Take a piece of paper and write down what you think you are worth on an annual basis – your goal, your dream. (No constraints, sky's the limit, if everything worked out just the way you think it should – what do you think you are worth. Go ahead, do it.
Now, under that number, write down what you currently earn. I've got some bad news for you. The second number you wrote down – that's what you are worth. Do you hate that? You should hate that! It's not enough that you have a goal. You must also have a plan to achieve that goal. You need to know what is required to get there. You must know what activities and changes are required on your part in order to achieve your goal. Then you must be willing to commit to those activities.
I've seen countless people that have attended a goal-setting seminar or read a book on goal-setting and somewhere along the line they were taught that if you just write your goals down and stick them in a drawer, somehow all 'the powers of the universe 'will come together to make it happen for you. I'm not going to try to argue the validity of that philosophy, but it should be fairly obvious that if you have a specific plan to achieve your goal, it is more likely to happen and to happen sooner than if you do not have a plan.
Here is the point: You are worth whatever you think you are worth, IF you have the goal, A PLAN TO A ACHIEVE IT AND YOU ARE WILLING TO COMMIT TO THE PLAN. If you have the goal, but no plan, you are worth what you earn. If you know where you want to go, but do not have a clue how to get there, you're as good as stopped from the gitgo. This income example was an easy one to use, but realize that this is true of any of your goals – whether it's related to your marriage relationship, your teenage kids, your community work or your spiritual walk. You need to have a clear, specific, viable and measurable goal, but that in and of itself is not enough. You need to identify where you are right now in relationship to your goal, and what is going to be required of you to achieve it. Wanting to change is not enough. You also need to come to grips with what specifically has to change.
To create an effective plan for reaching a goal requires four things:
1) Knowing exactly where it is you want to go, where you want to end up, and what that is going to look like when you have achieved it. (How you will measure 'success'.)
2) Knowing where you are right now in relationship to the goal.
3) Knowing what you are going to have to do and how you are going to get there.
4) Be willing to commit.
Many people tend to skip number two, because it can be uncomfortable to acknowledge how far short of the goal we fall. But, think about it this way: Suppose you are going on a road trip; You can know exactly where you want to go and you can have the best and most accurate map in the world, but if you do not know where you are on the map, the map is worthless! On the other hand, if you have no map or a poor map (# 3 above) you are again reducing your probability of 'success', of ever getting where you want to go.
So what does an effective plan look like?
For additional resources on this and related topics, go to: http://www.godinyourgoals.com