Goal Planning Sheet
You can download the Excel workbook right now by right clicking the link above and saving it to your computer.
In the narrow context of goal achieving, I believe that success is essentially the ethical accomplishment or attainment of one’s goals. In other words, being able to get what you need or want without violating the rights of others. In the broader context, creating a successful life involves much more than merely achieving goals. I believe you have to include elements such as character, health, peace of mind, etc.
But being able to achieve goals is a significant part of living a successful life. And achieving goals is what this page is about. And not just simple goals, but meaningful goals. Goals that make a significant positive difference in your life as well as the lives of other people around you.
I think it’s best to set your goals as BIG as you can handle. The bigger the better as far as I’m concerned. One of the major reasons for setting goals is to grow. So set goals that are big enough to stretch you, but small enough that you have a reasonable chance of attaining them.
But it is not enough to set goals. Anyone can set goals. The trick is to actually to achieve them.
I have found that to achieve meaningful, significant goals that it’s best to have a system—the simpler the better. That system starts with fully defining the goal and creating a plan for its attainment.
I have created an Excel workbook that contains the Goal Planning Sheet (GPS) that I have created for my personal use to fully define my goals and create plans for their achievement.
But this form really just provides you with a map to your goal (staying with the GPS analogy). Beyond setting the goal, you need to take action and have a way for regularly measuring your progress (at least once a week), but that is beyond the scope of this workbook.
I have found that it is best to define your goal and your plan first before designing a system for measuring your progress. The good news is that after you define your goal, it is usually easy to design a way to measure your progress towards most goals in Excel itself.
I decided to use Excel because of its flexibility. If necessary, it is easy to modify the form to fit your personal situation—even to create different forms for different goals. And it’s easy to add additional tabs when you want. And it can be self-contained. Most people can manage their entire goal planning system for an entire year in a single workbook.
Here is the link again in case you missed it:
Goal Planning Sheet
If you need help implementing/modifying this system for your personal situation, I will review your GPS for one goal if you purchase the download of the 488 Power Affirmations MP3s for $19.