heres an email i recieved tonight from a website i subscribe to. I like the approach and will incorporate it into my plan. it also relies heavily ona process very similar to NLP.

Goal Setting, Really?Goal setting is an important piece of any changes that you make in your life. Whenever you get started making changes in any way I am sure that you have found that the giddiness that you feel at the beginning feels like it will keep you going as long as it takes. After a while we all know that doubts creep in and before you know it the excitement is replaced by doubt and the things that seemed important now feel like a chore. Well if we start every new plan by setting goals correctly we will have more than a fighting chance once the excitement fades we will have A PLAN. Goal setting is a simple process, you decide what you want, make lists of why you want your goals as well as a list of what could stop you, make a plan decide what you will use as goal posts as you move toward the goal and finally once you reach your goal you celebrate the achievement. Let's try this out with a weight loss goal: Goal, to lose 30 pounds Why, to feel and be more healthy, prove to myself I can do anything What could stop me, people offering food, bad weather for workouts, tiredness Plan, to do cardio 3 days a week and weights 2 days a week, to cut the size of my meals, to cut out all sugar except for once a day, get lots of sleep to rest from the changes and workouts Goal posts, lose 2 pounds per week, 30 pounds should be lost in 15 weeks, adjust diet and exercise as needed Celebrate, after finishing this weight loss get a family picture taken with me in new clothes .This goal setting system is almost fool proof, the only thing that you should add if you can is a partner and someone that you can talk to about your progress, a spouse maybe or a personal trainer if it is a exercise goal. Now go forward and make some goals! One more thing that I learned from listening to Tony Robbins is that when you do make a goal don't leave the site of a goal without taking an action towards it's attainment.There is a concept called SMART goals that I want to quickly outline so that from now on in your life any wish can really be converted to a goal. A smart goal is Specific, measurable, acceptable, realistic and has a time attached to it.Specific: Provide enough detail so that there is no indecision as to what exactly you should be doing when the time comes to do it. A goal of: "Study biology" is poor. Should you be reading your text? If so, what pages? Or should you be looking over your lecture notes? A much better goal would be: "Read pp. 12 - 35 in biology text, write questions in the margin of text, and practice answering those questions after reading." Measurable: Your goal should be such that when you are through you have some tangible evidence of completion. It feels good to see something there in front of you indicating a job well done. Equally important, you will be able to prove to yourself that you were successful and your time wasn't wasted. The end result of a goal such as "Read Chapter 3" cannot be reliably assessed. Did you fully understand the words when you looked at the pages? A much better goal would be: "Read Chapter 3 and then write a summary from memory." The summary would indicate that you in fact did read the chapter and would allow you to evaluate your degree of understanding. Producing tangible evidence requires ACTIVE studying on your part, which research clearly suggests will produce superior learning and retention. Acceptable: Your goal should be set by you rather than by someone else. You know best your strengths and weaknesses, and can use this information to maximize your chances of success. Realistic: Don't plan to do things if you are unlikely to follow through. Better to plan only a few things and be successful rather than many things and be unsuccessful. Success breeds success! Start small, with what you can do, experience the joys of meeting your goal, and only then gradually increase the amount of work that you ask of yourself. Setting goals in which every minute in the day is accounted for is unrealistic; unplanned events will crop up and wreak havoc with your schedule. Give yourself some flexibility. Time frame: Say when you plan to work at your goal, e.g., between 4:00 - 5:00 p.m. Anything that will take you more that two hours to complete, break into smaller, more manageable chunks. What to do today and tomorrow I want you to think hard about why you subscribed to these emails. Did you want to lose weight? How much weight? Sid you want to get stronger? How much stronger? Is there unhealthy parts of your life that you need to make changes to?Make a list of these and fall the rules above for setting SMART goals and get your doubts out of the way and figure out what you really want.