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Note: This is the fourth of 14 consecutive posts from 2nd to 15th of April about the principles of how to get rich. Check back daily or subscribe to the RSS feed

The ability to set goals is in a way the most important part in becoming rich. Goals are what start this all. A goal is something that you want so badly that it hurts when you don’t get it. A goal is what makes you develop and step out of your comfort zone. Setting a goal gives us the opportunity to assess later on if we are successful or not

Written Goals pay off

In 1953, researchers surveyed Yale’s graduating seniors to determine how many of them had specific, written goals for their future. They were asked to answer the question

“Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?”

Only 3% had written down their goals, 14% of graduates had goals but they had not written them down and 83% had no specific personal or business goals.

10 years later they made another study among the same people. It came out that:

• The 14% who had goals but didn’t write them down were earning on average twice as much as the 83% who had no goals at all.
• The 3% percent who had written down their goals were making 10 times more than the other 97% put together.

The interesting thing with goals is that when setting goals you don’t need to know how you will achieve them. I think that Charlie “Tremendous” Jones said it best in his book Life is Tremendous that

When you have the why the how comes itself

Be sure to think through your goals - is this what you truly want? If it is - go and do it! It is important that you should set your goals by yourself. If somebody else sets them for you it might feel that it is not what you wanted after all and the goal will never be accomplished. This is also a major problem in many companies where goals come from management and ordinary employees never feel as if the goals are theirs.  Always set your own goals!

The difference between a goal and a dream

The difference between a goal and a dream is that goals have a time limit.

A dream is that “I will someday be a millionaire”

A goal is that “On April 5th in 2017 I will be a millionaire“. This imposes a deadline and therefore makes it easier to keep track on how you are doing with achieving your goal.

An even better goal would be

“On April 5th 2017 at 10 o’clock in the evening I am sitting on my million dollar yacht on the Mediterranean sea, looking at the sunset and having a cigar”.

As you can see I tried to visualize what it would be like to be a millionaire. It has been shown that visualizing your goals has a great impact on achieving them. For instance Olympic gymnasts always visualize their performance before really doing it.

Have S.M.A.R.T goals

Consultants always stress that goals should be SMART. By smart they mean

S - Specific. A good goal has to be specific. You have to know exactly what it is that you want. If you have a vague goal you will have vague results.

M - Measurable. A good goal is measurable. If your goal is to become a millionaire by 2017 then you can always measure your success by how much money you already have.

A - Attainable. A good goal is attainable. It is important to set big goals but it is also important that they are attainable. An attainable goal is one that is both realistic but also attainable in a shorter period of time than what you have to work with. Now when I say attainable, I don’t mean easy. Our goals should be set so they are just out of our reach; so they will challenge us to grow as we reach forward to achieve them.

R - Realistic. A good goal is realistic or real. A goal has to be something that we can reasonably make “real” or a “reality” in our lives. There are some goals that simply are not realistic. You have to be able to say, even if it is a tremendously stretching goal, that yes, indeed, it is entirely realistic—that you could make it.

T - Timeframe . A good goal has a deadline. Every goal that you have should always have a date associated with it. For big goals it is also OK to break them into smaller parts with each having their own deadlines. For example if my goal is to be a millionaire by 2017 my sub-goal could be to have 500 000 dollars by year 2013.

How to accomplish goals

Be sure to set SMART goals, but there are some things that make it even more realistic for you to achieve your goals.

1. Tell your friends about your goals and keep them updated. Letting your friends know of your goals can be a very powerful ally. This can help you whether your friends believe in you or not. People who don’t think that you can achieve your goals are called skeptics. A skeptic can help you because during hard times the only reason to move on with your goal could be to prove your skeptics wrong.

People who believe in you and your goals are helpful because often the can give feedback on what you can do even better and of course they are the one’s who will be there for you on difficult times.

2. Be consistent - the best way to accomplish a goal is to never loose sight of it. When you are saving money in order to reach the magical 1 million dollar mark but after getting to $500 000 decide to take a small break and spend some of your saved riches it will can set you back many years.

3. Control the controllable’s. This is the secret of rationality that you need in order to accomplish your goals. For instance in 2005 and 2007 I was a door-to-door books salesman. It was the most difficult thing that I have ever done. When talking to people I could never control how they will react to me - friendly or unfriendly. What I could do was to meet a lot of people - that way I saw more friendly people who were willing to buy the books that I offered. Seeing more people also meant that I got better at communicating and therefore I could better influence the people who were a bit less friendly. Since I knew that I should only control the controllable’s I only concentrated on the hours that I work, the number of people that I see and my attitude.

You can not control if it is going to rain but you can control how you react to it.