Setting goals should be an enjoyable process that allows you to peek into your future. Achieving goals should be even more enjoyable. Most people never take the time or the effort to set meaningful goals though, and this means they never achieve them either.

Here are some of the top goal setting activities that will make the goal setting and achieving journey more enjoyable:

Use your imagination:

Go back to when you were a kid in primary school. Rather than paying attention to the teacher at the front of the class, you were looking out the window and daydreaming. That’s what we all did right? I’m sure it wasn’t just me.

This was a time when we just let our imaginations run wild. I remember I was an astronaut, a champion athlete in all sports, a police officer, an inventor, and of course a fireman.

To set effective goals you need to use your imagination. Visualise yourself being who you want to be, doing what you want to do, and living where you want to live. Picture your ideal career, and your desired life. See it as clearly as possible, and write it all down. Write everything you see in your future. Those are your ultimate goals.

SMART Goals:

This is perhaps the most common of the top goal setting activities. All your goals should be SMART. No, your goals don’t think for themselves. They should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely.

Whenever you are setting any goals ensure they are SMART, and you will be setting yourself up for success.

Write down your goals:

This is one of the top goal setting activities that most people never take. They have their goals in their minds but they do not take the time or the effort to write them down on paper. Getting your goals on paper makes them clearer in your mind and reminds you of what you want.

Studies have shown that those who do write down their goals (all 3% of adults) achieve significantly more than those who do not write down their goals (the remaining 97% of adults).

If you want to give yourself the best opportunity to achieve success, make sure you write down your goals.

Give your goals a reason:

Next to each goal you have written down (you have written them down haven’t you? Haven’t you?) write down the reasons why you want to achieve that goal. The more powerful the reason you have the more motivation you will have to succeed.

If you’re feeling adventurous, write down the reasons why not achieving that goal will be painful for you.

The more powerful your reasons, the more reasons you have to succeed.

These are some of the top goal setting activities that will make your goals clearer and more meaningful. Now that you know what your goals are, you need to do just one more thing; go get them!