Every year people make new years resolutions. Many are forgotten by the end of the very month they make them. Why? Well Im sure there are many reasons but one reason is because they did not sit down and convert that resolution to a well defined and mapped out goal. Why should you set goals from your resolutions this year? Well to put it bluntly Goal setting works! In every instance of my own personal and professional life I have found that 100% of the time, no exceptions, goal setting gets me closer to my objective.

Studies have shown a direct link between goals and enhanced performance in both sports and business. I will not bore you by re-quoting the ever popular 1953 Yale study. I will however tell you about a more recently conducted study. In the study conducted in 1990 by Edwin A. Locke of the University of Maryland and Gary P. Latham of the University of Toronto, they found that specific, difficult goals consistently led to higher performance than urging people to do their best. This is because do-your-best goals have no external referent and thus are defined idiosyncratically. This allows for a wide range of acceptable performance levels, which is not the case when a goal level is specified. Put more plainly, if you do not define your goals up front then you will be far more willing to accept whatever outcome you obtain good or bad.

The authors specifically mention that goals affect performance through four means:

Goals focus focusing activities towards goal relevant activities. Deterring activities that do not bring you closer to your goal.

Goals energize high goals lead to greater effort than low goals. This energizing effect happens at both the physical and mental level.

Goals increase persistence goals increase effort in either length of time or intensity of effort. Firm deadlines lead to a more rapid work pace than do loose ones.

Goals activate the use of current knowledge as well as the discovery of new goal relevant information and tactics.

Goals activate, goals motivate, goals push, and goals focus your efforts. Goals will also increase your ability to take risk something you should always do wisely.

"People with goals succeed because they know where they are going. It's as simple as that." - Earl Nightingale

So, with all that having been said, the Top Reasons to Set Goals are

1. Goals give you a target.

As the previous study noted we all perform better when we have a specific target we are aiming at. Some would even say that we have a built in goal seeking "success mechanism." This success mechanism is constantly looking for ways and information that will help us reach our goal. It seeks answers to our problems and paths through or around our obstacles, but it needs a target to focus on.

However, in order to engage this mechanism we must give it a clearly defined goal. Without one, our success mechanism lies dormant, or worse, pursues targets we didn't consciously choose. These unconsciously chosen targets can be selected for us by the goals of others; our bosses our companies or even our adversaries for example.

2. Goals can help you concentrate your time and effort.

Having a goal that you truly desire enables you to focus and concentrate your time, your energy and all your resources to bring the goal into your reality. Having a goal will bring the things you desire into your world far faster than wishing or mere hoping ever could.

If you look at all your knowledge, abilities and available resources as sunlight. Then you can, via a magnifying glass, focus all that sunlight into a pinpointed area and generate enough heat to set things aflame. Your well-defined goal will become your magnifying glass. Enabling you to focus your current knowledge, talents and resources. Allowing you to gain new knowledge, abilities and resources. All of which will clearly bring you closer and closer to your goals. Allowing you to cut through the series of obstacles that seem to be in your way today. Crafting a path to your destination your goal - in less time and with far less effort than if you didnt have a goal at all!

3. Goals provide motivation, persistence and desire.

Our conscious purposes, plans, and tasks affect our actions. Having a well-defined plan directs your conscious actions; these actions generate motivation, which generates the next action. And so on, and so on, and so no. In addition, your focus on your goal will motivate you to get you around the obstacles and struggles that your worthy goal will put in front of you. By focusing on your goal rather that your obstacle you will be more goaded to continue reaching towards that goal rather than wallowing in your potential or realized failure.

Where does this motivation come from? It comes from your desire and purpose. It comes from all the reasons why you want to reach your goal. If you have a goal to have a million-dollar house that is not enough. You need to know why you want to have that million-dollar house. Is it going to be the showcase for all your networking events? Will it be a place for your family to feel at home no matter what happens outside those walls? Or is it going to be the house that helps solidify the neighborhood and spur the growth around it? Whatever your reason, once your why is big enough youll have to motivation to find out the how. You will continue to find the hows even past each and every obstacle placed in front of you as long as you focus on the whys.

4. Goals can provide with your Success Atlas.

Once you have your whys your hows will begin to form your road map or Success Atlas. Your Success Atlas will provide you with short-term goals and immediate tasks, all geared towards you reaching your long-term goal(s). What once seemed like an impossible goal become more and more believable, when you break it down into bite-sized goals and nibblet sized tasks. Each of these smaller goals and tasks will give you immediate feedback and motivation to take on the next goal and complete the next task. Each and every one will be moving you closer and closer to your larger goal. This feedback in invaluable in your being able to see that your making progress, or not making process and need to make changes in your direction. Not every one of your actions will give you the results you desire. This immediate feedback will enable to go back to your Success Atlas and re-map your short-term goals and tasks to incorporate this new feedback while still maintaining your long term push towards your big goal. Without a well-defined long-term goal your Success Atlas towards it this feedback would quite probably be the point at which you stop defeated!

As we move in to the New Year, take your resolutions and turn them into well defined and mapped out goals. Create a Success Atlas out of your goals that will motivate you to become the person you most desire to be come. Goals that will bring into your world all the dreams you have pondered and hoped for.

Allow me to even give you a jump start over everyone else by giving you a copy of the Success Atlas Goal System so you can convert your dreams and resolutions into life enhancing goals. As a subscriber to Success Atlas T.I.P.S. this is my gift to you as we look at the opening of this New Near!

Go to http://www.successatlas.com/Goals/GoalSystem, get your copy today and get started on living your life by design. Make this New Year the year you will look back and say that was the year it all began for me!