Defining Your Major Goals

Once you've written an Objective, and your compelling Reasons for achieving it, you must start planning the route towards the Objective. And the first step is to set Major Goals supporting the Objective.

Say you've set an Objective for having $5 Million by retirement (which could be 20+ years away). First, you must figure out how you can achieve that. Do you need to learn more about investing? Will you have to start saving $500 a week? Do you have to get a new job? Will you have to more actively watch your existing investments? Whatever needs doing, to progress towards your Objective, will become your Major Goals.

Major Goals can be specific or broad in scope, but they must always lead directly towards the Objective they support. They must also always have an Accomplishment Date. A date you plan to accomplish the Major Goal by, a realistic date that not only motivates you into action but also ensures progress towards your Objective. Usually you will have many Major Goals at a time, and in the case of a real long-term Objective, some of the Major Goals will not be clear at the start, with others coming about when certain existing Major Goals are achieved.

Always write your Major Goals and their Accomplishment Dates down on the paper you've written the Objective on (after leaving some room to keep expanding on your Reasons). Never make your Major Goals too long or too difficult as you don't want to be overwhelmed by them.

If a Major Goal is long-term (as in taking a four-year degree towards a larger Career Objective), break it down into smaller parts (each year for example), and revise and/or renew them when accomplished. By making sufficient and reasonable Major Goals, and always accomplishing them on time, you'll find yourself making great progress towards Objectives which may look intimidating, or even impossible, by themselves.