12 Steps to Set and Achieve Any Goal – Brian Tracy

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Here is the twelve-step goal-setting methodology that Brian Tracy has taught to more than a million people. Successful, happy people use these principles all the time, whether they are aware of them or not. Whenever you find a person who is underachieving, one of these ingredients is either missing or in short supply.

Brian Tracy: 12 Steps to Goal Setting

1. Have a desire: What do you really want?

You must have an intense, burning desire for your particular goal. This desire must be personal, something that you want for your-self. You can never want goals for someone else, nor can you get excited about a goal that someone else wants for you.

What do you really want, and how badly do you want it?

2. Believe that your goal is achievable

You must absolutely believe, deep in your heart, that you deserve the goal and that you are capable of attaining it. Belief is the catalyst that activates all your mental and physical powers.

3. Write your goal down

A goal that is not in writing is not a goal at all. Write your goals down.

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4. Determine your starting point

Where are you now? If you want to lose weight, the very first thing you do is to weigh yourself to determine your baseline or current weight.

When you assess your situation by analyzing your starting point, you are forced to be honest with yourself. This enables you to set goals that are believable and achievable rather than setting goals that may be unattainable and self-defeating.

5. Determine why you want it

Make a list of all the ways that you will personally benefit by achieving that goal. The more reasons you have for wanting to achieve your goal, the more intense will be your desire. Reasons are the fuel in the furnace of achievement.

6. Set a deadline

A deadline is a “best guess” of when you will attain the goal. It is like aiming at a target. You may hit the bull’s-eye, or you may hit to one side or the other. You will achieve fully half of the goals that you set for yourself before your deadline, and you will probably achieve half of your goals after the deadline. But you must have a deadline, just like a scheduled departure time for an airline flight, whether or not it leaves on the particular minute written on your boarding card.

7. Identify the obstacles in your way

Why aren’t you at your goal already? What is blocking you? What is holding you back? Of all the things that are holding you back from attaining your goal, what is the biggest single obstacle? Determine the obstacles that are standing between you and your goal.

8. Determine the additional knowledge and skills you need

Remember, in the information age, knowledge is the raw material of success. To achieve something you have never achieved before, you will have to do something you have never done before. You will have to become someone you have never been before. Determine the additional knowledge, information, and skills you will require to achieve your goal. You can also ask for help from a life coach. A life coach can help you prioritize your goals and keep you focused on achieving them.

9. Determine the people whose help you will need

Determine the people whose cooperation and assistance you will need to achieve your goal. Start with your family, your boss, and your coworkers. Think about your customers, your suppliers, and your banker. Whose help will you require, and what will you have to do to get them to help you? How can you earn their cooperation by helping them in some way?

10. Make a plan: put it all together

A plan is an organized list of tasks that you will have to complete to get from where you are to where you want to go. A plan is a list of activities organized by time, sequence, and importance. What do you have to do first, and what do you do second? What is more important, and what is less important? What has to be done before other things can be done? Of all the things that you have to do, what are the activities that are more important in achieving your goal than anything else?

11. Visualize your goal continually

Visualize your goal each day as if it were already attained. See your goal vividly in your mind’s eye. Imagine what it would look like if you had already accomplished it. Get the feeling that you would have if you were at your goal already. Imagine the pride, satisfaction, and happiness you would experience if you were already the person you wanted to be, with the goal that you want to enjoy.

12. Never give up

Finally, the twelfth step to goal setting is to back everything you do with persistence and determination. Resolve in advance that you will never give up. Make the decision, long before you face any obstacles or difficulties that no matter what happens, you will persevere until you finally reach your goal.

12 Steps to Goal Setting by Brian Tracy (Source: Goals! by Brian Tracy)

Brian Tracy is one of the top professional speakers and trainers in the world today. He addresses more than 250,000 men and women each year on the subjects of leadership, strategy, sales and personal and business success. He has written fifty books and produced more than four hundred audio and video training programs. His materials have been translated into thirty-six languages and are used in fifty-four countries.