Have you written down your goals or at least started to yet? If so, well done! You are now one of the 3% in the world that have done so.An interesting fact is that it's that same 3% that have more money than all the rest of the people in the world put together. Do you think it's a coincidence? I think not.

There are a few rules to setting goals that you need to know about and apply to make them happen. Recently I have been asking people via my Daily Motivational (you can sign up on the left of this page) to send me their biggest goals. This has been very exciting, but I have also become a little concerned.

The problem is that far too many of the goals that were sent to me had a negative element to them. Not that they are asking for or wanting bad things as goals, but it is that their actual goal is to not want bad things. Does that make sense? Let me explain. It is no good wanting to be out of debt or not wanting to be overweightor wanting to be a non-smoker.

The problem with that is something that I talked about in my book namely that you need to avoiddread sentences. A dread sentence is affirming something that you DON'T t want, instead of asking for what you DO want. I never want to marry an alcoholic is one of the examples I use in the book, and strangely 8 out of 10 times the person saying that would end up marrying an alcoholic. I remember a fun missionary song that people in America and Europe used to sing "Please don't send me to Africa" and I wonder how many went to Africa?

I want you to remember that your goals have to be positive because you get what you focus on.  Mike Dooley so often says"thoughts become things".So the more you focus on the things you don't want, the more the universe sends you exactly that which you don't want. Your goals have to be about what you want, not what you don't want. This may seem to be a very basic rule and almost too easy to abide by and it is, but the vast majority of people still don't.

Another reason why I have been and still am so insistent that you write your goals down is that once they are on paper you can see your goal and you can ...(I'm looking for the right words) you can panel beat it into shape. Just as important as writing down your goals are, the wording of the goals is important too and again the reason is that you get what you are aiming at and asking for.

Let me clarify that even further. Say for instance your goal is that you don't want to be overweight. You will continue to stay in a state of not wanting to be overweight, but you won't ever quite reach the place of being at your goal weight because you didn't state it. If your goal as a woman was to weigh 65kg for instance, then that is something you could and should focus on and become. I trust you are getting the picture.  Getting the picture is a good choice of words, because getting a picture of what you want is precisely what you need to get, it's called visualization, but more about that in another article.  I assume you are starting to realize that the wording you use in your goals is important.

So by now you want to know how you can clarify your goals to make them positive instead of dragging along any negative elements to them. It's wrapped up in a fairly well know acronym:SMART.  Let me tell you a little more about these SMART Goals, and how using this simple little word in practice will help you to set winning goals.

S - specific, significant, stretching, sincere

We have discussedspecifica little, your goals must be positive and clear – "I want to be rich" is not specific enough, neither is "I want to be thin," "I want to travel," or "I want a better job." They all beg the questions: How rich, how thin, travel where and what job?  Goals must also besincere, meaning they must be genuinely YOUR OWN goals. So many of us do things to please others – studying something at varsity or college to keep our parents happy is a common misguided goal. Goals should besignificantthey should make a difference and have meaning, at least to you. Goals need tostretchus to take us out of our comfort zones and ruts.

M - measurable, meaningful, motivational

The trick withmeasurableis you need to know when you get there, especially with the travel goal. When you are standing at the top of the Statue of Liberty looking across the Hudson River at New York you will know that you have reached your goal. You will also be able to measure it when you look at you bank balance and you have a Million in the bank! Goals should bemeaningfulto you – there must be a reason you want it, it shouldn't be just "some goal" you thought would be nice to be on your list, just for the sake of being there. Goals should bemotivationaland they must excite, encourage and enthuse you.

A - agreed upon, attainable, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented

With the A I have been usingachievablefor some years now, but while doing a little research the other day I came across a gentleman that allocatedACTIONto the letter ‘A', as well. I actually like that. Achievable means to have a goal that is actually possible. If you are 20kg overweight, you will not fit into a size zero dress in a week's time, nor could you be a president by next year when you have just started in politics. You also cannot qualify as a Doctor in two years time if you are still in school either. If it's your goal to be a doctor it will take 7 or so years to reach, so setting that as your goal is achievable. As I mentioned I like the ‘A' being foraction. To reach goals action is needed. I am going to talk about that in greater detail in another article, but for now know that in order to reach your goal you need to make things happen. No point in just dreaming about it and waiting for it to miraculously happen while you camp out on the couch with the remote glued to your hand.

R - realistic, relevant, reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented

Nowrealisticis a very relative term. Some people thought that the Wright brothers were being unrealistic when they said that they wanted to build the first flying machine, and they proved them wrong.  But there are indeed some goals that are impossible, for instance as stated earlier losing 20kg in a week (unless of course you opt for amputating a leg or two). It must be a goal that isrelevantand will eventually berewardingto you, you need to get something out of it.Results-orientatedis important as it must take you from point A to B so to speak. There should be growth and a positive outcome.

T - time-based, timely, tangible, trackable

Lastly the ‘T' is fortime-based. You need to know roughly by when you need and would like to reach this goal but in fact try to be as accurate as possible when setting this time. Ask yourself how long it's going to take. Open ended goals tend not to happen. They must betangiblegoals so you cantracktheir progress, know how long they are still going to take and determine what and when things still need to be done in the allotted time.

I have now covered all the basic aspects of SMART Goals. Take the SMART principles and grade each of your goals as listed according to them. In this way you will be able to fine tune your goals to make them work for you. If this sounds a little intimidating, perhaps you should just start applying it to your top 3 goals. I can assure you that with these instructions and the rest to follow in this article and in the next few, and by providing you with follow through you will reach those goals and plenty of others.

If this seems a lot of effort, you need to understand that you are doing much of this to a greater or lesser degree all the time. The goal of getting to work each day for instance uses many if not all of these principles, now I am just highlighting them and recommending that you apply them more methodically to other aspects of your life. Doing this will turn you desires, dreams and aspirations into reality in no time at all. So don't die with the music still in you.

So go forward with this newfound knowledge! Streamline your goals today and live life large!

"I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he had imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."--Henry David Thoreau -Walden, or Life in the Woods