How do I set goals that actually happen?

Number one is we have to start with goals. If we don't start with goals, we don't know where we're going. One of the things about that is that goals need to be explicit. So many times people speak in nebulous terminology, like, I want to make more money. Well, how much more is that? Or, I want to get married. Well, what's the timeline for that, or when are you hoping to see that happen? Or, I need to get a new career, or I want to go to college. Whatever the goal is, it needs to be explicit. And you really need a timeline. Six months, one year, five years. You oftentimes cannot get to where you're going overnight. That's not reality. So if somebody's making $45,000 a year, they can say, hey, you know what, I would like to increase my earnings by 10 to 15% every year, so that in a year I'm making, say, $50 to $55,000. Within five years I'm making $80 to $90,000. It's not realistic to say I make $45,000 a year and next year I'm hoping to make $120,000. This is the often quoted adage, the twenties are for learning, the thirties are for earning. It takes time to build these things up. Likewise, if we want to get in shape, we need to know explicitly what those goals are. Is my goal to bench 225 pounds? If so, where am I today, and what kind of incremental progress and markers do I need to hit in order to get there? So explicit goals, that's what we need. Then we need to reverse engineer those goals. If I'm hoping to get here, I have to take these steps beforehand. If somebody says, well, I want to be a lawyer. Well, what's the timeline for being a lawyer? They say it's five years. Okay, what do we need to do to reverse engineer that? We need to go to school, we need to apply to schools, we need to pass the bar exam. Everything should be put in order and easily written out so that you can see that. This goes for relationship goals, character building goals, the spiritual life. Everything should have a goal to it, and that goal should be tangible and explicit.