With focus, you create a powerful laser-like ability to accomplish things. However, it is extremely important that you focus on your goal, rather than just concentrating on working hard. Many people, including some leaders, believe that working hard is all there is to it. Unfortunately, a person can work hard with efforts focused in the wrong direction and fall short. Hard work does not guarantee success. It is a component, but you must focus your hard work and efforts towards the result you want to achieve. With concentrated effort, you can accomplish much more with greater ease. However, before you can focus, you need to know one thing: what your goal is.

You must know where you are going

When people comment that leaders have vision, they are simply saying that the leader knows what result he wants. The vision is nothing more than a clear picture of what you see for yourself, your organization, or the world in the future. A powerful and compelling vision can be exciting and energetic. But most importantly, a clear vision provides direction and meaning. Without vision, without goals to work towards, a leader and the organization he leads cannot focus energy toward desired results. Without goals, how can you set priorities? When a leader has a clear vision and goals, the chances of achieving them are much greater. Because goals are so important, and focusing without them lacks the ability to achieve the greatest successes, the remainder of this article will be a brief introduction to setting and achieving goals.

Set and achieve goals

There are countless resources on goal setting. Many of these are very good, and the people who follow them end up having better results and living more successfully. Unfortunately, not many people design their own lives. Studies show that most people do not formally set or achieve goals. Many people spend more time planning a vacation each year than on the important things they will accomplish or achieve.

Goals should be set for all areas of your life. You must have balance. Areas to consider goal setting include: Mental goals, such as learning more about a topic and improving yourself; Physical goals, such as participating in an exercise program and eating healthy; Family goals, such as spending time with your wife or husband, your children, and your extended family; Social goals, such as attending community events, joining a local service group, or socializing with people in your industry to share ideas; Spiritual goals, such as attending a religious service, reading texts of the great religion, or simply helping people; Career goals, such as doing what is necessary for a promotion or leading your business to success; and financial goals, such as owning your own home, getting out of debt, increasing your net worth to gain financial independence.

Once you have determined in which areas you will set goals, you need to commit to writing them down. Studies show that committing to written goals increases the likelihood of achieving them. In a “Forbes” interview, Lee Iacocca said, “writing something is the first step to making it happen.” There are many ways to write down your goals. Different books and courses have a variety of ways to record goals, subgoals, and the mission statement that governs them. For the purposes here, just commit to writing the goals. They don’t need to be logged in an expensive journal or complicated flowcharts. In fact, it is often best to keep it simple. Just make sure they’re challenging but achievable, measurable, and specific on timeliness and committed to the role. If you do this, you will be way ahead of most people, and if you do it for your business, you have a greater chance of being successful at great levels. Now that you’ve committed to putting your goals on paper, let’s see how we can make them SMART.

Many books, articles, and courses teach SMART goals. It’s a good acronym to use when starting to set your goals. SMART goals are simply:

Specific

Vague generalities do little to inspire us. Our minds need specific goals to work. You must state exactly what you want to achieve. Provide enough detail to eliminate indecision when determining exactly what to do. To set specific goals, you must answer the six “W” questions: who, what, where, when, which, and why.

Measurable

How will you know if your goal has been reached or not? A measurable goal has an outcome that can be evaluated. You must have measurable progress and you must establish concrete criteria to measure that progress. Measuring helps you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the thrill of accomplishment when the goal is achieved.

Reachable

When you identify and set specific goals that are important to you, you begin to discover ways to achieve them. You go the extra mile to develop attitudes, abilities, and skills to achieve each goal you set for yourself. You can achieve almost any goal you set your mind to, if you really want to, and are willing to make the necessary sacrifices to achieve it.

Realistic

Goals should represent things that you are willing and able to work on. It can be set high and still be realistic. Only you can determine what is too high. Your belief and commitment that the goal can be achieved represents whether or not it is realistic. This cannot be stressed enough, it is your decision whether a goal is realistic or not. What is realistic for one person may not be realistic for another. Your goals must be within the scope of your credibility.

Timely

A goal must have a time frame. We are guided by deadlines and setting them for our goals is a powerful motivation. It should not be set too much in the future, or it will be too easily postponed. At the same time, it should not be placed too close, which makes it unrealistic and discouraging. If you don’t set a time, goals tend not to happen. It is too easy to think that it can start at any time and it never does. Without a time frame, there is no urgency to start acting toward your goals, toward your dreams, toward your success.

Setting goals is powerful. Use the acronym SMART to help set the goals you will achieve. Once established, remember to focus on your goal and stay focused until you are successful. Straying and swerving in different directions will get in the way of true success.