Nothing happens, no forward steps are taken until a goal is established. Without goals individuals just wander through life. They stumble along. Never knowing where they are going, so they never get anywhere. – David J. Schwartz, The Magic Of Thinking Big

Taking the time to set goals and make them measurable is a determinant factor of our success. Having goals means we are moving towards a direction we have clearly identified instead of hanging around just hoping that good things will happen in the future. A pen, a piece of paper and your brain is all you need to set goals so why not setting your goals for 2015?

My goals report for 2014

Coaching

• I will definitely coach 10 people for free  (5)
• I will definitely create original business cards for my coaching business (work in progress)
• I will definitely meet 5 life coaches  (2)

Public Speaking

• I will definitely give one speech in a school or any other institution – not accomplished
• Toastmasters
  • I will definitely give 7 speeches (4 in Japanese, 3 in English)   √
  • I will definitely be Toastmaster of the evening one time  √
  • I will definitely be Topicsmaster (one time in English and one time Japanese) not accomplished
  • I will definitely be evaluator one time – not accomplished

Personal Development

• I will launch a blog that generate 20,000 pages viewed monthly in December 2014  (10,019 pages views per month)
• I will definitely have 20 articles published on my blog (21) √
  
• I will definitely record 10 videos and put them on Youtube and on my blog  (15) √
  
• I will definitely publish a 20-pages e-book on personal development on Amazon, selling easily 100 copies a month (17,000 words written so far)

Finance

• I will definitely generate a cumulated revenue of ¥200,000/month in December 2014 (part time job, blog…)  ￥110,000

Health

• I will definitely move towards becoming a vegetarian:
  • I will buy books about vegetarianism √
  • I will experience vegetarianism for one month √
    
• I will definitely meditate for 20 minutes every single day without any exception　I was pretty consistent but didn’t do it every single day. Since I created a chain of habits about a month ago. I’ve been doing it consistently every single day.
• I will definitely run/walk every morning without any exception  I’ve been walking but not necessarily every day
• I will definitely join the 10 Day Vipassana meditation course, write an article about it, and publish it on my blog. Course was cancelled. Still thinking whether I should apply this year.
  

Relationships

• I will definitely approach a total of 1,000 women in bars, shops or in the street  75

1,000 women is too much! After having work on it for one month or two I dropped that goal because I didn’t have enough time or motivation to pursue it. I’m thinking about what I could do this year to work on my confidence and get out of my comfort.

Few takeaways from setting goals

Be flexible: over time, as we change, our goals are likely to change. Goals that were exciting a few months ago might not be exciting anymore. We should remember that goals are here for only one reason: to help us grow and improve our life. If some goals are not relevant anymore, if we prefer to spend more time on other goals or if we discover more inspiring and exciting goals, we should not hesitate to drop some of our original goals.

Goals are personal: sharing our goals publicly should not make us feel like we have to achieve them no matter what. We don’t have to prove anything to anyone. What we do we our goals is our business.

About sharing goals: sharing goals might be a powerful way to motivate ourselves but it might backfire if we announce publicly goals are likely to change in the future. We might feel like we must accomplish them in order to keep our promise, or we might be stubborn or want to prove people that we can achieve them even when they don’t really matter anymore to us. Keep that factor in mind when you decide to share your goals. Sharing goals that are unlikely to change, like deciding to quit smoking might be a good idea but sharing other goals might not necessary be in your interest.

Some studies show that when we share our goals to someone, it tends to become part of our reality and we feel less need to work towards that goal. It is as if we already accomplished it in our mind and we didn’t need to work that hard to achieve it. Be aware of that too.

See also: Why Goal Setting Is Important? – A Powerful Method To Achieve Your Goals

My Goals For 2014 – Set Your Goals Too

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