When was the last time you sat down and thought about the steps you need to take to accomplish a specific goal, desire, or dream?

Goal setting is paramount to the success of achieving anything in both our personal and professional lives. Goal setting establishes checkpoints along the way where we can assess if we are headed on the right path or not. In the military, when we receive a mission, we have numerous phase lines where we report progress to headquarters (HQ). In turn, it keeps everyone on the same page and HQ can track our progress. Goal setting is an effective strategy to facilitate the achievement of dream goals and enhance our performance. In essence, it’s a process to deliberately energize, direct, and sustain behavior to ensure progress.

According to Jon Acuff, in his book “All It Takes Is A Goal” describes 3 types of goals- easy, middle, and guaranteed goals. Easy goals are those short-term goals that take anywhere from one to seven days to accomplish, they have obvious first steps, are inexpensive, and they almost feel small. The key to small goals is that you begin to build small wins and momentum that you can stack upon as you build towards your desired outcome. Easy goals start the snowball effect of achieving your bigger goals. Middle goals take anywhere from one to three months, flexibility and patience are built in, and they encourage adjustments along the way. Lastly, guaranteed goals take three months to a year and beyond, they are specific and easy to measure, they are something you have control over, and they sound impossible. No one can guarantee that a goal will happen. However, one important thing to note is that if you have a plan in place to achieve your goals, and you take consistent action toward them, you may not always hit your goal, but you will ALWAYS be trending in the direction of self-improvement and that is a guarantee as a result of that behavior!

 What does this look like applied?

For me as an active endurance athlete, I have easy, middle, and long-term guaranteed goals. My short-term goals are what a week of running looks like for me- two active recovery jogs, one speed or interval run, one hill run, and one long run. My middle goal may be training for a half marathon that is two months away. My short-term goals feed into the half marathon and propel me towards achieving this goal. There is flexibility with choosing to run in a certain race as I may get injured or sick along the way, so I can shift what race I will run in by a week or two. My long-term guaranteed goal is to one day run in the Boston Marathon. This goal is over a year in the making as it takes time just to have a qualifying time. While I can’t guarantee I will run in the Boston, I can guarantee that because of my short and middle-length goals, I will be giving myself the best opportunity to do so. As a result, I will be improving and becoming a better individual both personally and professionally.

As a 4th generation Kansas rancher, husband, father, men's mindset coach, and Army National Guard officer, I've seen firsthand how stress can build up in our lives when we're unsure of our direction. Our burdens can weigh us down and separate us from our true calling.

If you're feeling uncertain about your goals and direction in life, join me for a short, value-packed webinar. In this tactical session, you'll learn key principles to help you set the right goals and move forward with clarity. Don't miss out - we have a FREE seat saved JUST for you!

Click the link below to sign up!

https://event.webinarjam.com/register/2/18gnlby