed by drives. Viktor E. Frankl
• Enthusiasm means there is deep enjoyment in what you do plus the added element of a goal or a vision that you work toward. When you add a goal to the enjoyment of what you do, the energy- field or vibrational frequency changes. A certain degree of what we might call structural tension is now added to enjoyment, and so it turns into enthusiasm. At the height of creative activity fueled by enthusiasm, there will be enormous intensity and energy behind what you do.  Eckhart Tolle
• Energy management,  Enthusiasm,  Inspiration

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Goals focus our efforts and channel our energy

• Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all your energies on a limited set of targets. Nido Qubein
• Focus! True direction is being woken up at 3 am and knowing exactly what your one goal is. Tony Robbins
• The mark of a person who is in control of consciousness is the ability to focus attention at will, to be oblivious to distractions, to concentrate as long as it takes to achieve a goal, and not longer. And the person who can do this usually enjoys the normal course of everyday life. Per Csikszentmihalyi
• Goals provide the energy source that powers our lives. One of the best ways we can get the most from the energy we have is to focus it. That is what goals can do for us; concentrate our energy. Denis Waitley
• To me, the definition of focus is knowing exactly where you want to be today, next week, next month, next year, then never deviating from your plan. Once you can see, touch and feel your objective, all you have to do is pull back and put all your strength behind it, and you’ll hit your target every time. Bruce Jenner
• I feel that the most important step in any major accomplishment is setting a specific goal. This enables you to keep your mind focused on your goal and off the many obstacles that will arise when you’re striving to do your best. Kurt Thomas
• Success is focusing the full power of all you are on what you have a burning desire to achieve. Wilferd A. Peterson
• Focusing on your goals prevents you from wasting time on unproductive and unhealthy distractions. Jerry Bruckner
• I don’t care how much power, brilliance or energy you have, if you don’t harness it and focus it on a specific target and hold it there you’re never going to accomplish as much as your ability warrants. Zig Ziglar
• Goals help you channel your energy into action. Les Brown
• Goals help focus you on areas in both your personal and professional life that are important and meaningful, rather than being guided by what other people want you to be, do, or accomplish. Catherine Pulsifer
• A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at. Bruce Lee
• Focus,  Energy management

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Goals help us deal with obstacles and failures

• Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal. Henry Ford
• You must have long-range goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-range failures. Charles C. Noble
• I feel that the most important step in any major accomplishment is setting a specific goal. This enables you to keep your mind focused on your goal and off the many obstacles that will arise when you’re striving to do your best. Kurt Thomas
• Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal. Joseph Cossman
• To conquer frustration, one must remain intensely focused on the outcome, not the obstacles. F. Hodge
• Obstacles,  Failure

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Goals help us deal with fear and worry

• Fear melts when you take action towards a goal you really want. Robert G. Allen
• The only real antidote for anger or worry is purposeful action in the direction of your goals. Brian Tracy
• Fear,  Worry

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Goals help us harness the power of our brains

• Your powerful, inner collaborator (subconscious) will bring to you the people and circumstances you require to fulfil your goals. “A thousand unseen hands”, as Joseph Campbell describes them, will come to your aid. John Kehoe
• When you clearly articulate your intention or goal in writing and speech, your frontal lobes can more efficiently direct your motor cortex to carry out your desire as you actively engage with others in the world. It’s an extraordinary process: You begin with a goal- oriented thought, and the more you focus on it, the more your brain begins to plot out strategies to carry that thought into the world. Andrew Newberg

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Setting goals helps us accomplish great things …

• It takes great goals to lead us out of our everyday limits into accomplishing more than we ever thought we could or would. Robert K. Cooper
• In more than one thousand studies conducted by researchers across the globe, they’ve found that goals that spell out exactly what needs to be accomplished, and that set the bar for achievement high, result in far superior performance than goals that are vague or that set the bar too low. Heidi Grant Halvorson
• As you’ll come to know, the closer you get to your goal, the more it draws you in; success feeds on success. It’s like a gravitational pull. Once you get into a rhythm, it’s hard to stop. You achieve big visions by doing the little things every day and looking at them in a positive focus. Shawn Phillips
• All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible. Orison Swett Marden
• Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible. Tony Robbins
• An average person with average talent, ambition and education, can outstrip the most brilliant genius in our society, if that person has clear, focused goals. Brian Tracy

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… to enjoy a measure of success

• Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement. Brian Tracy
• Success in life could be defined as the continued expansion of happiness and the progressive realization of worthy goals. Deepak Chopra
• You are successful the moment you start moving toward a worthwhile goal. Chuck Carlson
• The world’s greatest achievers have been those who have always stayed focussed on their goals and have been consistent in their efforts. Roopleen
• Success is steady progress toward one’s personal goals. Jim Rohn
• Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal. Earl Nightingale
• Successful people pay more attention to their visions and goals than to history and the opinions of others. Alan Cohen
• Most of us serve our ideals by fits and starts. The person who makes a success of living is the one who sees his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That is dedication. Cecil B. De Mille
• Success

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Goals help us create positive change in ourselves and our circumstances

• Your current situation in life is the result of your current goals or lack of goals. If you want to change your circumstances, change your goals. Jerry Bruckner
• Set a goal, and in small, consistent steps, work to reach it. Get support from your peers when you start flagging. Repeat. You will change. Seth Godin
• You cannot expect to achieve new goals or move beyond your present circumstances unless you change. Les Brown
• Change

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Leadership is all about getting a group to work towards one common goal

• Most important, leaders can conceive and articulate goals that lift people out of their petty preoccupations and unite them in pursuit of objectives worthy of their best efforts. John Gardner
• Of all the things I’ve done, the most vital is coordinating the talents of those who work for us and pointing them towards a certain goal. Walt Disney
• Leadership is the activity of influencing people to cooperate toward some goal which they come to find desirable. Ordway Tead
• Leadership is working with goals and vision; management is working with objectives. Russel Honore
• The best teamwork comes from men who are working independently toward one goal in unison. James Cash
• The greater the loyalty of a group toward the group, the greater is the motivation among the members to achieve the goals of the group, and the greater the probability that the group will achieve its goals. Rensis Likert
• Leadership

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Set goals, no matter how old you are

• You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. S. Lewis
• I do know that when I am 60, I should be attempting to achieve different personal goals than those which had priority at age 20. Warren Buffett
• Remain young at heart

