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We all have things we want to accomplish in life and, for the most part, we do our best to achieve those goals. Sometimes, however, we manage to set goals that aren’t effective or achievable and this can cause us a great deal of strife.

How do you know if your goals are effective and achievable?

The first thing to do is jot down the resources you’ll need to attain your goal, both physical resources and mental ones. If there’s something you need to complete before you can make your goal a reality, prioritize the steps you must take to complete that task first.

Once your resources are in place, you’ve opened up the highway for achievement. Let’s see how to enter the on-ramp so you can be on your way!

Here are some strategies you can use to create effective goals you can achieve:

1. Make sure your goal is specific. Set a measurable goal so you can reach it and succeed. Determine exact numbers and dates of whatever it is you want to accomplish.

* Saying your goal is to be a faster runner or a better cook doesn’t work since there is no specific end target. You won’t be able to judge if you’ve ever reached that goal because, no matter what, there’s always room to be better at something.?

* On the other hand, saying your goal is to "increase your running speed by shaving 10 seconds off the time it takes you to run your course" is specific and you can tell when you’ve reached it.

2. Your goal must also be attainable and realistic. You wouldn’t set your goal to lose 30 pounds in the next 5 days, because it’s just not realistic. Setting a goal to lose 30 pounds over the next 10-12 weeks is a real and attainable goal.

* Unattainable goals are counterproductive. Not only can you never complete an unattainable goal, but it can also prevent you from even trying. By setting a goal you cannot possibly meet, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

3. Give yourself a time limit for your goal. Setting a deadline makes the goal a priority, keeps it in your mind, and makes it easier to achieve. If you know you only have a specific time in which to achieve something, you tend to focus more time and energy on that task.

* If you have a big goal, then divide it into smaller goals, or steps. Smaller goals keep you focused on attaining the bigger goal as long as they’re related to each other.?

* For example, if your goal is to be promoted in six months, then establishing six one-month goals designed to improve your work performance will contribute to the overall goal.

4. Write down your goals. Most people have more than one goal at a time. You can set goals in many different areas: family, work, health, education, hobbies, or any part of your life in which you’d like to make changes.

The question is how to handle all these goals at the same time. Writing down each goal can help you organize them and better motivate you to work toward achieving them.

* Once you have them written down, you may see ways they connect to each other and can devise ways to work on them at the same time.

* For example, let’s say one goal you have is to get a job making more money and another is to continue your education. Once you complete your education you should be able to land a better job. See how one goal feeds another??

* Perhaps one goal is to spend more time with your family and another one is to workout. Well, if you exercised as a family once or twice a week, you’d accomplish both goals at the same time.

Using these goal-setting tips will make your goals more effective and achievable. Once you’ve created your objectives, make a plan of action steps and stick with it. In time, you’ll achieve these goals and you will have a system in place for any endeavor!

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Did you ever feel like you wanted to join the Procrastinator’s Club, but never quite got around to it? At some point in time, procrastination plagues us all, some more than others, but everyone at some point gets a bite from the bug.

We’ve all heard the quote, “Why put off till tomorrow what you can do today?” For some of us, this is the only motivation we need, while others struggle with putting things off for weeks, months, or even years.

Procrastination doesn’t have to be a way of life for you; you can overcome it. With a little focus and the right attitude, coupled with some practical tips and techniques, procrastination can be a thing of the past.

Here are five strategies you can use today to help you bite the procrastination bug back:

1. Set small goals. Many times, we feel overwhelmed with a task, so we continue to put it off until we have no choice but to complete it.

Now throw on all the new projects we received while we were putting off the first project, and you have a prime equation for some serious procrastination.

Setting small, quickly achievable goals can help you avoid procrastinating in the first place so you don’t get overwhelmed. Here are some tips for setting those small goals:

* Break your big project up into smaller steps. These steps can be completed systematically one at a time. Make sure you have well-defined end points for each smaller goal, that way you have something to keep you going.

* Setting small goals provides you a nonstop feeling of accomplishment as they’re attained. With each individual success, you feel better about yourself, and this motivates you to continue.

* Giving yourself break points allows you to focus on each individual task and takes the overwhelming feeling out of the job. In addition, they give you a prime place to get up, move around, and refresh yourself for the next step.

2. Avoid distractions. We all do it. We sit down to start working, but have to get back up and grab some coffee. Then we sit back down and check email, then voicemail, and then email again just to make sure no one sent a message while we were checking the voicemail. How long did that take?

