Here are some things you should consider when making goals. Goals must be clearly defined if you are going to succeed. Simply stating you want to lose weight is not the way to go if you want to reach your goal. Goals should be measurable and have a time-frame. Therefore, a goal to lose 20 lbs in 14 weeks, meets all these requirements. You must be willing to be committed and have focused effort. These five steps below will help you achieve the goals you want to reach.

1. Set Your Goal - Determine what specific goal(s) you want to achieve. Make only 1 or 2 goals for greater success.
2. Develop a Plan - Your plan should include several small steps.
3. Develop a Sincere Desire - Desire is the greatest motivator of human action.
4. Develop Supreme Confidence in Yourself and Your Own Abilities - Concentrate on your strengths and powers, don't think about defeat.
5. Develop Determination to Follow Through on Your Goal - Be determined with sustained effort, controlled attention, and concentrated energy. Forget about obstacles, criticism, circumstances, and what people say or think.

In the process of achieving goals, your behavior changes. Behavioral psychologists report that it takes 21 days to establish a pattern and 100 days to make it automatic. Therefore, if you get through the first 3 months, you will have made it through this behavioral change process. That is why it is so important to stick with your plan, don't quit in February. Some factors that play a role in the behavioral change process are identified here.

1. Knowledge - Knowing is doing or not believing.
2. Attitude - A positive attitude is essential. Affirmations, positive statements you make to yourself, can effectively improve your attitude. Put them on your mirror to view daily.
3. Motivation - Only you can motivate yourself. It must come from within or internally.
4. Self-Confidence - Those that are self-confident can change. Don't dwell on past failures. Learn from them and go on.
5. Behavioral Analysis - Self-monitoring your behavior, exploring your motives, tracking your progress and assessing your attitude along the way will all help you succeed.
6. Persistence - A persistent person is determined to succeed and has a willingness to learn from problems and mistakes.
7. Skill Building - You need specific skills to facilitate changes. Skills that are helpful in behavioral programs include: being able to make a plan, solving problems, adjusting the plan as needed, and preparing for set-backs or for things that throw you off target.

Now it becomes time for you to take the necessary steps that will help you reach your goals. Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe, and enthusiastically act upon.... must inevitably come to pass!