Goal setting is a skill of success, with it you can achieve more than you realised. Like most skills it must be learnt to get the most from it.

Goal setting isn’t just something you can think about; it is a skill in itself. Without regularly checking and planning goals it is unlikely that those goals will ever be achieved.

If you ever travel anywhere, do you just randomly set out in any direction and hope for the best, or do you use a map or a sat nav to find your way?

This is a little like goal setting, in order to achieve the end goal you have to know the path which you will take to get there.

Many people have many many goals throughout life, however only a small amount of important ones are actually reached, and many times most aren’t even given a half decent attempt to get started.

One of the major goals in martial arts is the black belt. Usually taking between 3 and 4 years to achieve it seems at first to be a long journey, a long journey that usually gets many distractions along the way. But here is the great part of goal setting, you break it down and it becomes so much easier, you can break a goal down as much as you want and it feels like many minor victories before the great victory of the original goal is reached. That is why this major goal is achieved in smaller ‘bite size chunks’. With each level or belt achieved it an easier step closer to that big goal.

To have a goal isn’t just to say it once then expect it to magically happen. Reviewing a goal and writing a plan how to achieve said goal is a great step forward in a better life.

A great way to make goals is the SMART goal setting plan.

• S – Specific/Simple/Sensible
• M – Measurable/Meaningful
• A – Achievable/Attainable
• R – Relevant/Realistic
• T – Time

‘You have to set goals that are almost out of reach.

If you set a goal that is attainable without much work or thought,

you are stuck with something below your true talent and potential’

                                                                             Steve Garvey

Too often goals are set that are far too easy to achieve, and without the need for effort the feeling of accomplishment won’t be your reward. Goals are personal, what may seem boring, pointless or easy to some may be very important to another.

Thankfully most students at MAC have a goal in common of achieving their black belt, this means that goal is constant in your mind and always people there to help you along the journey and encourage you every step of the way.