The fifth step in the Ten Basic Rules for Successful Goal Setting is…

The action steps are always more

important than the goal itself

This is a very important piece to learn in the Ten Steps. Like I’ve said in previous posts, most people who set goals go directly to work on the goal itself without taking into account the obstacles and action steps. The reason the action steps are always more important than the goal itself is because they are like smaller goals that lead to the bigger goal. When you figure out the action steps to overcome the obstacles you are breaking the goal down into smaller, more attainable sub goals. That makes the process easier and the goals easier to accomplish. 

The other reason is that sometimes the action steps can become goals that will have their own obstacles and action steps. Let me give you an example. Let’s say your goal (as a loan officer) is "to fund 6 loans in a month" and you plan on doing that with a brand new product. One of your obstacles to that goal is that you don’t know much about the new product. So the action step then becomes "to learn about the new product." In the process of learning about the new product you find that there’s a lot more to it than you originally thought. It’s OK to then make "learning the new product" a goal itself. Then you do the same process as before – what are the obstacles to learning the new product and then each of those obstacles have their own action steps. Are you beginning to see it?

Once you get this process down you’ll be setting and reaching goals like crazy!

I know you can do it and I believe in you!