Setting Goals and Objectives: 5 Myths

Only 3% of adults have clear, written, specific, measurable, time-bounded goals, and by every statistic, they accomplish ten times as much as people with no goals at all. Why is it then that most people have no goals?
Myth One: “I already have goals; I don’t need to set any.” People who say this also say that their goals are to be rich, thin, happy, successful, and live their dreams. Buy these are not goals, they are wishes and fantasies common to all mankind. A goal is like a beautiful home, carefully designed, revised continually, upgraded regularly, and worked on constantly. If it is not in writing, it is merely a dream or a wish, a vague objective with no energy behind it.
Myth Two: “I don’t need goals; I’m doing fine.” Living your life without goals and objectives is setting off across unknown territory with no road signs and no road map. You have no choice but to make it up as you go along, reacting and responding to whatever happens, and hoping for the best. If you are doing well today without written goals and plans, you could probably be doing many times better in the future if you had clear targets to aim at and the ability to measure your progress as you go along. It is vital to have goal setting objectives.
Myth Three: “I don’t need written goals; I have them all in my mind.” The average stream of consciousness includes about 1,500 thoughts a minute. If your goals are only in your mind, they are invariably jumbled up, vague, confused, contradictory and deficient in many ways. They offer no clarity and give you no motive power. You become like a ship without a rudder, drifting with the tides, crashing into the rocks inevitably and never really fulfilling your true potential.
Myth Four: “I don’t know how to set goals.” No wonder. You can take a Masters degree at a leading university and never receive a single hour of instruction on goal setting and achieving. Fortunately, setting a goal is a skill, like time management, teaching, selling, managing, or anything else that you need to become a highly productive and effective person. And all skills are learnable. You can learn the skill of goal-setting by practice and repetition until it becomes as easy and as automatic as breathing. And from the very first day that you begin setting goals, the progress you will make and the successes you will enjoy will astonish you.
Myth Five: “Goals don’t work; life is too unpredictable.” When a plane takes off for a distant city, it will be off course 99% of the time. The complexity of the avionics and the skill of the pilots are focused on continual course corrections. It is the same in life. But when you have a clear, long-term goal, with specific plans to achieve it, you may have to change course many times, but you will eventually arrive at your destination of health, wealth and great success.
One last point. Goal setting has been called the master skill of success. You have two choices in life: You can either work on your own goals, or you can work for someone else, and work on achieving their goals. When you learn the master skill, you take complete control of your life and jump to the front of the line in your potential for great achievement.
Great News! With the help and guidance of four professional writers and editors, I have completely rewritten and updated my world-wide best-selling book Goals!
The new edition contains three new chapters, on how to set and achieve financial goals, how to create a wonderful personal and family life, and how to achieve and maintain superb levels of health and fitness.
There are new ideas to help you set the best goals for you in every area of your life. You learn how to create action plans, set priorities, and focus on what is most important.
In addition, you learn how to visualize and attract your goals into your life. You discover how to unlock the powers of your superconscious mind to bring you everything you really want in life.
The 2nd edition of “Goals!” is perhaps the best guide you can have to enable you to realize your full potential for health, happiness and prosperity. Click here to get a copy of Goals! Second Edition


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“When a plane takes off for a distant city, it will be off course 99% of the time” Without goals, you’re like that plane without the rudder.
I already persuaded my daughter to get this book – wonderful
Thanx Brian.This is wonderful!
Setting goals is my biggest challenge. If I were to answer why, my most honest answer is because of my belief in me. I wonder if i’m a pipedreamer. Everyday i’m working at it and reading your work help. Now I have to apply it. I know procrastination is associated with fear. Thank you Mr. Tracy
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I Love the audiobook version – especially the intro where you state “if i had only two minutes to talk to you…” Powerful work. – Can;t wait to read the new book/
Brian You wrote that:
The average stream of consciousness includes about 1,500 thoughts a minute – I think this must be per hour.
Brian you might love The Work of Byron Katie if you don’t already.
Myth #3 is profound for me.