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Goals can make us happier…

• We are at our very best, and we are happiest, when we are fully engaged in work we enjoy on the journey toward the goal we’ve established for ourselves. It gives meaning to our time off and comfort to our sleep. Earl Nightingale
• People who strive for something personally significant, whether it’s learning a new craft, changing careers, or raising moral children, are far happier than those who don’t have strong dreams or aspirations. Find a happy person, and you will find a project. Sonja Lyubomirsky
• Working toward a meaningful life goal is one of the most important strategies for becoming lastingly happier. Sonja Lyubomirsky
• It turns out that the process of working toward a goal, participating in a valued and challenging activity, is as important to well- being as its attainment. Sonja Lyubomirsky
• If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things. Albert Einstein
• If you have a goal in life that takes a lot of energy, that requires a lot of work, that incurs a great deal of interest and that is a challenge to you, you will always look forward to waking up to see what the new day brings. Susan Polis Schultz
• Only when men are connected to large, universal goals are they really happy – and one result of their happiness is a rush of creative activity. Joyce Carol Oates
• Happiness cannot be attained by wanting to be happy – it must come as the unintended consequence of working for a goal greater than oneself. Viktor Frankl
• Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product. Eleanor Roosevelt
• For many people, the primary goal in life is happiness. Yet research indicates that happiness is most often a by- product of participating in worthwhile projects and activities that do not have as their primary focus the attainment of happiness itself. Craig & Marc Kielburger
• Happiness,  Fulfilment

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… but not all goals do this

• There are boatloads of very successful, very unhappy people all around us. That’s because they have successfully pursued goals that don’t actually fulfill their basic needs as human beings—the needs for relatedness, competence, and autonomy. Heidi Grant Halvorson

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Goals that focus on personal growth, contribution and relationships tend to make us happier …

• Not all goals lead to lasting feelings of true satisfaction and well- being. Which ones do? In general, goals that are about making, supporting, or strengthening relationships do. So do goals that focus on personal growth, physical health, or self- Goals that have to do with contributing to your community or helping others also fulfill these needs. Heidi Grant Halvorson
• Intrinsic goals are those that you pursue because they are inherently satisfying and meaningful to you, which allow you to grow as a person, to develop emotional maturity, and to contribute to your community. By contrast, extrinsic goals reflect more what other people approve or desire of you – for example, pursuing goals for such superficial reasons as making money, boosting your ego, seeking power of fame, and bowing to manipulation or peer pressure.  Research shows following intrinsic goals make us happier, in part because they are more inspiring and enjoyable and because they satisfy our most basic psychological needs in life. Sonja Lyubomirsky
• The meaning of life is not to be found in having lots of money, fame, prestige, or stuff. It’s to be found in living your proper quest of positive achievement. Making a difference in the lives of other people, make a difference for good, create new relationships, new feelings, new structures of goodness in the world by what you do and who you are, and you will feel in that process what we so often seek with such futility in all the wrong places. The right sort of quest can be enjoyed at the deepest possible levels. Tom Morris
• Growth,  Principles for healthy relationships

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… while goals that focus on extrinsic factors like money, fame and popularity tend not to

• Goals that are all about obtaining external validation of self- worth—like being popular, famous, or rich—not only won’t make you truly happy, but will actively diminish your sense of well-being, by interfering with the pursuit of goals that will really benefit you. If you have goals like these in your life, it’s time to rid yourself of them. Heidi Grant Halvorson
• Here are the goals that aren’t going to help you achieve lasting well- being: becoming famous, seeking power over others, or polishing your public image. Any goal that is related to obtaining other people’s validation and approval or external signs of self- worth isn’t going to do it for you, either. Accumulating wealth for its own sake also won’t lead you to real happiness. Heidi Grant Halvorson
• The researchers found that if any of the three extrinsic aspirations—for money, fame, or beauty—was very high for an individual relative to the three intrinsic aspirations, the individual was also more likely to display poorer mental health. In contrast, strong aspirations for any of the intrinsic goals—meaningful relationships, personal growth, and community contributions—were positively associated with well- being. Edward Deci
• It’s not wrong to want resources. It’s not wrong to have as a goal the positive recognition and respect of other people. But money, fame, power, and social status should never be our primary focus. Tom Morris
• Who does not wish to be beautiful, and clever, and rich, and to have back, in old age, the time spent trying to be any of them. Robert Brault
• Many people in enlightened democracies spend much of their time feeling enslaved — not by the regime but by extrinsic factors that are self-imposed, such as prestige, a desire to please, obligation, or fear. They experience life as more or less a series of chores that they have to carry out rather than activities that they want to engage in. Tal Ben-Shahar
• Fame,  Consumerism,  Materialism

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• Fatigue dominates the lives of those who are living without direction and dreams. Robin Sharma
• In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately, we become enslaved by it. Robert Heinlein
• If we don’t consciously choose our goals, our creative mechanism still works, but usually on negative goals. Goals of failure, goals of success, they make no difference to our subconscious. Vic Johnson
• The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score. Bill Copeland
• Having lost sight of our objectives, we redoubled our efforts.
• If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable. Seneca
• Fanaticism consists of redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim. George Santayana
• If you live your life without goals and plans to reach them, you will drift like a ship without a rudder and never reach a happy destination. Jerry Bruckner
• If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else. Lawrence J. Peter
• If you’re trying to be miserable, it’s important you don’t have any goals. No school goals, personal goals, family goals. Your only objective each day should be to inhale and exhale for sixteen hours before you go to bed again. Don’t read anything informative, don’t listen to anything useful, don’t do anything productive. If you start achieving goals, you might start to feel a sense of excitement, then you might want to set another goal, and then your miserable mornings are through. To maintain your misery, the idea of crossing off your goals should never cross your mind. John Bytheway, How to Be Totally Miserable
• If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time. Attributed to Zig Ziglar
• The primary cause of success in life is the ability to set and achieve goals. That’s why the people who do not have goals are doomed forever to work for those who do. You either work to achieve your own goals or you work to achieve someone else’s goals. Brian Tracy

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Set goals that are meaningful to you

• Don’t set your goals by what other people deem important. Jaachynma N.E. Agu
• To experience a sense of purpose, the goals we set for ourselves need to be intrinsically meaningful. Tal Ben- Shahar
• Meaning

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Set goals that excite you and ignite your passion

• Making sure our goals are properly aligned with our passions only makes sense. Josh Hinds
• The secret of unleashing your true power is setting goals that are exciting enough that they inspire your creativity and ignite your passion. Tony Robbins
• If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy and inspires your hope. Andrew Carnegie
• What one great goal would you dare to set for yourself if you knew you could not fail? Brian Tracy
• The most powerful question to ask yourself when you consider which intentions or goals to focus on is: What am I most excited about? Danielle LaPorte
• If your goals aren’t synced with the substance of your heart, then achieving them won’t matter much. Danielle LaPorte
• People are not lazy, they simply have impotent goals..that is..goals that do not inspire them. Tony Robbins
• Our lives ought to be lived in pursuit of those noble goals that are right for our talents and dearest to our hearts. Then, the risks we take will most likely yield the results we value. That is the deepest practice of the art of achievement. Tom Morris
• The question you should be asking isn’t, “What do I want?” or “What are my goals?” but “What would excite me?” Timothy Ferriss
• Every heart has a hidden treasure. A secret wish. A silent dream. A special goal to long for. Jill Wolf
• Passion

