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Goals can be related to your work, to your family life or to life in your community. They might even relate to playing a role on the world stage. Whatever the case, it is only once you have set yourself a goal that you can plan how to translate it into reality.

Your goal might be, for example, “to become a partner in this firm by the age of 30”, or “to spend 50% more time with my family” or “to help underprivileged children”. Whatever the goal, once you have settled on your main objectives, you can begin to break them down into smaller steps to enable them to be realized.

case study Five years ago, Alex knew he wanted to work in Thailand: that was his dream and passion. He was already qualified as a teacher in his home country, but he needed further training to refine his skills and learn the local language. He couldn’t give up his full-time job, so he decided to spend an evening every week for two years learning the local language from a friend, and studying the background and culture of the country. His focused, practical steps taken towards this long-term goal eventually paid off, and Alex is now teaching in Thailand with a real sense of fulfilment.

A useful exercise at this stage is to prepare a pattern diagram of the various activities surrounding your goal. This is a diagram you creatively draw that captures what you perceive to be the main aspects of your central idea. To do this, you should:

 Take a blank sheet of A4 paper, arranging it in landscape format.

 Write your central goal (a word or a few words, not a whole sentence) in the middle of the paper.

 Write around that central word other key words that relate to it.

 Keep branching out various other aspects of the goal that come into your mind.

 If you get stuck at any point, answer the fundamental questions: who?, why?, where?, what?, when? and how? Doing this will stimulate your thinking process.

 At this stage, do not reject any thoughts.

 You can colour different key words to show which relate to each other.

 You can number the different key words, too, in order of importance.

Hopefully you’ll find it a useful way to think about your goals, what other aspects of your life they may affect, and get a clearer picture of what steps you’ll need to take to achieve them.

Define your goals and think creatively about the different aspects of them.