Your Goals List

Organized| Effective Time Management

November 25, 2025•4 min read

What would make next year off-the-charts incredible for you?

Would it be a jaw dropping jump in personal income?

Would it be more free time to do whatever you want?

Would it be your mortgage business becoming the name everyone's buzzing about?

Whatever it is, business or personal, following the steps in this article will pull it closer to you.

Drifting In Life

Napoleon Hill, author of the millionaire-maker book, Think and Grow Rich, studied more than 500 of the most successful people of his time and more than 1,000 people deemed failures.

What he noticed as the #1 difference was this: the most successful people had specific, measurable, written goals they were striving to achieve and the "failures" were drifting in life with no set course of direction.

The mind is a goal-striving mechanism

When you give your mind a goal, you give it a target 🎯 and your mind says, "There's the target, I know where the target is, go to the target."

You begin to see opportunities and solutions instead of dead ends and problems.

Your confidence and enthusiasm skyrocket causing the people and resources you need to be drawn to you. (Remember, they're looking for you too!)

What Are Goals?

Goals are experiences you have not yet had, places you have not yet been, people you have not met, a level of income you have not yet achieved, a type of relationship you are not now enjoying, or having something you don't currently own.

The only limits to the number of goals you can set are the self-imposed limits of your imagination.

This is 50% of the battle:

Defining what you want out of life and putting it in writing is half the battle in getting there.

When you decide what you want and write it out on paper, you bring it to life in the physical world.

Ends Values vs Means Values

Goals are commitments and dreams are not.

Your Goals List will focus on practicalities, while your Dreams List contains remote possibilities, even fantasies, dreams so BIG that when you first write them down it appears likely it would require most of your lifetime to accomplish or experience.

Your dreams are ends in themselves and goals are normally means to an end. Your goals should be stepping stones to realizing your dreams.

For example, if your dream is to be the biggest and most respected mortgage company in your community or niche, you'll have to accomplish dozens of related goals to turn your dream into reality.

Create Goals From Your Dreams

Dreams are different from goals but both are descriptions of what you want to do with your life.

From your Dreams List, look for Dreams to turn into Goals for next year.

Make sure each goal meets one or more of these:

You will accomplish it within the next year
It's related and necessary to any goals that you would like to accomplish within the next year
You're willing to commit to it because the goal inspires you, excites you, or fulfills a strong desire

As you identify dreams you may want to commit to and convert into a goal for next year, write them down. (You're brainstorming possible goals for next year.)

Be Specific

Even goals such as better relationships or desired changes in your mindset or discipline must be stated in terms that are specific and measurable if they are to be effective.

Here are 4 questions you can ask yourself to help make nonspecific goals more specific:

What will the result look like?
What signs will help me know when I've accomplished my goal?
What am I willing to contribute or change to get the job done?
What specific commitments am I willing to make?

Goal Setting Best Practices

Make your goals specific and measurable
Make your goals believable
Handwrite your goals
State your goals as single, concise sentences beginning with action verbs
Set a realistic target date for the accomplishment of the goal next year. (Don't get hung up on the date and spend a lot of time on that.)

Now, It's Your Turn

Following the guidance in this article, create your own Goals List of at least 10 goals you would like to accomplish next year.

Don't worry about writing them perfect or the exact target date. In our next step (Crosscheck), we'll work on that and run your goals through a set of filters that's designed as a final tune-up to supercharge your goals.

What To Do Next

If you want next year to be tremendous, write down at least 10 goals you'd like to accomplish next year.

Start by going to your Dreams List. From there, create Goals that will help you realize your Dreams.

Brainstorm a bunch of goals and then trim them down to the ones you're willing to commit to.

Get your Goals List nailed down no later than Thanksgiving weekend 🦃 so you'll have time to run them through our next step and build out your plans before Christmas 🎄