If you have a great list of Goals to support your exciting Vision, but you’re just not sure what to do next, join us for a lesson in goal architecture. Follow the system and your goals will be on-target every time!

PURPOSE is what you’re created for;

MISSION is what you’re meant to do about it;

VISIONS are the evidence.

GOALS are the means of achievement.

You’re probably well on your way to tapping into the artist in you and you’re creating amazing dream canvases and recording them. You’re making sure to nurture your vision and keep your passion alive. And you’re excited and anxious to get on with it.

In a garden, where you might have a pond or a rose arbor in a corner you would probably have a carefully laid stepping stone path to guide you there. Goals are the carefully laid stepping stones on which you will walk right into the reality of your Vision. They are the difference between attaining a brilliant vision and disappointment.

Our culture is extremely goal-oriented, particularly at the beginning of each New Year (i.e. resolutions). Most of these goals go unrealized, unachieved, for the simple reason that frequently they just don’t lead anywhere.

Though many are worthwhile, these goals amount to the same thing as planning a lovely flagstone path, lined with flowers – - guiding you nowhere. Goals must be part of an overall plan, one piece in a process that begins with understanding your Purpose, discerning your Mission and taking the time to create vibrant Visions. Without these, your goals, regardless of how carefully you lay them out, have no purpose, no direction.

If you’ve been following along with us in the process of bringing your dreams into reality, you’ve arrived at the crossroad separating the dreamer from the true visionary (see Become A Visionary – Tapping Into the Artist in You, an earlier article in this series). You have reached the point of designing On-Target Goals and you may even have begun, finding it labor-intensive, to say the least!

Be encouraged. As with all processes, if you stay with the plan, remaining focused and taking it one step at a time, it’s completely manageable. How do you eat an elephant? Goals are accomplished the same way – one bite at a time.

If you’re a true visionary, and you’ve taken sufficient time to paint a truly vibrant and brilliant Vision inside you, and you continue to nurture the Vision (See Nurturing the Vision from the last issue of The Commonsense Communique), you will have stoked the fires of your passion and the confidence it generates. The pressing need to see the dream realized will keep you focused. During the process of designing and implementing your goals, do not hesitate to take time to step back into your Vision now and again and walk around in it for awhile.

If you haven’t yet identified the 7 steps, the tools to insure that each dream manifests in a better reality, now is the time. Goal design is the work of an architect and it’s time to sit down at the drawing board. It is bringing those Visions which above and beyond the norm into the realm of reality, utilizing the tools of the real world, and changing the real world in the process.

Begin by listing the goals you believe will draw the vision closer to reality. Depending on its scope, each Vision will probably have no less than 6 goals, in order to see it realized. Think in small, manageable increments.

You’re far more likely to realize your plan with many bite-sized goals than you will with fewer all-inclusive goals. For example, if your goal is a completely reorganized closet, which plan are you more likely to accomplish – without stalling?

Plan A

1. Remove and sort current closet contents, arranging for disposal & pickup

2. Research and purchase closet organizer system

3. Choose paint color, purchase and paint closet

4. Replace closet contents

Plan B

1. Determine the purpose of your reorganized closet

2. Make several drawings of your desired end result and choose one

3. Develop a budget

4. Remove closet contents

5. Sort contents into 3 groups, TOSS, SAVE & GIVEAWAY

6. Package and arrange for pickup of giveaway items

7. Make a list of organizer resources using Yellow Pages and Internet

8. Request catalogs and begin to visit stores to price desired units

9. Etc.

As you work through the design process, be open to reprioritizing at every step. How might you rearrange Plan B to better suit your own way of operating? Stay with the process and employ an accountability partner to help keep you motivated, especially if the scope of your Vision is somewhat daunting with numerous goals that require entering new territory.

Bon voyage – the journey has begun!