It’s a little past mid-year and if you did not already review where you said you’d be by this time in the year, it’s a great time to dust that off. So if you set goals for this year, are you on target for your business goals?

It’s important to set goals in your business and your life, not many will dispute that fact. It only makes sense that having a written objective increases the likelihood of success! Effective goals have several characteristics that help to assure a positive outcome. Have you worded the goal in a way that ensures your success? Have you adequately prioritized the goal? Have you created habits to enable your achievements?

By incorporating a few strategic ideas into your next goal setting session, you can greatly increase your chances for success.

Try these strategies to help make your goals a reality:

Choose the right goal for what you want to achieve. Consider all possibilities before you select the topic of your goal.

• A simple, but effective exercise is to list 5-10 possible goals that you believe would improve your business. Then ask yourself, “Which of these goals would benefit my business the most right now?”
• A more meaningful goal has a better chance of being achieved.

A goal statement must have a deadline. Without a deadline, your goal will lack any sense of time urgency. I mention this in my free guide 9 Secrets to Achieving Big Goals, get it here.

• A recommended way of formatting your goal is: “On or before 09/01/xx, I will have completed specific actions #1 and #2 to document at least 5 procedures.” This statement provides a clear endpoint, but still allows for the goal to be accomplished sooner.
• I think it’s more effective to limit the timeframe to 12 weeks or less (basically quarterly goals). If it requires longer than that consider breaking it into smaller, multiple goals.
• To the point above, I recommend weekly goals which would be those smaller goals that get you to your quarterly targets. It prevents you from feeling overwhelmed and getting demotivated.

Leave the results open ended when appropriate. Just as you allowed the goal to be accomplished sooner than the specified date in the above example, where appropriate, also allow your results to surpass your goal.

• Notice the portion of the goal above: “document at least 5 procedures.” Wording the goal statement in this fashion allows for greater results, assuming that is appropriate for you. Avoid limiting your results if it’s unnecessary to do so.
• Here are some examples of goals that can usually be left open ended:
  • Money-based goals: Would anyone ever want to limit themselves here?
  • Self-care goals: Taking more time for you would usually be considered a good thing.

Include your responsibilities. Always include specific actions in your goal statement.

• Engineers frequently state that something is “necessary, but not sufficient.” For example, cheese is necessary to make macaroni and cheese but it’s not sufficient; other ingredients are also required. By including specific actions in your statement, you’re claiming responsibility for doing everything that needs to be done to accomplish the goal.

Prioritize your goal. Your brain is inundated with countless things every day. It needs to know that this goal is more important than all the other tasks it faces each day.

• Strong, positive emotions can be used as a prioritization tool. Imagine what it would feel like to achieve your goal. Imagine the ideal scene. What would you see, smell, think, and feel? The better the vision, the better the odds of success.
• Every day, look at your goal and perform the visualization process several times. This will reinforce the priority of your goal.

Consider these ideas this week when you’re setting your goals. By using these 5 tips, your odds of success will increase greatly. Try it on your next goal; you’re sure to be pleasantly surprised.

Want more goal setting techniques so you can achieve your most ambitious business goals? Click here to get my FREE guide 9 Secrets to Achieving Big Goals