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Set goals that focus on fulfilment, not just achievement

• I have seen business moguls achieve their ultimate goals but still live in frustration, worry, and fear. What’s preventing these successful people for being happy? The answer is they have focused only on achievement and not fulfillment. Extraordinary accomplishment does not guarantee extraordinary joy, happiness, love, and a sense of meaning. These two skill sets feed off each other and make me believe that success without fulfillment is failure. Tony Robbins
• Fulfilment,  Achievement

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Set goals that stretch you …

• Creativity + audacity = mastery. When creating your goals, dream and stretch yourself so you feel a little nervous and that will be your step to mastery.  Robin Sharma
• Goals achieved with little effort are seldom worthwhile or lasting. John Wooden
• How big is BIG? If it doesn’t make you a little nervous — you know that feeling in the pit of your stomach; if it doesn’t take your breath away the first time you think about it, it’s probably not big enough. Vic Johnson
• If people are not laughing at your goals, your goals are too small. Willy Merdiansyah
• Any man who selects a goal in life which can be fully achieved has already defined his own limitations. Cavett Robert
• Set your goals high, and don’t stop till you get there. Bo Jackson
• We are kept from our goal not by obstacles but by a clear path to a lesser goal. Robert Brault
• Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success. David Joseph Schwartz
• Optimism is important, you have to be a little silly about the goals you are going to set. There is a phrase I learned in college called ‘having a healthy disregard for the impossible’. That is a really good phrase you should try to do things that most people would not. Larry Page
• Having an unusually large goal is an adrenaline infusion that provides the endurance to overcome the inevitable trials and tribulations that go along with any goal. Realistic goals, goals restricted to the average ambition level, are uninspiring and will only fuel you through the first or second problem, at which point you throw in the towel. If the potential payoff is mediocre or average, so is your effort. Timothy Ferriss
• Stretch your comfort zone

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… for more challenging goals leader to greater personal growth …

• Question your goals by asking, “Will this help me become my very best?” Jackson Brown Jr.
• You want to set a goal that is big enough that in the process of achieveing it you become someone worth becoming. Jim Rohn
• You have to set goals that are almost out of reach. If you set a goal that is attainable without much work or thought, you are stuck with something below your true talent and potential. Steve Garvey
• Growth

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… and aiming higher will lessen your chance of falling short

• One may miss the mark by aiming too high as too low. Thomas Fuller
• Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars. Les Brown
• Aim higher in case you fall short. Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire
• If you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it; every arrow that flies feels the attraction of earth. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it. Arnold Toynbee
• If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail above everyone else’s success. James Cameron
• It’s a whole lot more satisfying to reach for the stars, even if you end up landing only on the moon. Kermit the Frog
• Think big, start small

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However, don’t set goals that are unattainable for this can lead to discouragement

• To pursue a goal which is by definition unattainable is to condemn oneself to a state of perpetual unhappiness. Emile Durkheim
• Goals should be difficult to achieve because those achieved with little effort are seldom appreciated, give little personal satisfaction, and are often not very worthwhile. However, if you set goals that are so idealistic there’s no possibility of reaching them, you will eventually become discouraged and quit. They become counter- productive. Be a realistic optimist. John Wooden
• Discouragement

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Set goals that are in line with your values

• Connecting our goals to our values is the best way to ensure that our actions match our principles and that we are not investing time and energy in something that ultimately compromises our beliefs.
• When you achieve complete congruence between your values and your goals, like a hand in a glove, you feel strong, happy, healthy, and fully integrated as a person. You develop a kind of courage that makes you completely unafraid to make decisions and take action. Your whole life improves when you begin living your life by the values that you most admire. Brian Tracy
• When your goals and values are not in line it is as if you have two horses pulling you in different directions. Kimberly Goodwin
• We often fall into a trap: the goals we strive for have little in common with the values we hold most dear. Craig & Marc Kielburger
• Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in balance. Brian Tracy
• Make sure that your goals and activities are congruent with your true values and convictions. Brian Tracy
• Values,  Principles

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Set goals that are dynamic and outward looking

• Make sure your goals are dynamic, that is to say, point toward an activity that you are engaged in and through which you are connected to other human beings as well as to the whole. Instead of seeing yourself as a famous actor and writer and so on, see yourself inspiring countless people with your work and enriching their lives. Feel how that activity enriches or deepens not only your life but that of countless others. Feel yourself being an opening through which energy flows from the unmanifested Source of all life through you for the benefit of all. Eckhart Tolle

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Set goals that don’t make money your primary focus for money is a reward; not a goal

• You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you. Maya Angelou
• The trick is to make money the reward, not the goal.
• The goal should not be to make money or acquire things, but to achieve the consciousness through which the substance will flow forth when and as you need it. Eric Butterworth
• My experience indicates that most people who’ve accumulated a great deal of wealth haven’t had that as their goal at all. Wealth is only a by-product, not the original motivation. Michael Milken
• Money is the reward, but if it ever becomes the goal, you will lose sight of your dream and do things that make no one happy. The Statler Brothers
• I had no ambition to make a fortune. Mere money-making has never been my goal, I had an ambition to build. Eden Phillpotts

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The first step to setting goals is to decide what you want

• Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer to your goal. Elbert Hubbard
• Know what you want, work to get it, then value it once you have it. Nora Roberts, Morrigan’s Cross
• The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance, but live right in it, under its roof. Shannon L. Alder
• Whenever you want to achieve something, keep your eyes open, concentrate and make sure you know exactly what it is you want. No one can hit their target with their eyes closed. Paulo Coelho, The Devil and Miss Prym
• Be clear what you want in life,  Clarity

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Creating a personal mission statement can help you set goals that matter

• If you don’t set your goals based upon your Mission Statement, you may be climbing the ladder of success only to realize, when you get to the top, you’re on the wrong building. Stephen Covey
• If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster. Stephen Covey
• Perfection of means and confusion of ends seems to characterise our age. Albert Einstein
• There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. Peter Drucker
• Goals are what give your mission statement momentum. They create a plan of action and help measure whether or not you are successfully living your mission statement. Stephen Covey
• Create a personal mission statement

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Have clear emotional reasons for wanting to achieve your goal

• The more reasons you have for achieving your goal, the more determined you will become. Brian Tracy
• When natural inclination develops into a passionate desire, one advances towards his goal in seven-league boots. Nikola Tesla
• The thing that contributes to anyone’s reaching the goal he wants is simple wanting that goal badly enough. Charles E. Wilson
• The more intensely we feel about an idea or a goal, the more assuredly the idea, buried deep in our subconscious, will direct us along the path to its fulfilment. Earl Nightingale
• Be clear how you want to feel

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Set a deadline for your goal

• A goal is a dream with a deadline. Napolean Hill
• A goal without a deadline is nothing more than a dream or wish. Jerry Bruckner
• A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it’s better than no inspiration at all. Rita Mae Brown
• When? Why can’t your dreams have deadlines? What if you took your goals as seriously as, let’s say, a project at work or a job for a client? Aren’t your aspirations just as important, if not more important?  Stephen Covey
• The major difference between a dream and a goal is a timeline for progress, coupled with accountability. Dr. Phil
• The only difference between a dream and a goal is a date. Edmundo Hoffens

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For each goal you set, ask “What? Why? How? When?”

