When I ask most people what their goals are, they stammer ‘who, me?”  Yes, you. Do you have any goals? You do? Good. Just give me one goal you have for this year. When? NOW!

‘I want to make more money this year.’  Okay, if I give you one dollar, you have satisfied that goal. You just made more money.

When I ask successful people to tell me one of their goals, they will say something like, “I will earn Euro 100.000 from my writing with another book deal by the end of the year.”

The goal is stated in the positive (I will), is very specific (Euro 100.000 from my writing) and includes a deadline (by the end of the year). Bravo! HAVING A SPECIFIC GOAL, WITH A DEADLINE, IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS.

You can make excuses or discount goal setting as being too rigid and linear for the creative heroine, or you can get into the journey and finally start making some real progress toward achieving your dreams. Quite simply, you can’t get to where you are going until you know where that is.

Having specific, meaningful goals doesn’t mean having a rigid system that leaves no room to roam. It simply means that, right now, this is what you want. Don’t worry about limiting yourself. You can adjust as you go on your journey. It does mean that you are in control of your life, have thought about what the real issues are for you, and have a perspective on new possibilities that develop.

Bottom line: unless you know what you want out of your business and life and you can articulate it you are just fooling around. You are not serious about success and frankly, you will probably never achieve it.

Having goals empowers you. Having a clear picture of what you want drowns out the negatives and attracts the positive things, ideas and people to help you reach them. Goals give you courage to go beyond what you think is possible. Setting goals creates focus and clarity, so you are not wasting your energy on dead – end jobs.

Don’t let the seeming impossibility of your dream get in the way of setting it as a goal. What if someone like me said ‘I love to eat french food’. How can I make that my career. What a pipe dream, you think. I have two words for you: Julia Child.