The GOALS! System outlines an easy way to remember your goals, set your goals, and keep them in place.

The first step is to establish your Goals, of course. Think about exactly what it is you are looking to achieve.

The second step is Organization. Once you have your goals in place, you need to organize them. Put your thoughts down on paper. Have a time each day that you can get yourself personally organized so that you can be more effective.

Realize the value of time. We must use the time we have more wisely. Prioritize everything you do, and only act on the things that are going to get the biggest results. Avoid reacting to urgent but non-important demands. Avoid acting solely on emotion, regardless of how tempting it might be. Organize your plans and act on them accordingly.

The third step is to take massive Action. The reason most small businesses don’t work is because of F.T.I., Failure To Implement. You can have the best ideas, the most knowledge, and all the understanding, but if you don’t do anything, it’s worthless.

The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is what they do and don’t do. Not that they can’t just that they won’t. If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.

You’ve set your goals, you’ve organized your plan, you’ve taken action. Now Learn from what worked and what didn’t. Be objective. Be honest. Educate yourself so that you won’t make the same mistakes. Albert Einstein said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing the same way over and over, expecting a different result.”

Once you observe what works, put it into a System. Once you have reached your goal of getting more customers, increasing your profit, or whatever it is you’re striving for, make it an automatic way of life. Duplicate it, automate it, delegate it, but by all means don’t reinvent it.

The reason most small-business owners are not more successful than they are is not because they don’t know what to do. It’s not because they don’t know how to do it. It’s simply because they just don’t do it.

I find that those who are excited about what they are doing – people so inspired by the possibilities, they can’t wait to get going each day – are the ones that actually do what needs to be done to take their business and their lives to the next level. They are Inspired to implement.

People who are discouraged become depressed and therefore don’t take action. People who are not inspired don’t implement; they do just enough to avoid the pain of total failure, but not enough to rise above mediocrity. So, how does one become inspired? By staying focused on the truth.

The truth is that in this great country of ours, you can do just about anything you want to do. You can do just about anything anyone else has done. Stay around people who inspire you. Do things you love to do, set your life vision in place and know that the hard work you are doing in your business will bring you closer to those wonderful things that you want to do in life.

SMART Goals

Here’s another acronym to remember goals by. My friend John Browning presented this at one of my seminars, and recently during a teleconference Dave DeBlander reminded our group of the importance of SMART Goals.

S is for Specific
Have specific goals. Don’t be general. If it is money, be specific about exactly how much.

M is for Measurable
Your goals should be measurable. How will you measure your success? What can you measure? You can measure time, amounts of money, units, production, sales, and many other things. Make sure your goals can be measured.

A is for Achievable
Don’t set pie-in-the-sky goals. Set goals that you can achieve. Certainly think big, but make sure it is something that is achievable.

R is for Reasonable
Don’t set goals that have no purpose or meaning. Make sure that your goals fit with your overall vision.

T is for Timely
Make sure you have a timeline on all your goals. Have a specific date of when that goal is to be realized.