When it comes to setting and accomplishing your goals, often the first step is deciding exactly what goals you want to accomplish. Sometimes picking the actual goals you want to go after is harder than setting and accomplishing the goals themselves. Basically to narrow down what you should be focusing on, you can choose to work any goal that you feel is necessary for your health, stability and happiness.

These are goals that no matter how much time you invest in accomplishing them, you will always feel that your time was well invested.

Goal setting is nothing more than a formal process for personal planning. By setting goals on a routine basis you decide what you want to achieve, and then move in a step-by-step manner towards the achievement of these goals. The process of setting goals and targets allows you to choose where you want to go in life. By knowing exactly what you want to achieve, you know what you have to concentrate on to do it. You also learn to recognize what is actually nothing more than a distraction.

Goal setting is a standard technique used by professional athletes, successful business people and high achievers in all fields. It gives you long-term vision and provides you with short-term motivation.

It helps to focus your attention and knowledge which helps you to organize your resources. By setting sharp and clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. You can see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless effort.

By setting goals, you will also raise your self confidence as you recognize your and ability to meet the goals that you have set. The process of achieving goals and seeing this achievement gives you confidence that you will be able to achieve higher and more difficult goals later on.

Goals are set on a number of different levels. The first step in picking out the goals you should concentrate on starts by sitting down and looking at the big picture. What do you want to accomplish, do, be and have in your life?

Second, you break these down into the smaller targets that you must hit so that you reach your overall lifetime goals. The process I use to pick out the goals I should concentrate on after I have my master list is very similar to an elimination tournament.

I first categorize the goals into health, financial, relationship and recreation. I make separate elimination sheets for each category. On the left of the sheet I list the goals. Then I clump them in two's. I then push forward the winner of the two based on my motivation and desire to accomplish that goal. When the eliminations are done, I have the winning goals from each important group that I should concentrate on.

This keeps your focus on the goals that are truly important to you. When its important to you and both your motivation and desire are high, you greatly increase the probability that you will take the appropriate actions needed to fulfill your goals.

Finally, once you have your major goals, you start working towards achieving them. This brings you to the action part, which is where the achievers step forward and the wishers continue to dream.