Types of Goals:
Step 1: Set a Goal. It identifies something you want. It may be pleasing parents, a new car, impressing friends, a personality trait, physical appearance, a college degree, a grade point average, a major field of study, etc. Setting a goal is also the first step in experiencing motivation. Motivation comes from one source and one source only: YOU are going after something that YOU want. Unless you identify what you want, you haven't done what's necessary to feel motivated.
Step 2: Devise a Plan of Action. Identify the steps or tasks to complete that lead to your goal. These are sometimes called mini-goals that must be achieved in order to reach a larger goal. Effective plans of action have completion dates for each mini-goal that provide a timetable to determine how well you are progressing toward your larger goal. **Break your goal into smaller tasks; Remember to state deadlines for the goal**
Step 3: Follow Your Plan to Your Goal. As a rule, it is easier to modify something than develop something altogether new. Follow your plan and ask: "Am I meeting my mini-goals on time?" Do not hesitate to add or modify mini-goals, dates, and times as you learn more about what it takes to reach your larger goal.
Step 4: Reset Goals. Goals must be reset after they are achieved if you are to continue to feel motivation. Goal setting and achieving is a lifelong process for those wishing continuous success. When resetting goals cease, achieving stops. Stagnation, aimlessness, and frustration take over as motivation fades. Like anything that is repeated often enough, becomes a habitual. Setting, achieving, and resetting goals can become a habit and so can achieving success if you choose to do what is necessary to achieve goals and become successful. This is why there are different degrees of success among various people. If you are willing to master the process for setting and achieving goals, you are one of the few who chooses to do what it takes to be successful and to make success a habit.