It is often said (with good reason) that you should have goals (personal and business), preferably written, but why?

The first thing you need to know is  what Success is.

The origin of the word Success is from the mid 16th century: from Latin successus, from the verb succedere ‘come close after’ (ref )

To come close to what?
Well that is where each individual or business has it’s own definition which will vary depending on the time frame you are looking at. To achieve or to come close, you need to know what you are aiming for and when you will get there.

Without one or both of these criteria you will always wonder if you have ‘come close’ or are still wide of the mark.
Therefore may achieve lots but you will never really know if you have succeeded.

In my last post ‘Where do you think you are going?‘ I asked you to answer the rephrased question of ‘Where do you want to be’ so you already have the outline of one of the criteria.

Which leads me nicely to asking you ‘When do you want to be there?’ : Tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, 5 years.

I will give you a day or so to think about these two components of success before moving on. In the meantime, you can follow @aimtosucceed on twitter, or our Like the AIM to Succeed fanpage on facebook, to ensure you get notified about future posts.