Goals are a unique combination of:
Tactics—what do I need to do to accomplish this goal?
Aspiration— what can I accomplish if I put my mind to it?
Faith— I believe that I can accomplish this goal.
Commitment  - I’m going to dedicate part of my resources to making this goal happen.
 
Setting goals require an ability to balance the need to be realistic while also reaching for something you aren’t quite sure how to get to – something that isn’t within your current comfort zone. 

Then, once you’ve set that goal – you need to stop focusing on it. Focusing on the goal – on the end state will not propel you from here to there. Instead, you need to start to identify the steps that you are going to take to get you there. What is the next step you can take to move you toward your goal?
 
There are also some tools that you can use to help you keep on track:

• 1% - the concept of 1% is that you will eventually achieve your goal by making 1% progress each week. If you goal seems overwhelming, remember the 1%
• Tell somebody—if you tell somebody about your goal, you are going to feel more accountable for following through.
• Reward yourself along the way—the goal is the big prize, but each accomplishment along the way should be celebrated in some way.

Annual Reviews are universally dreaded. There are some good reasons for that, but one of the areas that you can really impact is to reduce the amount of time it takes for you to write your self-review. Our process documents your accomplishments each month so that at the end of the year, you’ve already got a list of everything you accomplished. No need to try and remember back to what you did last February.
 
Step 1: Put time on your calendar for the end of each month to do the review. By blocking out the time, you’ll 1) have a monthly reminder to document what you did that month and 2) already have the time allocated to getting it done.
Step 2: Document your accomplishments each month. Don’t worry about if they are significant or not – you can determine that at the end of the year.
Step 3: At the end of the year, review all of the accomplishments you documented and determine the best way to summarize them in your review.

• Many of the accomplishments will become examples that support a specific objective
• Some of the accomplishments will not be included in the review at all
• Some of the accomplishments will be an objective of their own
• Some of the accomplishments will be basic expectations – your ‘day job’ and may not get called out in an annual review, but it is important that you list them since you will want to be able to show your manager that you met baseline expectations.