* Try checking your email only twice a day instead of every 5 minutes. You need to have some time to focus!

* Get everything you want, need or think you need before you sit down to start working so you can concentrate.

3. Delegate. Start giving some of your responsibilities to others instead of hogging them for yourself and creating more stress. Stress leads to procrastination, procrastination leads to tight deadlines, and tight deadlines lead to more stress; it’s a vicious cycle.

4. Keep a list. A constant reminder of the things you absolutely need to do is a great way to avoid procrastination. A small pocket notebook or even a note card works wonders for list keeping.

* Keeping a list puts your daily to-dos in front of you at all times for quick reference.

* Include your small goals on your list. Get started early each day completing those small, easy goals. Doesn’t it feel great to scratch through the things you’ve completed? Before you know it, the whole list is marked off!

5. Turn it off. When you’re done for the day, shut down everything work related. Don’t take it home if you can help it. Turn your brain off at the end of your workday. By giving your brain a break, you help avoid over exhaustion and keep your mind fresh for the next day.

* Spend some time doing the things you love to recharge your batteries for the next day.

Pick one or two of these techniques and try them out for three weeks. Studies have shown it takes 21 days to form a habit and if you truly want to beat procrastination, you have to make productivity a habit.

When you’ve made a habit of one of the strategies, pick out another one, and before you know it, you’ll be the personification of productive!

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Why did Ray Kroc’s plan for McDonald’s thrive when all the other burger joints failed? How can we apply his lessons to Krispy Kreme? How did Walt Disney’s most dismal day as a young cartoonist radically change his career direction? When Estée Lauder was a child in Queens, New York, the average American spent $8 a year on toiletries. How did she spot an opportunity in high-priced cosmetics? Why did she pound on the doors of Saks? How did Thomas Watson, Jr., decide to roll the dice and put all of IBM’s chips on computing, when his father thought it could be a losing idea?

Todd Buchholz’s excellent book uncovers the secrets behind the success of the great CEOs through their lives and personal stories. Readers are taught about these CEOs’ biggest challenges and failures, and how they successfully rode the waves of demographic and technological change.

This book blends the lives and the business challenges of the featured CEOs in order to expose their strengths and the circumstances they had to overcome. It features CEOs who relied on more dependable, more human drives. Drives that took them on fascinating rides. Extraordinarily fresh and deeply thoughtful, “Lasting Lessons from the Corner Office” is a truly enjoyable and fun—yet serious and realistic—look at what we still have to learn and absorb from these former CEOs.

Here is an excerpt from the book regarding Estee Lauder and and the trail she blazed – plus some lasting lessons from her experience, as determined by Buchholz.

What kind of woman was Estee Lauder? She was tirelessly ambitious, determined, and elegant, and she could be exquisitely bitchy.

From the house of Ash Blondes, Estee Lauder began building a clientele of socialites. Later she moved into department stores.

But what made Estee Lauder different from all other entrepreneurs who tried to peddle their creations? Let’s now take a look at the new and lasting ideas of Estee Lauder that businesses must still heed today:

- Take aim at your target customer. Those little mailing cards apparently worked well. She was both tireless and tired as she hopped from train to bus, always looking her most elegant. She would befriend every beauty editor at every local magazine and newspaper, hoping to gain a mention in the society column or the shopping circular.

- Even the rich like freebies. When Estee was pitching Saks in 1946, she unveiled an innovation that continues to remake retailing: the free gift. Today, any woman can walk into Nordstrom looking pale and plain, yet emerge with a makeover worthy of a Vogue photo shoot. Perhaps Estee had to give away free samples. It was the only kind of promotion her company could afford, considering its small revenue base. Unlike some of her imitators who reluctantly gave away inferior gifts and scuffed-up samples from last year’s colors, Estee insisted that her customers receive only the best and the latest.

When Estee Lauder was a teen, she thought she knew what she wanted from life: her name in lights. She briefly tried acting. Instead she got her name on a bottle and on a thousand billboards in dozens of languages. There was not much that Estee Lauder did not achieve in her near century.

She was awfully smart, staggeringly determined, but also willing to think quickly on her feet. Once, as an older woman, she looked in the mirror and realized that she wasn’t happy with what she saw, so she swapped her ruby-and-diamond tiara for a more suitable gold-and-diamond crown.

“You know how it is,” she told a New York Times reporter. “You have to wear something.” And now millions wear Estee Lauder.

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