Have you noticed that you have experienced many changes during the last year, months, weeks and even days? Your situation may have changed due to the challenges presented by these changing times, and you may be wondering if you have achieved your goals from the past year. How do we go about starting our goal-setting activity with all this change happening around us?

The following seven steps to goal setting will help you successfully implement your goal setting and achieve your future dreams in these changing times:

1. Successful goal setting requires thinking about your goals

It tells you how to think and what to think about every day. From the time we get up in the morning until we go to sleep at night, television, radio, personal computers, family, friends, managers, and colleagues tell us how to think, feel, and act.

Take fifteen minutes to an hour to think. Turn off all outside distractions, go to a quiet place (home, park, etc.) and think about your goals and how you want to achieve them. Think about how you will feel when you fulfill them.

Your goal-setting thinking session should also include how you will benefit from these changing times. What special skills do you have or need to acquire to take advantage of these times of change?

2. Successful goal setting requires writing down your goals.

Nothing happens in goal setting unless you write down your goals and put them on paper. Put pen to paper and you’ll be ahead of 95 percent of other people because they don’t write down their goals and then wonder why they’re not happy with their business, their career, and their life. Take the time to write down your goals. You don’t have to be perfect the first time; Successful goal setting is an ongoing process that will change as you reach your goals.

3. Successful goal setting requires shorter time frames

Divide the duration of your goals into shorter time periods. This allows you to adjust as needed in changing times. For example, divide your goals into twenty-year, ten-year, five-year, one-year, six-month, monthly, weekly, and daily increments. This will allow you to assess if you are on track to achieve your goals or if you need to make adjustments to get back on track.

4. Successful goal setting requires flexible goals.

You need to be flexible in setting goals more than ever in the past. As the world changes, planning for these changes is essential. An opportunity that exists today may not exist tomorrow. What are you going to do with changing opportunities? When setting goals, successful people have a Plan A, a Plan B, and even a Plan C for these times of change. Take the time to think about what changes could happen in your business, your career and your life and develop plans to overcome these obstacles.

5. Setting successful goals requires passion.

Do your goals excite you? If they don’t, you’re not setting your goals high enough. Set your goals so that you are excited about achieving them. When you are excited about your goals, you create positive energy, and energy creates passion. With this passion, you will find ways to remove any barriers to your success.

6. Successful goal setting requires embracing technology

Many times in our workshops we meet students for whom technology is a barrier to their success. Their jobs or industries have changed, so being tech-savvy is a requirement. However, these students are resistant to learning the new technologies necessary for their success.

Include a section on what technologies you will learn in your goal setting to help you be successful. Overcome your fear and challenge yourself through these objectives to learn how to master new technologies.

7. Successful goal setting requires balance

In these changing times, you are being asked to do more with less. Whether in your business, your career, your community or your family, you have more and more requests for your time and talents. Unless you include balance in your goal setting, someone else will create an imbalance in your life that will lead to stress and possibly illness.

Take back control of your life by setting successful goals. Be sure to set goals in the following areas:

* Family

* Health

* Education

* Technology

* spiritual

* Career

*Community

* Business (if necessary)

I’m sure you can think of a few others; however, these form the basis of your goal-setting activities. Master these areas to accomplish more in less time while maintaining control.

Don’t delay! Take the time to think about what you want and deserve, then put pen to paper. Invest in yourself and the seven goal-setting techniques discussed in this article, and you will succeed in these changing times.