• What? Specify what your goal is precisely.
• Why? Try to articulate why a particular goal will serve what you believe in. Why do you wish to see this goal fulfilled? Asking yourself “why” brings clarity to your goals.
• How? How will you know when you have arrived? How will you get there? How are you going to get it done? How will you empower yourself to achieve your goal? Taking the time to visualize and feel the “how” helps you see some of the necessary steps to take in order to achieve your goal.
• When? Why can’t your dreams have deadlines? What if you took your goals as seriously as, let’s say, a project at work or a job for a client? Aren’t your aspirations just as important, if not more important?
• Source: Stephen Covey  (Seven “7 Principles of Highly Effective People Workbook”)

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Only focus on a few goals at a time

• I accomplished all of this in small steps, one thing at a time. I focused on only one goal at a time and put all of my energy into it. Leo Babauta
• For most of us, though, the problem is not a lack of goals but rather too many of them. Roy Baumeister & John Tierney
• Focus on one project at a time. If you set more than one self- improvement goal, you may succeed for a while by drawing on reserves to power through, but that just leaves you more depleted and more prone to serious mistakes later. Roy Baumeister & John Tierney
• Focus! True direction is being woken up at 3 am and knowing exactly what your one goal is. Tony Robbins
• Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination. Karl Von Clausewitz
• Calm down, work less and target a limited number of very valuable goals where the 80/20 Principle will work for us. Richard Koch
• If you set more than one self-improvement goal, you may succeed for a while by drawing on reserves to power through, but that just leaves you more depleted and more prone to serious mistakes later. Roy Baumeister & John Tierney
• Focus

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Put your goals in writing

• Goals in writing are dreams with deadlines. Brian Tracy
• Committing your goals to paper increases the likelihood of your achieving them by one- thousand percent! Brian Tracy
• Written goals transform you from a wandering generality into a meaningful specific. Zig Ziglar
• Your goals must be in writing, in the present tense, as though they already exist. Brian Tracy
• No matter what system you use, I recommend having a goal and putting it in writing. Twyla Tharp
• People with clear, written goals, accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them could ever imagine. Brian Tracy
• A goal is created three times. First as a mental picture. Second, when written down to add clarity and dimension. And third, when you take action towards its achievement. Gary Ryan Blair
• Your mind, while blessed with permanent memory, is cursed with lousy recall. Written goals provide clarity. By documenting your dreams, you must think about the process of achieving them. Gary Ryan Blair
• A plan is what you say you will do. A strategy is how: actions, timelines, resources.  Goals and steps need to be written down on paper or entered into a computer, to get them out of your mind.  If they stay in your head they can become fuzzy, unclear and not real and dissipate over time.  Phyllis Reardon
• It is proven that writing down our thoughts, intentions, desires, plans and goals helps clarify our thinking. Tehmina Zama
• Writing

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Create an action plan for reaching your goal …

• Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success. Stephen A. Brennan
• Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan. Tom Landry
• Purposes unrelated to a plan of action do not get realized. They exist as frustrated yearnings. Nathaniel Branden
• Crystallize your goals. Make a plan for achieving them and set yourself a deadline. Then, with supreme confidence, determination and disregard for obstacles and other people’s criticisms, carry out your plan. Paul Meyer
• A goal without a plan is just a wish. Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• Although goals are important, having a plan of action is vital to the success of those goals. Having a goal with no plan of action is like wanting to travel to a new destination without having a map. Steve Maraboli
• Identify and prioritise the actions needed to reach your goal. Are there many steps involved with this goal, or does it require a few major milestones? Start brainstorming all the steps involved.  What is it going to take to get you from here to there?  Take a look at the steps in your list and prioritize them to the best of your ability. Which things must come before others? Which ones can wait until farther down the road?  Stephen Covey
• You need a plan to build a house. To build a life, it is even more important to have a plan or goal. Zig Ziglar
• Developing the plan is actually laying out the sequence of events that have to occur for you to achieve your goal. George L. Morrisey
• Each goal must be reduced to specific, concrete action steps. Brian Tracy
• Just like goals, not all plans are created equal. An effective plan is one that spells out exactly what will be done, and where, and how. Heidi Grant Halvorson
• For each goal, decide on the steps to reach these goals. List them.  Next, prioritise the action steps.  Phyllis Reardon
• Action plans

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… but make your plan flexible and don’t get too bogged in detail

• It is easy to get caught up in the details of How you’re going to accomplish your goal, before you begin acting on the idea or project. When you get too caught up in How, you are likely welcomed with a long list of what may seem like impossible tasks. This is very discouraging and will slow down momentum. Yes, it is important to have plans towards accomplishing a goal but create plans with high-level views without being too boggled down on the How.  Tina Su
• Write your goals in concrete and your plans in sand. Ingrid Klimke
• Map out your future but do it in pencil. Jon Bon Jovi
• You have to have an idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea. Pablo Picasso
• Flexibility

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Cut up your larger goals into bite sized chunks

• Don’t be a time manager, be a priority manager. Cut your major goals into bite-sized pieces. Each small priority or requirement on the way to ultimate goal become a mini goal in itself. Denis Waitley
• Do not be discouraged by the difficulty to accomplish a large goal; break it into smaller goals and tasks and create a timeline for finishing them. Jerry Bruckner
• Are there many steps involved with this goal, or does it require a few major milestones? Start brainstorming all the steps involved. What is it going to take to get you from here to there?  Stephen Covey
• When you’re feeling overwhelmed by a large project or goal that you need to tackle, make your action steps smaller and easier. One clue that will let you know that you need to break your goal down into smaller chunks is that you find yourself procrastinating. Procrastination is often caused by the feeling of being overwhelmed.  Marelisa Fabrega
• Whoever wants to reach a distant goal must take small steps. Helmut Schmidt
• Instead of thinking about things in terms of one-off accomplishments, start to think about how you can break your goals down into small, consistent daily habits, and then start making those habits a part of your daily routine and just forget about them. Stever Robbins
• The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. Break your goals into smaller goals and steps, and then into bite size tasks. Jerry Bruckner

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Achieve your goals by helping others reach theirs

• The best and quickest way to achieve all our goals and to live the life of which we have dreamed is to assist others in achieving their goals and living the life of which they have dreamed. Neale Donald Walsch
• Making a difference,  Service

