If you want to be successful, you have to know exactly what you want to accomplish. You need strategy and focus with a clear line to point to. Unfortunately, most people never even get that far. Most people are standing around and wondering, “How the heck did I get here?”

I’ve always thought that because I have direction, I also have goals. Law school. Happiness. Financial security. But are any of these ideas goals? What would you do with a law degree? What will you do to gain happiness and financial security? And how will you even know when you’ve achieved those things?

Guess those plans aren’t actually goals. So if setting goals are so important, how come we don’t know how to establish them?

With all of the schooling, experiences, and opportunities your life has afforded, can you set true goals? The biggest deterrent is admitting that our goals might fail. Our plans might not work. No one takes a little kid seriously when he says what he wants to be when he grows up, so he feels free to keep dreaming and imagining his future. When you and I say our dream careers, people hold us up to it. They remember. Yet going to college doesn’t mean you’ll leave with the same perspective, and having the direction doesn’t mean you’re setting true goals.

So how do you set goals?
1. Be specific.

The biggest difference between having direction and having goals is the detail. Set dates and quantities. Don’t just bake cookies for the food bank; bake 350 cookies by January 4. You could plan on starting a business or say, “I will start a ___ business by the year ___.” We all need a kick in the butt’and who better than ourselves?

2. Tell someone.

Sharing our goals is the hardest part because we’re afraid of failing or finding dissatisfaction when we reach our goals. Tell a person who can encourage you, push you, and support you even when your goals change or don’t work out.

3. Decide if your plan is a goal or an idea.

Too often, we don’t know what we want, so we start talking, thinking, and dreaming. How much of this process is required for you to set your strategy? Some people spend their lives dreaming of the perfect goal the way some people are always looking for Mr. Right. Are you passing up Mr. Really Wonderful because you’re afraid that he isn’t quite Mr. Right? Doubt puts out passion faster than anything, so if you find something you’d love, why aren’t you going for it?

4. Go for it.
5. Follow up.

Make sure you’re working your way toward your goals’often!

You can spend your entire life climbing the ladder of success. But what you are climbing the wrong ladder? Tomorrow when you wake up, close your eyes and imagine the perfect life situation for one year from now’your work, your finances, your family, your health. If you don’t know what you want, then people who do know what they want take control of your life’your boss, your landlord, your local fast food places and advertisers, and shareholders of the businesses you spend your money.

You might tell everyone how much you hate WalMart. The great thing about democracy lets you vote with every dollar you spend. Every dollar that you spend at WalMart is a dollar vote in favor of their practices and attitudes. Don’t say you hate WalMart; do something more.

You can gain an overwhelming sense of power in your own life when you set goals’it’s something most people never even experience.