Goal Setting University: The ABC’s of Goal Setting

Our goal is to help you reach yours. In this month’s series – Goal Setting University – we will discuss a number of tactics to help you establish, work toward and reach your biggest goals.

Success and motivation always tie back to goal setting. Success leaves clues. When you look at some of the most successful athletes, businessmen, entrepreneurs – you name it – there are always clues in their journey to success. It’s your job to study them and learn from their habits.

So what are the A’s, B’s, and C’s of goal setting as we see them? Your short, medium and lifetime goals categorized by importance.

The A’s: Your Must Do’s

Your must-do tasks are at the core of your life – your family, religion, business, friends.

The B’s: Your Have To’s

These are the tasks that you are going to do, but you might not have to check them off the list this very second.

The C’s: Your Nice To’s

These are the things like watching television, playing video games – the things you like to do, but in the bigger picture, are just not all that important.

Prioritizing Your Goals

The important thing is to make the important things the MOST important things. That’s a mouthful, right? But the importance of prioritizing your goals cannot be overstated. That’s why we have labeled them A’s, B’s and C’s – because A always comes before B and C, so your A goals should ALWAYS come before your B and C goals.

When you try to work towards your goals out of order by prioritizing the B and C goals before your A goals, you’ll end up with results that are less than your expectations.

Picture this: Each of your goals is represented by a ball.

Your A goals are basketballs.

Your B goals are tennis balls.

Your C goals are golf balls.

Now let’s take all those balls and try to fill your gym bag.

If you start with the smaller balls (your B and C goals), you might run out of room before you’re even able to put in the basketballs. That’s like spending most of your day watching television ad doing the laundry and before you realize it, it’s 5 o’clock and you haven’t done any of the important business (or school) work that you were supposed to do.

Now let’s try filling the bag again, except this time, we’re starting with the basketballs. Once all the basketballs are in (your A goals are accomplished for the day), you can strategically fit in the tennis balls and golf balls. Even if you don’t get in all the smaller balls, you can be satisfied that the most important steps have already been taken for the day and you can always adjust priorities the next day for your B and C goals.

We hope this mental picture helped you better grasp the importance of attacking your primary goals above all others. In our next installment of Goal Setting University, we’ll be diving into the first rule of goal setting. Stay tuned to find out what it is!