Know Your Goal is the second of the Five Golden Rules for Effective Action. Together with the first rule it determines your course of action.

Just equally important as knowing the exact starting conditions is being able to exactly define where you want to go. Like when you are planning to drive to Las Vegas, you can easily calculate the distance and time it would take, but you may end up stranded in Sin City if you don’t know the booked Hotel or the street address of your accommodation. Knowing the rough goal will bring you 99% close, but not more.

Many of us want to change their life, find a better job, live healthier, earn more money, or be more successful, only to realize months later that seemingly nothing has changed. We can’t come up with a decisive action plan when the goals are only vague like in these examples. (more…)