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Believe you can achieve your goal

• We need to develop a sense of empowerment- a feeling that we have the strength and capability to achieve whatever we want in our lives. It is very important to believe that our goals are possible to achieve.  Amanda Harvey
• We all have the tendency to believe self-doubt and self-criticism but listening to this voice never gets us closer to our goals. Instead, try on the point of view of a mentor or good friend who believes in you, wants the best for you, and will encourage you when you feel discouraged. Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D.
• The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it. Jordan Belfort
• Hope, modern researchers are finding, does more than offer a bit of solace amid affliction; it plays a surprisingly potent role in life. Hope is believing you have both the will and the way to accomplish your goals, whatever they may be. Daniel Goleman
• What the mind can conceive and believe, and the heart desire, you can achieve. Norman Vincent Peale
• Self-belief,  Self-confidence

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Change any limiting beliefs that are getting in the way of achieving your goal

• The art of living deliberately is the art of examining this vast storehouse of beliefs, dropping the out-moded ones, consciously choosing those that serve your goals, and carefully crafting new ones in greatest alignment with your desires. Richard Bishop
• Belief

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Harness the power of visualisation to help you …

• To realize our goals, we must first imagine them fully. Siew Hwa Beh
• If you paint in your mind a picture of bright and happy expectations, you put yourself into a condition conductive to your goal. Norman Vincent Peale
• You must see your goals clearly and specifically before you can set out for them. Hold them in your mind until they become second nature. Les Brown
• Visualisation,  Vision

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… by visualising the steps to reach your goal and possible obstacles along the way …

• Visualization can be very helpful, if you imagine the steps you will take in order to succeed. Mentally simulating the process of achieving the goal, rather than the hoped- for outcome, not only results in a more optimistic outlook, but in greater planning and preparation. Picture yourself doing what it takes to succeed, and you will soon find yourself believing that you can. Heidi Grant Halvorson
• First you imagine attaining your goal, and then you reflect on the obstacles that stand in the way. Daydreaming about how great it will be to land that job or fall in love with that special someone you’ve had your eye on can be a lot of fun, but it won’t get you anywhere. Mental contrasting turns wishes and day- dreams into reality, by bringing into focus what you will need to do to make it happen. Heidi Grant Halvorson
• The second major way of visualizing involves focusing on the path it will take to attain your goal, rather than seeing it as already realized. Jeffery A. Martin
• You won’t see how to do it until you see yourself doing it. You often need to make it up in your mind before you can make it happen in your life. David Allen

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… and also visualising your goal as already accomplished

• Visualize your goal as already accomplished. Put yourself into a state of actually being there. Make it real in your mind, and you’ll soon see it in your reality. Steve Pavlina
• Act as if you have already achieved your goal and it is yours. Dr. Robert Anthony
• If you want to reach a goal, you must “see the reaching” in your own mind before you actually arrive at your goal. Zig Ziglar
• Visualise your goal as if it is actually happening to you right now at least once a day, each and every day. Physically sense the feeling of accomplishment you are after too. John Kehoe
• The more you can internalise your vision, the more your conscious and subconscious behaviour will be aligned with that expectation. Robin Sharma

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Learn from others who’ve achieved similar goals

• No one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals. Brian Tracy
• It’s the shortest route to success: find someone who’s doing what you want to do (or has the results you want to achieve). Study and determine what they did to achieve their result. Then simply engage in the same activities that brought them success. Vic Johnson
• Look for someone that has done what you want to accomplish, maybe not on the grandest scale but who has consistently succeeded with innumerable challenges. Look for this person in a company similar to yours that is not a competitor. Look in professional organizations where people with your similar goals meet to share ideas and grow. But also look in non- traditional places. You may find them at your church, book group, local pool or gym. Mary Lee Gannon
• Role models,  Learning

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Commit yourself fully to your goal …   

• Commitment is the glue that binds you to your goals Jill Koenig
• A fantasy is a dream, a desire is an inclination, a goal is a commitment of the will… You never have a goal without a real commitment. Tom Morris
• Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal – a commitment to excellence – that will enable you to attain the success you seek. Mario Andretti
• Determine what specific goal you want to achieve. Then dedicate yourself to its attainment with unswerving singleness of purpose, the trenchant zeal of a crusader. Paul J. Meyer
• To succeed in your mission, you must have single-minded devotion to your goal. Abdul Kalam
• The stronger your will, the clearer and more defined your goals will be and the greater the “coincidences” that will appear in front of you, helping you get where you wish–Heaven or hell. You decide what you want.  Alfredo Karra
• Most achievers I know are people who have made a strong and deep dedication to pursuing a particular goal. That dedication took a tremendous amount of effort. Donald Johanson
• Commitment

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…  and be fully prepared to put in the effort and do what it takes

• The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work. Oprah Winfrey
• The one thing that matters is the effort. It continues, whereas the end to be attained is but an illusion of the climber, as he fares on and on from crest to crest; and once the goal is reached it has no meaning. Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• The BIG push means being able to develop and sustain momentum toward your goal; it is the process of actively replacing excuses with winning habits, the ultimate excuses blockers. Moreover, it is being willing to go to the wall for what you want or believe in, to push beyond your previous mental and physical limits, no matter what it takes. Lorii Myers
• You may have the loftiest goals, the highest ideals, the noblest dreams, but remember this: nothing works unless you do. Nido Qubein
• Despite the success cult, men are most deeply moved not by the reaching of the goal but by the grandness of the effort involved in getting there — or failing to get there. Max Lerner
• Effort

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Be clear on what you’re willing to give up to achieve your goal

• It’s not hard to decide what you want your life to be about. What’s hard, she said, is figuring out what you’re willing to give up in order to do the things you really care about. Shauna Niequist, Bittersweet: Thoughts on Change, Grace, and Learning the Hard Way
• One half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it. Sidney Howard
• Discipline means choices. Every time you say yes to a goal or objective, you say no to many more. Sybil Stanton
• Life is like a giant smorgasbord of more delicious alternatives than you can ever hope to taste. So you have to reject having some things you want in order to get other things you want more. Some people fail at this point, afraid to reject a good alternative for fear that the loss will deprive them of some essential ingredient to their personal happiness. As a result, they pursue too many goals at the same time, achieving few or none of them.  So it’s important to remember: it doesn’t really matter if some things are unavailable to you, because the selection of what is available is so great.  Ray Dalio

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Increase your accountability by telling others of your goal

• Not surprisingly, commitment is especially potent when made in front of other people. A University of Scranton study found that people who made public New Year’s resolutions were a remarkable ten times more likely to succeed at their goal.  Sonja Lyubomirsky
• Post your goal publicly. Tell as many people as possible that you are trying to form your new habit. Leo Babauta
• Accountability