1500 thoughts per minute
90,000 thoughts per hour
1,400,000 thoughts per waking hours of the day. (sixteen hours with eight hours sleep)
Wow!
Writing down and reading your goals daily has now taken on a whole new meaning in my life.
At times I have doubted the authenticity of business gurus, yet I have found that Brian Tracy is always right… if you understand the context and the limitations of language and the coloring of mood.
You’re the best Brian! Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you.
Hi Brian. Great myths about goal setting. It is so important to set true goals and not just “nice to haves”.
If you get a chance, I would like to invite you to check out LifeSpace.com. It is a powerful online goal setting site that you may find useful for yourself or your customers. Thanks again for the interesting article. Greg
Hi, Brian, I already your book for quite a year! during these year, My life and study has changed a lot! thanks to your books! I find my real value and life!
But one thing is sure,you need to open the market in China even though it’s not easy thing to do! I bought your book from Chinese bookstore, but it’s so few to find it! I couldn’t purchase the legal books of GOALS! in AMAZON.cn,One of the biggest online bookstore in China! I think for some Chinese student, your book will have significant influential!
Thanks you are wonderful,its inspired me
Brian
Thank you. Through your guidance and coaching I went from being a restaurant to an Internationally Performing Concert Artist, a Youtube Sensation and Information Product Entrepreneur.
Without clear goals and visions it couldn’t have happened.
Now the only question is “what will I think of next?”
God Bless, I hope you are feeling well.
Adam Rafferty
oops, I meant restaurant “guitarist”….
I can see how Brian’s theories work in the corporate world, but what about me? I am a correction Sgt. in a prison. We have a union and get other positions based on seniority, not ability. So I can’t see how asking my LT for more responsibility will get me promoted any faster. To get promoted you have to take a test, not be a good worker.
Can someone help me with this?
@ Al
It may be time to go into a different system then. One that isn’t as limited and restricted.
I heard a story about the army and getting noticed by Joseph Sugarman. He did things outside of his normal “duties” and when a special assignment came up he was the firt to mind because his superiors were seeing his name everywhere and hearing it all the time.
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I have read many of your works and I can say it with emphasis that I am a better person going for the BEST POSITION.
[...] He actually has a very good article on this “Setting Goals and Objectives: 5 Myths”. [...]
[...] Just imagine that someone gave you a simple but powerful computer that had the capacity to answer any question or solve any problem you would ever face. All you would have to do is properly program the problem into the computer. Then, at exactly the right time, it would bring you exactly the answer that you need; the answer would always be perfectly correct for you. The fact is that you already have such a computer, and it’s installed right between your ears. The only real difference between extremely effective men and women and men and women who are not happy with their results is the degree to which they use this amazing computer. The wonderful thing is that you can easily learn to use this computer, and when you do, you will immediately start to benefit from better achieve your goals. [...]
this is one of the best goal setting book around…
[...] The fact is that you already have such a computer, and it’s installed right between your ears. The only real difference between extremely effective men and women and men and women who are not happy with their results is the degree to which they use this amazing computer. The wonderful thing is that you can easily learn to use this computer, and when you do, you will immediately start to benefit from better achieve your goals. [...]
[...] The fact is that you already have such a computer, and it’s installed right between your ears. The only real difference between extremely effective men and women and men and women who are not happy with their results is the degree to which they use this amazing computer. The wonderful thing is that you can easily learn to use this computer, and when you do, you will immediately start to benefit from better achieve your goals. [...]
[...] write their goals down because they are already in their head. This is simply a myth and one that Brian Tracy dispels on his blog with this [...]
Love Brian Tracy’s way of numbing it down so it’s easy to follow. One thing about writing it down for me was to bring it down to “baby steps”. When I started to do this, there was no excuse to not keep on going because the step was so easy to do, then you wanted to do the next step as well. Hopefully this is helpful for other people as well.
Thanks for sharing such a motivating article. I realized the power of goal setting when i had set one for myself and i am in the process of achieving my planned destination.