How to set goals that accomplish themselves

At the beginning of this year I decided that instead of making a new year’s resolution – something that never works anyway – I would try setting some real goals. Until this year I had never set any goals the way I describe in this article. Sure I had things I wanted to do or accomplish, but I’d never actually sat down and physically wrote out my goals. I’d always thought that setting goals like that was for geeks or people who don’t have the capacity to remember or focus on the things they’d like to achieve.

Well I’m happy to say that the goals I set have basically been accomplishing themselves. Almost all of my goals for this year have already been accomplished and it’s only May! It’s seemed far too easy, after setting the goals and changing my focus to accommodate them, it’s seemed as though the goals have been put on auto-pilot. At the bottom of this post I will explain just how I’ve done this – how to set goals that accomplish themselves – but first I would like to talk a little about each of my goals and the progress I’ve been making.

The only goal that has yet to be accomplished is fixing my back pain. I have a good feeling that I’m on my way to accomplishing this goal, but it’s a long process which includes making many changes in different areas of my life. I’ve been going over a lot of new back pain information and researching many different kinds of treatments. I’ve booked my first acupuncture appointment tomorrow morning – I’ll write a post to share my experience after the first couple treatments – and I’ve been using the Nubax Trio off and on with varied amounts success. The Nubax certainly does what it’s supposed to do, but it’s definitely not a cure-all. I’ll be doing a full review of the Nubax later this month or early next month if you’d like to know more about it.

Now that I’ve made the switch on to the day shift at my job, I will have a better opportunity to do things like join a yoga class or other programs that can assist in healing the back pain and sciatica. I’m happy to see this opportunity make its way to me and I am confident that I am able to lose the pain, but it’s going to take a bit of time. Recently one of my most helpful resources for backpain relief information has offered a deal for me to pass on to my subscribers. I’m still going through the information myself, but I’ll pass it along right now anyway because it looks really good. The Healthy Back Institute has offered me and my readers a free trial of their Lose The Back Pain System. To get your free trial click here.

My second goal for 2010 was to begin making money online and was accomplished nearly immediately after I set it. This goal was too broad, I should have set a certain amount or figure that I’d like to reach. Technically to accomplish this one all I really had to do was make any amount of money online. A single click on a google ad would have technically accomplished this goal because it would pay me a couple cents. I don’t use google ads on this site very much anymore though. I’ve opted for promoting specific products and services so that I know which ads will be shown and what products will be advertised. Google shows all kinds of ads and most of them are not suiting for this site and are for products that I know nothing about. Why would I want to advertise things that I don’t know anything about?

Since I set the goal of making money online at the beginning of this year I have made just over $120 $180 (update: May 27, 2010). That may not sound like a lot, but it’s better than nothing. It’s a definite good start and it’s proved to me that it’s possible to make money on the internet. I’ve actually received payments of real spendable money into my paypal account. I counted the goal as accomplished upon receiving the first payment of $50. Most of the money accumulated online has been from product recommendations. I prefer making money by recommending products that I use myself and know are really good quality as opposed to letting google place any old ad on my website and pay me if someone clicks on them. I feel much better knowing that if you buy something through a link on my site that you will get a high quality product that you won’t be disappointed with. It’s likely that I will remove all of the google ads from this site soon.

My new financial goal is to make $3000 per month online consistently so that I may switch to being a full time professional blogger and not need a regular job anymore. This goal is a lot tougher and a lot more definitive than just making money online. It will be a lot easier to tell if the goal is completed or not because I’ve added some specifics to what I’d like to accomplish. I’ll keep you posted as I progress with this new goal.

The third goal for this year was to increase my overall health – another broad goal. I mentioned that I might do a 30 day trial of the raw food diet, which I did. The final report for the entire 30 day trial is here. An overall increase in health isn’t really a hard goal to accomplish either, but I have made a significant improvement in this area. My diet is now much different than it was 6 months ago. I include way higher portions of raw fruits and vegetables than I ever have, and I also feel better than I ever have. I think it might be related…

As I mentioned above, I am now on days at work so I have a lot more options when it comes to fitness. I can join a gym or club of some sort if I wish, or dedicate more useful hours to things like yoga, bike riding, and exercise. I have welcomed this change into my life and I’m now trying to decide what I’d like to do with my time. I know that I’ll definitely be doing something new to improve my fitness level by the end of summer, I just haven’t decided what I’d like to try yet.

And the last goal I set for this year was to create new experiences. This goal was also too broad. I am refining my goal setting technique and won’t be setting so many general goals in the future, although it’s been successful thus far. I think it goes without saying that I’ve had new experiences this year, pretty much all experiences are new in one way or another, but there have been some really big changes happening in my reality lately and I’m happy with the new experiences I’ve been given so far. I look forward to those that the universe has in store for me in the future as well.

Most of the changes so far have been fairly personal so I won’t mention too much about them, but the switch to dayshift at work is a big one, and it’s going to open up room for a whole world of new experiences. I’m also going to be a home owner for the first time very soon, that’s another big change that’s in the works as I write this. There’s so many new things going on for me right now it’s almost hard to keep track of them all, it seems that I’ve found my way back into the flow of life.

How to set goals that accomplish themselves

So how did I do this? Did I set goals that were too easy? Or was it something else? I’ll admit my goals for this year were not specific enough, they were so broad that I could say they were accomplished really easily if I wanted to get technical, but it was my first attempt at actually setting goals so I’m still learning how to do it most effectively – It’s certainly been helpful that I’ve been devouring a lot of personal development and personal effectiveness info lately. From now on I’ll be trying to set goals that are more specific and not so easy to accomplish, but I still expect to achieve a high level of success.

To set a goal properly you should always write it down. I have found that physically writing it down on paper with a pen works the best, but typing it could also work. I think physically creating something that represents what you want to achieve, like writing it down, sends a message to the universe and to your subconscious. This assists in making it become a reality. It’s kind of like filling out an order form so that all parties involved – your conscious awareness, your subconscious, and the Universal Mind – all know what you’d like and so they can each do their part to make it a reality. Writing it down makes it precise and official instead of an abstract idea floating around in the back of your mind somewhere.

Writing down your goal will give you something to reference back to after you initially set the goal. This is something you should do as often as possible, at least once a day if you’re serious about accomplishing your goal. Spend a few minutes each morning and each night reviewing your goals. Write down any ideas that come to you about how you might be able to achieve your goals too. Be open to new opportunities that you might have otherwise missed if you had not set the goals, life works in weird ways sometimes and you might be surprised by the ideas and opportunities that come to you.

Spend some time imagining what it would feel like if your goals were already accomplished. What would be different about your life once you’ve already achieved your goal? What kind of life would you be living? Who would your friends be? Where would you work? Would you work? What kind of clothes would you wear? What foods would you eat? What would have changed? Try and think of everything that would be effected by your goals and take note of any ideas that come to you. Ideally you should spend several minutes every day doing this visualization technique, but it’s not absolutely necessary. You should at least give it a try even if you think this is silly.

Take action when ideas and opportunities arise. You’ll know which are good ones and which are bad ones by the way you feel about them. You’ll feel drawn to certain things that you know can help you accomplish whatever it is you want. If your goal is to double your income and your attention is drawn to a new business or a job ad of some sort, check it out! Don’t miss opportunities that might help you achieve your goals! After setting your goals and focusing your intentions on achieving them the universe will send you all sorts of opportunities, but if you aren’t willing to take action when it does you will miss out big!

Following this method of goal setting will basically put your goals on auto-pilot and they will start accomplishing themselves. Give it a try if you don’t believe me, you might be surprised!