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Use your goal as a chance to give your self-discipline a work-out

• No one can feel competent to cope with the challenges of life who is without the capacity for self- discipline. Self- discipline requires the ability to defer immediate gratification in the service of a remote goal. This is the ability to project consequences into the future—to think, plan, and live long- range. Nathaniel Branden
• Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. Jim Rohn
• Self-discipline

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Stick to your goal and don’t allow obstacles to stop you …

• This one step, choosing a goal and sticking to it, changes everything. Scott Reed
• Just pick a goal and stick to it; no big complicated secret. Richelle E. Goodrich
• By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination. Christopher Columbus
• The majority of people are ready to throw their aims and purposes overboard and give up at the first sign of opposition or misfortune. A few carry on despite all opposition, until they attain their goal. There may be no heroic connotation to the word ‘persistence,’ but the quality is to the character of man what carbon is to steel. Napoleon Hill
• The obstacles that lie between you and your goals are not there to stop you from reaching your goals. They are there to stop the people who don’t want them enough. Randy Pausch
• Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal. Friedrich Nietzsche
• Determination,  Perseverance

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… especially as you get closer to your goal

• Difficulties increase the nearer we approach the goal. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Some men give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal; While others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous efforts than ever before. Herodotus
• You will face your greatest opposition when you are closest to your biggest miracle. Shannon L. Alder

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Dedicate yourself to the goal but let go of any attachment to outcome

• Release all expectations after you’ve set your goal. You never know what the universe might deliver to your doorstep. That’s why you want to have an open-mind, because what if the universe has something better in store for you? Henri Junttila
• You no longer pursue your goals with grim determination, driven by fear, anger, discontent, or the need to become someone. Nor will you remain inactive through fear of failure, which to the ego is loss of self. When your deeper sense of self is derived from Being, when you are free of ‘becoming’ as a psychological need, neither your happiness nor your sense of self depends on the outcome, and there is freedom from fear. Eckhart Tolle
• Practice allowing. Release all emotional desperation and attachment to your goals. Tess Marshall
• I like to believe that you don’t need to reach a certain goal to be happy. I prefer to think that happiness is always there, and that when things don’t go the way we might like them to, it’s a sign from above that something even better is right around the corner. David Archuleta
• Paradoxically, holding your goals lightly increases the chance of attaining them, while being attached—and thus fearing failure—gets in the way of peak performance. Rick Hanson
• Let go of attachment to outcome

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Don’t give up goals during challenging times for that is when they’re most valuable

• When adversity threatens to paralyze us, we need to reassert control by finding a new direction in which to invest psychic energy, a direction that lies outside the reach of external forces. When every aspiration is frustrated, a person must seek a meaningful goal around which to organize the self. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• The more stressful the external circumstances, the more important it is we put our attention on goals we can move toward. What goals can you create to align your psychic energy in a positive direction? Brian Johnson
• Perseverance

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If you relapse, follow these steps …

• Accept that you slipped up and forgive yourself. Recognize that relapsing is simply part of the change process and don’t allow setbacks to undermine your self- confidence.
• Take a hard look at what happened. Identify what triggered the relapse. Create a plan to avoid these triggers in the future. How will you deal with any future temptations?
• Ask yourself if you can foresee any further obstacles to your success and take steps to overcome any future obstacles you may come across.
• Reassess your resources and the techniques that you’re using to achieve your goal. Do you need to make any changes to your plan on how you’re going to achieve your goal?
• Make any necessary changes to your goal-achievement plan.
• Reaffirm your motivation and make a re-commitment to achieve your goal.
• Get back on track.
• Source:  Marelisa Fabrega

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Celebrate and reward yourself when you reach your goal

• Learn to set goals with self-imposed deadlines and targets and reward yourself whenever you achieve one. Jerry Bruckner

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Realise that goals without action are nothing but pipe dreams

• You will never reach your goal until you start to take action, any action. Byron Pulsifer
• A dream becomes a goal when action is taken toward its achievement. Bo Bennett
• Action is the foundational key to all success. Tony Robbins
• My dreams are worthless, my plans are dust, my goals are impossible. All are of no value unless they are followed by action.  Og Mandino
• No matter how carefully you plan your goals they will never be more than pipe dreams unless you pursue them with gusto. Clement Stone
• While intent is the seed of manifestation, action is the water that nourishes the seed. Your actions must reflect your goals in order to achieve true success. Steve Maraboli
• Define your goals in terms of the activities necessary to achieve them and concentrate on those activities. Brian Tracy
• You cannot continue on the same path and arrive at a different destination. Make the choice to have your actions reflect your goals. Steve Maraboli
• To will is to select a goal, determine a course of action that will bring one to that goal, and then hold to that action till the goal is reached. The key is action. Michael Hanson
• Action

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Build momentum by taking action each day towards your goal

• If you are trying to reach a specific goal, ask yourself every day: What is one stall step I could take toward reaching my goal? Whether you ask your question aloud or in the privacy of your own thoughts, please take a kind tone with yourself, the same you’d use for a beloved friend. Robert Maurer
• Whatever beginning goals you set for yourself, following through on them will build momentum and a sense of achievement and those small success will point the way to bigger ones. Pamela Glass Kelly
• Let today be the day you stop having conflict between your actions and your goals and finally align your greatest intent with your purposeful actions, creating a universal symphony serenading your success! Steve Maraboli
• Every day you spend drifting away from your goals is a waste not only of that day, but also of the additional day it takes to regain lost ground. Ralph Marston
• Push today for what you want tomorrow! Lori Myers
• Move ahead each day with the vision of your goal in mind and keep pressing forward. Stephen Covey
• If you start by identifying the things you really want to accomplish in the next year, you can plan your tasks so that you are doing things each day to further those goals along. Leo Babauta
• Momentum

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Know that even the greatest goal can be achieved one small step at a time

• All changes, even positive ones, are scary. Attempts to reach goals through radical or revolutionary means often fail because they heighten fear. But the small steps of kaizen disarm the brain’s fear response, stimulating rational thought and creative play. Robert Maurer
• I accomplish my big goals one simple step at a time. John F. Demartini
• Set a goal, and in small, consistent steps, work to reach it. Get support from your peers when you start flagging. Repeat. You will change. Seth Godin
• I accomplished all of this in small steps, one thing at a time. I focused on only one goal at a time and put all of my energy into it. Leo Babauta
• Whoever wants to reach a distant goal must take small steps. Helmut Schmidt
• Action in the present changes the future. What is one small step I could take toward reaching my goal? When can I start again? Now what needs to be done? David Reynolds
• Even a snail will eventually reach its destination. Gail Tsukiyama
• None of us knew the road ahead, so we just concentrated on the step before us. Robin Sharma
• The power of small, consistent steps

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Never leave the site of setting a goal without first taking some form of action towards its attainment

