Got goals? What have you done this week to move them forward? How about this month? This year? … If you’ve got big goals but can’t figure out how to get there from here, then you probably need a little strategy (either that or a fire under your b**t). In either case, the five tips below will help you get clear about what your goals and vision are; help you see the end result as real; help you get real about your values; and give you some tools to start taking the right steps. These tips are from Effective Time Management Strategies, and I'm reprinting them here in full for your convenience.
#1: Your retirement dinner -Imagine it is your retirement dinner. It is an unusual retirement dinner at which your family, friends, and colleagues stand up and describe the type of person that you are for them. How would you like to be remembered? What do you want your children and friends to say about you? How would you like to be described by your colleagues? By creating a vision of what you would like to be in the future, in different areas of your life, you often reflect the personal values that are most important to you in each of these different areas. Write down on a sheet of paper what you would like each person to say about the different areas of your life. At the same time, think about what is important to you and the type of person that you would like to be. Identify those areas of your life that are most important to you. This can help you to clarify priorities for future goal setting strategies.

#2: Emulate someone you admire If you have trouble visualizing your retirement dinner in goal setting activity #1, then imagine somebody that you admire and respect: What qualities do they have that you admire? Often the characteristics that you admire in another can say a lot about the type of person that you would like to be. Take a blank piece of paper and write down the qualities of this person in each life domain: career, finance, family, personal relationships, community citizenship and any others that you can think of. Write a paragraph on the type of person that you would like to be in each area of your life. Practice ‘no limit’ thinking. Don’t limit yourself by your fears, lack of money, or a lack of time – clarify a vision of your ideal self.

#3: Develop goal setting plans for each area of your life In the above goal setting activities you have provided an ideal vision of the different areas of your life, spanning career, family, and social and personal life. Family goal setting. Do you want to spend more quality time with your family? What sort of parent or partner do you want to be? From this page you can download a family goal setting plan. Education. Do you want to learn something new or become an expert in a particular area? What new skills do you want to acquire? Fitness goal setting. Do you want to lose weight or become fitter? Perhaps you want to improve your game or remain motivated to keep training. Do you want to remain healthy as you get older? What steps do you need to take? From this page you can download a fitness goal setting plan. Setting financial goals. What sort of money do you want to earn? Do you want to achieve financial freedom? If so, then how? From this page you can download a financial goal setting plan. Setting personal goals. Do you want to maintain a positive mindset? Are there behaviors that you want to improve? Do you want to have more pleasure and happiness in your life? Career goal setting. Where do you want to be in your career? What type of job do you want to work in? What skills do you want to learn for your job? From this page you can download a career goal setting plan. It is helpful when you are trying to create a vision of the type of person that you want to be to consider your life from these different aspects. The following goal setting activity makes these personal visions of yourself more concrete.
#4: Practice setting SMART goals In the above goal setting activities you have clarified your personal vision. You then made these abstract goals more concrete by developing goal setting strategies in goal setting activity #3. In this goal setting activity you are going to try to develop SMART goals. SMART goals are a proven method of maximizing goal setting success. Pick one of your goals. Whether you choose a career goal, a fitness goal or a personal goal, try to identify how you can make your goal SMART. Specific Measurable Action-based Realistic Time-bound This can dramatically increase your chances of achieving goals.

#5: Prioritize your goals Enthusiasm for goal setting is great – but sometimes enthusiasm needs to be focused into what is important for you. Why? A by-product of enthusiasm can mean that you set too many goals. This can spread you too thin and result in not achieving any of your important goals! Perhaps you want to: achieve financial success spend more time with your family achieve greater fitness get that dream job While these are great things to aim for, too many goals can be a distraction and take your focus away on what is important to you.
Source: Finer Minds.