Personal goals are a necessary part of our everyday lives. Without personal goals, what else would we do with our lives? In fact if you’re not working towards your personal goals, chances are you are working towards someone else’s. It might be time to take that hope and dream of your’s and make them reality. Here are 10 tips on goal setting that have worked for me.

1. Set a specific and realistic goal.  Instead of get in better shape, how about loose 20 pounds or run 2 miles?  The more specific you can make your goal, the easier it will be for you to know what you need to do, get excited about reaching it and actually achieve it!

2. Make it measurable.  Now that you have a specific goal, set a time for yourself to reach that goal.  Let’s take the goal of loosing 20 pounds and put a date of two months from now to reach it, specific and realistic.

3. Break it down.  With a specific goal and a specific date with which to accomplish your goal you can now break that larger goal down into smaller more manageable goals. With our 20 pound goal that would mean that you would have to average 2.5 pounds of weight loss per week to reach that goal.  That sounds easy enough and now you know exactly what you have to accomplish.

4. Write down your goal.  When you put your goal in writing it make’s that goal more real and attainable.  It greatly improves your chances of actually doing it.  Unless it’s in writing it’s just a daydream..

5. Make your goal public.  Tell everyone!  Use social pressure for a good thing. The more people that know the more pressure on yourself to reach your goal.  Those people may ask how you are doing and they may even be able to help!

6. Put your goal right in front of your face.  Since you already have your goal written down, put it right where you can see it every day.  in front of your face where you have to look at it, you can’t get away from it.  I would suggest your bathroom mirror, computer screen or on the steering wheel of your car. When you read your goal over and over you will be reminding yourself and will have an opportunity to recommit yourself to your goal.

7. Don’t go it alone.  Get help! There are friends that I’m sure would be willing to go the distance with you and you can help motivate each other along the way.  There are experts, instructors and trainers that can help.  Group classes are a great way to make new friends which will in turn help motivate you to reach your goals.

8. Set a deadline for your goal.  Goals without deadlines are easy to put off and soon become dreams that you may never reach. Set a specific date to accomplish your goal and go for it!

9. Set time aside every day.  Do it!  Don’t take a day off, do something every day.  Some days you may be able to do more than others, but every day counts.  When you miss one day, that day turns into two days..  Take small steps if you need, but do something every day.

10. Get Help!  When you feel yourself start to struggle, if failure starts to seem like a possibility, don’t wait! Go get help right away! It is your goal, you are worth it so failure should not be an option!

Remember, they are your goals.  If you don’t work to reach them, you are not going to get there,  Don’t accept anything less than your best!  Reach your goals and then set higher ones, you can do it!