“Success demands planning and perspective and, most importantly, passion.” – Daniel Waldschmidt

 We all want to be successful, and in order to achieve success, we have to know what we want, how to get it, and most importantly, have the drive to work toward that goal. To that end, here is a five-step goal setting formula:

 1. Think of your wildest dreams – Go to a quiet place, a noisy place, or wherever you feel most comfortable. Anywhere you can sit with yourself and think without interruption will work. Then think. Think about the things that make you happy, and dream BIG.

 2. Write down your ideas – While you’re dreaming big, write everything down. No matter how outrageous it seems, write it down. This is a conversation you’re having with yourself and no idea, no dream is unachievable here.

 3. Rank your ideas – Now that you have your list, rank them in order of what you would make you happiest or what you want most. Again, plausibility is not the issue here. For the purposes of this list, anything is possible because these are your dreams.

 4. Look for a theme – Look at your list. What’s at the top? If your number one goal is to be an astronaut, look to see if other items on the list have anything to do with space or flight. Is your top goal to be a pulitzer prize winning author? Look for other items related to writing. If there is a trend, this is probably what you’re most passionate about.

 5. Start creating long- and short-term goals – Using your passion, make a list of long-term goals. (These can be as vague as “prove to my mom that I’m capable of paying my rent” or as specific as “win the nobel peace prize during my first year as president for ending all wars”). Then, make a list of your short-term goals. Short term goals should be a little more specific because these should be things you want to happen during the next year of your life, i.e. “Find a job, so I can afford to go back to school and study political science.” As you list your short-term goals, write a brief statement next to each of them explaining how you will achieve that goal. Using our previous example, it can be as simple as, “I will apply for ten jobs per week.”

Achieving success requires work. Chasing your passion makes that work gratifying. Contact us, and we can help you get there.