• Never leave the site of setting a goal without first taking some form of positive action toward its attainment. Tony Robbins
• The most important thing you can do to achieve your goals is to make sure that as soon as you set them, you immediately begin to create momentum. The most important rules that I ever adopted to help me in achieving my goals were those I learned from a very successful man who taught me to first write down the goal, and then to never leave the site of setting a goal without first taking some form of positive action toward its attainment. Tony Robbins
• A year from now you may wish you had started today. Karen Lamb
• You cannot afford to wait for perfect conditions. Goal setting is often a matter of balancing timing against available resources. Opportunities are easily lost while waiting for perfect conditions. Ryan Blair

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Always know what the very next action is to move your goal forward

• When a goal as visionary as “end world hunger” begins with practical next steps like “Call Johann about the soup kitchen proposal” and “Surf the Web for seminars on food distribution research,” it can be quite energizing. David Allen
• Tremendous productivity can be generated, once a vision has been set, by reverse- engineering it back to short- term goals and objectives, for which you can then create projects that themselves trigger next actions. David Allen
• For each goal, always ask yourself what your very next action step needs to be. David Allen

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Ask yourself what you can do now to move closer to your goal

• Will what I am about to do, bring me closer to, or take me further from my goals? Zig Ziglar
• Action in the present changes the future. What is one small step I could take toward reaching my goal? When can I start again? Now what needs to be done? David Reynolds
• The great secret about goals and visions is not the future they describe but the change in the present they engender. David Allen
• Saying ‘I will’ puts your goal somewhere out there, just beyond reach. Remember, change only happens in the present. Che Garman
• Occasionally ask, “What is the connection between what I want most in life and anything I plan to do today?” Robert Brault
• How am I going to live today in order to create the tomorrow I’m committed to? Tony Robbins

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Act as if achievement of your goal is inevitable …

• Act as if it were impossible to fail. Act as though achievement of the goal was absolutely inevitable. Brian Tracy
• All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and frustration is this: Act as if it were impossible to fail. That is the talisman, the formula, the command of right-about-face which turns us from failure towards success. Dorothea Brande
• Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Act as though it were impossible to fail. Dorothea Brande
• Act as if failure is impossible, and your success will be assured. Wipe out every thought of not achieving your objectives, whether they are material or spiritual. Be brave, set no limits on the workings of your imagination. Never be a prisoner of your past. Become the architect of your future. You will never be the same. Robin Sharma
• Act as if success is certain. Price Pritchett
• Having conceived of his purpose, a man should mentally mark out a straight pathway to its achievement, looking neither to the right nor the left. Doubts and fears should be rigorously excluded; they are disintegrating elements which break up the straight line of effort, rendering it crooked, ineffectual, useless. James Allen

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… but also give yourself permission to fail

• You must accept that you might fail; then, if you do your best and still don’t win, at least you can be satisfied that you’ve tried. If you don’t accept failure as a possibility, you don’t set high goals, you don’t branch out, you don’t try – you don’t take the risk. Rosalynn Carter
• Risk taking,  Failure

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Regularly measure your progress towards your goal

• Measure your progress towards achieving your goals. Jerry Bruckner
• For a successful life, or successful business, measure what you want to improve. Jerry Bruckner
• The lessons from business and sports apply to your life; you can’t succeed unless you measure the right things and do something about what you learn from the measurement to bring you closer to achieving your goal. Jerry Bruckner
• Once you know your goals you should measure your progress to achieve them. Seeing your favorable progress will serve as positive reinforcement to continue your hard work and seeing negative progress will alert you to something you should change to get you back on track. Jerry Bruckner
• You can’t manage what you don’t measure. Dr. W. Edwards Deming
• When performance is measured, performance improves. Thomas S. Monson
• If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing. W. Edwards Deming
• Each week, you should stop and ask: What goals did I achieve? What challenges were encountered?  What decisions did I make? What successes and failures did I have?  How much time was actually spent on important activities? What keeps getting in the way of achieving my goals?  What have I learned from this week that will help me?  Stephen Covey
• Progress

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If required, be ready to modify your approach

• When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal. Napoleon Hill
• Effective problem-solvers tend to monitor their progress as they work towards a solution. If they are not making good progress toward reaching their goal, they will reevaluate their approach or look for new strategies. Kendra Cherry
• When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps. Confucious
• Exlore new approaches

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• The greater our hurry, the longer the way; the greater our patience, the sooner we reach the goal. German proverb
• The power of transformation (the reason we set goals to begin with) delivers not through willpower and fierce effort, but instead through a deeper awareness, and a relaxing into who we are. Cat Li Stevenson
• Relax any sense of “gotta have it.” Feel into the ways your life is and will be basically all right even if you don’t attain a particular goal. Seek results from a place of fullness, not scarcity or lack. Rick Hanson
• Patience is not passive waiting. Patience is active acceptance of the process required to attain your goals and dreams. Ray Davis
• If you achieve your goal, you’ll be fine. If you don’t achieve your goal, you’ll also be fine.  Srikumar S. Rao, Ph.D.
• Striving and end-goaling,  Effortlessness

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Align your short-term goals with your long-term goals

• People who are mentally healthy and happy have a higher degree of “vertical coherence” among their goals—that is, higher- level (long term) goals and lower-level (immediate) goals all fit together well so that pursuing one’s short- term goals advances the pursuit of long- term goals. Ken Sheldon
• Visualize your long-term goals to paint your short-term action on the canvas of now. Terri Guillemets

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Don’t set your longer-term goals too far off into the future

• I’m not a big believer in long-term planning and far-off goals. In fact, I generally set 3- month and 6- month dreamlines. The variables change too much and in-the-future distance becomes an excuse for postponing action. Timothy Ferriss

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Here is an exercise for setting goals for a new year

• Make New Year’s goals. Dig within and discover what you would like to have happen in your life this year. This helps you do your part. It is an affirmation that you’re interested in fully living life in the year to come. Goals give us direction. They put a powerful force into play on a universal, conscious, and subconscious level. Goals give our life direction. What would you like to have happen in your life this year? What would you like to do, to accomplish? What good would you like to attract into your life? What particular areas of growth would you like to have happen to you? What blocks, or character defects, would you like to have removed? What would you like to attain? Little things and big things? Where would you like to go? What would you like to have happen in friendship and love? What would you like to have happen in your family life? What problems would you like to see solved? What decisions would you like to make? What would you like to happen in your career? Write it down. Take a piece of paper, a few hours of your time, and write it all down – as an affirmation of you, your life, and your ability to choose. Then let it go. The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals. – Melody Beattie
• Starting a new year

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An alternative to setting annual goals is set a one-word theme for the year

