Have you set goals and tried to achieve them and found that you had more stresses the result? All of us are made differently so all of us react differently. Let us find out how that affects our goal setting.

For example, let me say that I had set some goals. Yesterday I thought i was scaling back on my To Do list to make it actually do-able in a day. But the first thing on my list too much longer! I was determined to finish at least one thing on my list so I stayed up late working on it. This meant I got up late today and am already off my schedule. What can I do about this kind of stress? Do you get me here? Our goals may be so going that one of them will make achievement of others imposable. What to do in such a situation? Relax and give yourself a break. One of my favorite saying is "It is what it is." Go forward from where you are. Revise the schedule and do the best you can today without worrying about what already happened. And along with that revise your goals otherwise yesterday will repeat itself.

How about stress? I'm not very good at managing stress with goals. I know attitude has a lot to do with how I look at stress and my optimism for reaching the goals. Focusing on the negative consequences of not reaching the goal helps some people switch into high gear, but it just makes me less productive because of the stress. I do better with steady, regular effort that makes my life less dramatic. I'm trying to develop more patience and establish regular habits towards my goals, and commit to the goals for a longer period of time. That seems to work better for me and reduces the stress and self-doubt. How about this statement you read just now? Are you also like me who gets stressed if goals look far? Then relax and revise your goals and repeat to yourself that goals were decided by you and heavens will not fall if you do not reach there. Life is very big to give away to small stresses.

We are goal-oriented animals. Our mind needs a focus to target. Without a focus, our mind wanders around. Achieving goals gives a sense of self-esteem and satisfaction, which cannot be obtained anywhere else. To feel good because we have done something we were aiming for is a great feeling. It is a medicine for our mind. It gives us new vigor and new joy. When we feel good about ourselves, negativities go out from the mind.

Setting Goals
Set small goals that are achievable. Do not set high goals to begin with. If you fail to achieve them, you will feel bad. After setting these goals, write them and keep the paper with you most of the times. Do write the time frame in which you want to achieve these goals. Without time frame a goal makes no sense. If I say that I want to loose 10 KGs. of my weight it makes no sense unless I add that I want to do it in next three months.

Accountability
Now comes accountability. After you have set the goals, find out your progress over a time frame. Monitor it. Wherever you feel you are slack you need to re tighten your belt and work harder. After end of the period, find out how much did you achieve. Compare that with your goals. What are your results? If you have lost 5 KGs though your goal was 10 KGs. what would you fel? You feel great, because you reached half the way. Reaching half the way is better than not beginning at all.

Setting goals and becoming accountable to them is one of the best ways to develop. As I said earlier setting highly unrealistic goals may dampen your spirit because they will always look unattainable. If you set realistic but ambitious goals, you will feel good monitoring them.