As I have said before, I am big on goal setting. I have seen the power of goal setting first hand, and believe that when you set a goal that you are actually working to achieve, you can achieve goals you never imagined. I read this tip, set an absolutely outrageous goal (at the time), and less than one year later, I absolutely demolished my goal!

Here are some tips for successful goal setting, and a list of 6 simple goals (business and personal) that you need to set.

How to Set Effective Goals

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If you do not understand how to set effective goals, you will never be able to achieve them. The reason is simple: There is such a thing as a bad goal. There are at least three distinct principles required to make your goals effective.

1. Make Them Achievable

What good is a goal if you never know you have achieved it?

• Bad: I want to be financially stable – This is a bad goal because there is no achievement in mind. You must declare what “financial stability” means if you want to achieve it.
• Good: I want to have no car payments, and $0 consumer (credit card) debt – This is a much better goal since there are distinct, achievable results outlined.

Not having specific, achievable outcomes for your goals is like getting in the car and driving around… just because. Most times you have a destination in mind. Remember this mindset, and you will find it much easier to set achievable goals.

2. Make Them Realistic

Don’t be afraid to stretch a little, but make sure they aren’t completely ridiculous. If you just started affiliate marketing and have yet to build a profitable campaign, you probably shouldn’t set a goal to bank $1,000,000 in the next month. However, it might not be outrageous to decide you want to make $100-500 profit it one day. Building a successful campaign and scaling it might be right around the corner!

Push yourself, but don’t push yourself down.

3. Make Them Measurable

The two main principles are:

• Time-line – Make sure you have an end date in mind. Setting goals without a stopping point prevents analysis and subconsciously holds you back from achieving your desired goal.
• Specific – Being specific means: “I want to have $50,000 in the bank by January 1, 2011.” This is very specific, and can be measured by both your desired outcome and date.

Keeping effective goal setting tips in mind, here are examples that I personally set, and I recommend you set them too. I set goals in nearly every aspect of my life, and they have helped me grow my business beyond my expectations.

6 Goals You Need to Set

1. Monthly revenue/profit – Daily/weekly goals are fun to set/accomplish, but depending on the nature of your business, the fluctuation may differ from day to day causing daily/weekly goals to be pointless in many cases. Personally, I set daily goals, but they are more along the lines of what I want to achieve in one day, not what I want to achieve each and every day.
2. Yearly revenue/profit – This goes hand in hand with monthly goals. Setting yearly goals gives you something to work for and build on. It can be extremely exciting to set a goal that you believe is somewhat a stretch, and you notice that you achieved 150%+ of your yearly revenue goals.
3. Short-term business – Where do you see your business in 1-3 years? Are you an affiliate marketer and you want to have a more diverse range of promotional methods or offers? Are you looking to diversify your income sources? This can be similar to monthly/yearly goals, but it’s more along the lines of where you want to be than what you want to be worth.
4. Long-term business – Where do you see your business in 5+ years? Similar to the short-term goals, but this is obviously thinking further out. It may seem like these would be pointless, but I am personally upset that I wasn’t so big on goal setting back in 2007 when I got started. I can only imagine the goals I would have set then, and compare them to how I am actually doing.
5. Short-term personal – Where do you see yourself in 1-3 years? Do you want to work from home? Do you want to lose 25 pounds? I actually break my ‘personal’ goals into separate categories. I had fitness goals, school goals, and personal goals.
6. Long-term personal – Do you want a house, car, boat, plane? Do you want to be able to give 6 or 7 figures a year to charity? Only you can determine what you value, so set these goals for yourself and work to achieve them.

Life gets hectic at times. Setting goals allows you to stay on track and remember what you are working towards.

Tips

When you start thinking about your online “hobby” (what it may have been or still is) as a business, everything changes. You become more serious and realize the true potential of what you can achieve when it becomes a business that you are pouring your time and money into.

Giving yourself small rewards after achieving certain goals is a very good tool. For instance, if you achieve a monthly profit goal, take your friend(s)/family/girlfriend/wife/dog somewhere different. A nice restaurant, golfing, anything you want. This also reminds them (hopefully they are excited about your work and the success you are achieving) about the benefits as well.

Always remember why you are working so hard to achieve your goals. It is natural to get caught up in your work, especially on large projects. However, you are probably working your ass off so you can enjoy the finer things in life, and/or be able to provide finer things to the people you care about. Take time to actually enjoy your success every now and then. Don’t forget your true intentions.

Overview

While I believe in the power of goal setting, there are definitely people that think otherwise. You need to determine what will influence you to be successful.

“People with goals succeed because they know where they are going. It’s as simple as that.” – Earl Nightingale