• Instead of setting a list of goals at the start of each year, I want to promote a new tradition: Setting a one- word theme for the year. Tina Su
• You can remember one word throughout the year. It’s easy to think about and focus on just one theme. It’s also a lot easier to take action and make progress towards this one theme. Having one theme also makes it possible to set realistic follow up goals and milestones. Tina Su
• If your theme for the year is “balanced”, then ask yourself each day, “What can I accomplish today that will help me feel balanced?” The answer may be tackling particular to-do items or taking the afternoon off to play with my son, or de- cluttering the kitchen counter. I’ll do them and will feel a great sense of inner fulfillment and wellness. Tina Su
• Having one theme allows me to laser focus on the one thing I need the most. Tina Su
• Once you have your one-word theme, ask yourself the following questions: What does this mean to me?  What does “a life of [insert word]” look like?  What can I do to integrate [insert your word] into my life?    Tina Su

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Goals relating to love, joy, passion, happiness, peace

• If we make our goal to live a life of compassion and unconditional love, then the world will indeed become a garden where all kinds of flowers can bloom and grow. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
• Each one of us has a fire in our heart for something. It’s our goal in life to find it and keep it lit. Mary Lou Retton
• Our goal is to enjoy, not to achieve perfection. Susan Jeffers
• Joy is our goal, our destiny. We cannot know who we are except in Joy. Not knowing Joy, we do not know ourselves. Marianne Williamson
• Joy, rather than happiness, is the goal of life, for joy is the emotion which accompanies our fulfilling our natures as human beings. It is based on the experience of one’s identity as being of worth and dignity. Rollo May
• For I know what happiness is possible to me on earth. And my happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose. Ayn Rand
• Set peace of mind as your highest goal and organize your life around it. Brian Tracy
• Peace is not merely a distant goal we seek but a means by which we arrive at that goal. Martin Luther King Jr. Everything we do is infused with the energy with which we do it. If we’re frantic, life will be frantic. If we’re peaceful, life will be peaceful. And so our goal in any situation becomes inner peace.  Marianne Williamson
• Love,  Joy,  Passion,  Happiness,  Inner peace

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Goals relating to contribution, growth, actualisation

• Everyone has a purpose in life … a unique gift or special talent to give to others. And when we blend this unique talent with service to others, we experience the ecstasy and exultation of our own spirit, which is the ultimate goal of all goals. Deepak Chopra
• Our highest goal is to connect to the highest within ourselves. What would the highest version of you do in this moment?  Brian Johnson
• The human goal: to actualize oneself. Bruce Lee
• Contribution,  Growth,  Potential

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Goals relating to creating

• We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. Chuck Palahniuk
• Make it your goal to create, not to beat others.
• Creative expression

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Goals relating to simplicity, ease

• The goal of life: simple but not empty. Terri Guillemets
• My goal is no longer to get more done, but rather to have less to do. Francine Jay
• My goal is to do the most with the least—get the maximum output with the minimum input. Jarod Kintz
• The goal of life is living in agreement with nature. Zeno
• Simplicity,  Effortlessness

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Yet more worthwhile goals

• One goal is material fulfillment, and the means for that is the creation of wealth. The second goal is the attainment of liberation, and the means for that is spiritual practice. The Dalai Lama
• There is no need to compare because everyone is different. Your goal is not to be like others but to be yourself. Stop comparing with others and focus on being yourself instead. Celestine Chua
• Fame is not the glory! Virtue is the goal, and fame only a messenger, to bring more to the fold. Vanna Bonta

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Thoughts on goals worth avoiding

• If your number one goal is to make sure that everyone likes and approves of you, then you risk sacrificing your uniqueness and, therefore, your excellence. Edge Keynote
• Perfectionism is self-destructive simply because there’s no such thing as perfect. Perfection is an unattainable goal. Brené Brown

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It’s important to enjoy the process of reaching a goal as much as the attainment

• The landscape changes, so enjoy it: of course, you have to have an objective in mind – to reach the top. But as you are going up, more things can be seen, and it’s no bother to stop now and again and enjoy the panorama around you. At every meter conquered, you can see a little further, so use this to discover things that you still had not noticed. Paulo Coelho
• Enjoyment is not meant to be the final end state of a long and arduous process of attainment. It is meant to be woven through the tapestry of our lives now. In the present. And throughout the process along the way. Tom Morris
• Once you realize that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy. Nisargadatta Maharaj
• We get more pleasure from making progress toward our goals than we do from achieving them because, as Shakespeare said, “Joy’s soul lies in the doing.” Jonathan Haidt
• I’m going to enjoy every second, and I’m going to know I’m enjoying it while I’m enjoying it. Most people don’t live; they just race. They are trying to reach some goal far away on the horizon, and in the heat of the going they get so breathless and panting that they lose sight of the beautiful, tranquil country they are passing through; and then the first thing they know, they are old and worn out, and it doesn’t make any difference whether they’ve reached the goal or not. Jean Webster
• It turns out that the process of working toward a goal, participating in a valued and challenging activity, is as important to well-being as its attainment. Sonja Lyubomirsky
• Enjoy the process of a goal, not just the attainment

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• What one great goal would you dare to set for yourself if you knew you could not fail? Brian Tracy
• What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail? Robert H. Schuller
• Question your goals by asking, “Will this help me become my very best?” Jackson Brown Jr.
• Will what I am about to do, bring me closer to, or take me further from my goals? Zig Ziglar
• Get in the habit of asking yourself: ‘Is what I am doing, this minute, moving me closer to my major goals?’ Jerry Bruckner
• If you are trying to reach a specific goal, ask yourself every day: What is one stall step I could take toward reaching my goal? Whether you ask your question aloud or in the privacy of your own thoughts, please take a kind tone with yourself, the same you’d use for a beloved friend. Robert Maurer
• The successful person can answer the questions: what are your ambitions, aspirations, goals, plans, and vision? Jerry Bruckner
• The question you should be asking isn’t, “What do I want?” or “What are my goals?” but “What would excite me?” Timothy Ferriss
• How am I going to live today in order to create the tomorrow I’m committed to? Tony Robbins
• Occasionally ask, “What is the connection between what I want most in life and anything I plan to do today?” Robert Brault
• Questions

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• When you’re up to your knees in alligators, it’s hard to remember that your original goal was to drain the swamp.
• The closer I get to my goal, the greater my chance of discovering what it is. Ashleigh Brilliant
• I always wanted to be somebody. I should have been more specific. Lily Tomlin
• I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by. Douglas Adams
• I want to make something of myself. I believe it’s called a statue. Jarod Kintz
• The only thing that has to be finished by next Tuesday is next Monday. Jennifer Yane
• We are too busy mopping the floor to turn off the faucet.
• When the horse is dead, get off.
• My goal in life is to be as good a person as my dog already thinks I am.
• It’s a whole lot more satisfying to reach for the stars, even if you end up landing only on the moon. Kermit the Frog
• To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first, and call whatever you hit the target. Ashleigh Brilliant

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