If you’re looking for miracles to happen in your life, you’ll need to get your intensions squared away and set high quality goals first. Next, take action that will get you closer to them.

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Many people are uncertain about what a really good goal is. Most often they tend to confuse wishes with goals. Many people are content to simply make a wish or two and then sit back and hope that things work out. According to Webster’s dictionary a goal is defined as, “a result towards which effort is directed” while a wish is something that’s “wanted, desired and longed for.”

If all you’re looking for are definitions, you’ve gotten what you are looking for.

If you’re looking for miracles, you need to take goal directed action to make them happen. You’ll need to think of goal setting and goal achieving as a step-by-step system or a process that you’ll need to adopt.

The real key to goal accomplishment is in the last part of the Webster’s definition, “towards which effort is directed.”

The goals process

Many people are content to think about some improbable future event and sit back waiting for the event to materialize. A great illustration of what we mean by this might be a young boy who says to his mother, “I’m going to be a fireman one day”. The probability of that wish coming to pass is very remote. As I’m sure you would agree, a lot more people dream about being firefighters than actually turn into one.

The goals process is a step-by-step procedure that will help keep you concentrated on a future, very well defined outcome. What we’re looking for is a sort of street map that will be a followed on a regular consistent basis. This could used be as often as daily, but it should be no less often than monthly.

1. Create a personal vision or a dream about what your future will look like. The little boy above probably has a fairly good idea about what a fireman is. So, that could very well be his personal vision. That’s the kind of thing you need to do. Paint a picture about how you want things to turn out.
2. Attach a very powerful emotion to this vision. You must feel as though you’ve already achieved the end even before you begin. Envision yourself as a ship builder and think about the joy you’ll have when you take the first sailing. Make that emotion of joy very powerful.
3. Breathe life into your vision every single day. Many people are very able to make a wish, but aren’t willing to put any effort into creating the actual end result. A wish in and of itself has no power and as a result is fundamentally dead on arrival. Revive it daily.
4. Establish a set of short-term goals. The personal vision we’ve suggested you create is likely to be several years into the future. It’s very easy to become paralyzed and take no action because of the sheer size of the vision or dream that most people are able to conjure up. The solution to this dilemma is to divide the long journey into a series of shorter increments. First, start with the years, then months and then weeks. So, beginning right now you’d have a goal or two to accomplish in the upcoming week.
5. Take daily goal directed action. Once you’ve set your goal or goals for the next week concentrate on taking action on a daily basis so that you can make steady progress.

In summary

Every day ask yourself one simple question, “am I closer to or farther from my vision as a result of what I did today?” As you’ll quickly recognize you either are or you are not. Either way decide what you’re going to do tomorrow to advance ever so steadily along the road towards achieving your personal vision.

You are at a junction in the road right now. Decide to execute and not just wish. You’ll discover very quickly that by following the five steps you’ve just learned miracles will begin happening to you in bunches.