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You have no idea what you are getting yourself into. I urge you to STOP reading now if you are one of those “common” people, afraid of having things change in their lives because nothing I say now nor in the future will ever be of any use to you. Goal Setting is for everyone, but not everyone is for Goal Setting. If you think you are ready to be part of the “uncommon” 20%, then read on and be prepared because this decision right now will change your life.

Goal Setting is a very common phrase that’s why people usually misinterpret it. What I really call this is goal recalibration (re-calibration) and I will explain to you later why I think it should be called like that. For now, I want you to take your goals in life and list them. Open a word processor and type them….right now.

Do you want a better body? Lose a few pounds here and there? Maybe you want to learn how to speak Japanese. Maybe you are tired of being stuck in the 9-5 “rat race” and maybe you want to retire someday and do what you want. I definitely know you want to earn lots of money, buy a new house and a new car. There are so many different things you could list down!

You see, all these things you wrote are pointless without properly defined and focused goals. You just make it up as you go along and completely forget about it afterwards. If you knew how to do it properly, you will not only speed things up, you will make them happen and that is why I am here.

I call this the single most important stage in lifestyle design simply because without this stage, you should never even bother starting. But what really is lifestyle design? I define it like what you probably think it is. It’s simply designing your lifestyle to the way you want it to be. In my case, I designed my life around having a mobile lifestyle because I wanted to be always around the people I love at the same time being able to sustain the costs of my lifestyle.

You must know what you really want and don’t be influenced by others that want to make that decision for you. This is the foundation of lifestyle design.

Now, about recalibration. To calibrate means: (Thank you OSX Dictionary)
• to correlate the readings with those of a standard.

Everyone already has goals and those goals are usually “calibrated” to the standards of who you know, what you see and how they want you to be.

I want you to recalibrate your goals to the standards of the “uncommon” 20% of the population. The successful one’s, the people you envy the most. Recalibrate your goals so that you’d know what is important to you and only you. Do it like how they do it. Motivating, Defined, Focused, and Trackable.

Here’s an example. If you recalibrated your goals and did your best to achieve them, your success rate will be higher. If you failed, then it’s for the better because you can see where you went wrong and you can try again and succeed rather than being left in the dark and just moving on to the next thing still not knowing what happened with your “regular” goals.

So how do you do it? It’s pretty simple actually..

• Close your eyes now…clear your mind and think of only positive thoughts.
• Brainstorm YOUR goals. Envision them and feel like it’s already there. For example, you can see your sexy and toned body no matter how much weight you have to lose. Just think positive. Feel that new BMW beside you. Think big with the end in mind. Doesn’t matter how many you think about, just focus on thinking first and getting yourself in that positive frame of mind.
• Get a pocket notebook. No, not a laptop, not a Blackberry, not an iPhone. Just a plain, preferably new, small, paper notebook you can carry around everyday.
• Grab a pen or pencil, whichever you prefer. Stand up now and get them. If you can’t, a piece of paper will do for now.

In my case, I bought a Moleskine notebook and got a red pen because it’s my favorite color. I did this because I get motivated and focused to write things when I get a new notebook and pen. Hopefully, you aren’t like me and a normal pocket notebook will do.

1. Think of a deadline. You want to have a limited span of time for your goals in order for you to achieve them faster. 1 month, 3 months, 6 months or up to a year are good deadlines. For now, choose 6 months. Think of this as like your exam and you just found out about it the day before. You’re definitely going to cram and most of the time you will do enough to not only accomplish it but to also to pass it with flying colors.
2. Now open the notebook and immediately write down your Long Term Goals. These things are to be finished within 6 months. Don’t be worried about how hard they are. In a future article, I will be explaining how you can make your goals Motivating, Defined, Focused, and Trackable. So for now, don’t over think them. Just keep a positive mindset for now and stop thinking of conquering the world or living in Mars though. Remember, Doable and Specific goals for now. Be it traveling the to Japan and climbing Mt. Fuji, building a clothes business or whatever. We will build towards them and make it all happen. List a maximum of 5 for now. When you get the hang of it, you can add more. (For Example, I want to lose 30 pounds within 6 months.)
3. List your Short Term Goals. Think of what you could do now to start your long term goals. (For Example, Enroll in a gym, start losing at least a pound per week)
4. Still in Short Term Goals, think of simple skills you want to learn or do then put a price tag for it. How much is it to learn these things? Put a start and end date for each goal. List a maximum of 3. (For Example, I want to learn to swim for $30/week within a month, participate in a singing competition for $0 next week, learn pole dancing for $100 a month for 2 months) Don’t worry about it if you can’t think of anything now. You can add this later. This is actually optional but you might find it very fulfilling to learn new skills.
5. This is the clincher, list down your Medium Term Goals. There are so many people that forget about this. Without this, you sometimes lose steam and lose track of your goals. Here’s an example. Your long term goal is to be able to fit in that dress of your that you’ve been keeping in the closet for years. So you state that your short term goal is to start training to lose weight. Your medium term goal is to lose at least 20 pounds in 3 months. This is like a stepping stone for you to reach the end goal. I recommend that you really reward yourself after you reach your medium term goal. This is also a great way to see your progress to keep you positive and super motivated!

Sooner or later, things will happen for you. So what if I didn’t finish a certain goal?
This is where tracking your progress on your specific goals comes in. You can identify where you went wrong and you can try it again and fix the area where you failed to perform on.Establish criteria for measuring your progress. I’ll talk more about it on a future article. See you soon!

P.S. Set two priorities each day. Accomplish them before anything else. You’d be thankful you did this. At the end of the day, you could at least say that your day wasn’t completely worthless!

P.P.S. You’d be surprised how well this works. Most people just go on with their lives and have no goals and that’s what differentiates the really successful people from the “ordinary” people. Pretty sure you don’t want to be part of the latter.

P.P.S. I repeat….MAKE SURE YOU ABSOLUTELY, DEFINITELY, WHOLLY, FULLY, UNQUESTIONABLY, UNCONDITIONALLY WANT THAT GOAL.

Related posts:

1. Beginners: Experimenting With Goal Setting
2. Reach For Your Goals – Follow Up and Reminders
3. Eliminate to Attain: An Introduction to a Better Lifestyle
4. Creation- Build A Business For Your Lifestyle