20 Best Books on Goal Setting
We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.
Can we be honest with each other?
You set goals. Yes, you do.
You start each year off right with one of the best books on goal setting-your shiny new goal planner. Diligently, you record how many pounds you want to lose, outline your new exercise schedule, and plan how much money you are going to save for your dream vacation.
Sound familiar?
About six weeks in, you cannot even find where you put the goal planner. The thought of crushing your goals slowly becomes a distant memory.
It’s pretty clear that most of you can set goals, you just don’t always reach them. Whether they are long-term goals or short -term goals, goal management is a challenge. Is it because you lack willpower? Discipline? Or focus?
It doesn’t seem to matter if you have career goals or personal development goals, you might be going about this goal mapping all wrong. It’s time to change your approach. After all, the definition of insanity is to keep doing what you are doing, while expecting different results.
If you are reflecting on what are your goals for the future, you start with goal setting steps. The first step is to set some reading goals and shop for some New Year books on the subject.Here’s what the best coaches have to say about how to see a goal achieved. With an eye towards crushing your goals, here are some recommendations on the best books for achieving goals:
There’s no better place to start than with the legend himself-Zig Ziglar. In his newest book, Goals: How to Get the Most Out of Your Life, he outlines a step-by step process that will help you set goals that are meaningful and specific.
Another great classic is Brian Tracy’s Goals: How to Get Everything You Want — Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible. What’s special about Tracy’s ideas are that he aims to give you a system of achievement with twenty-one strategies to follow. Many successful and prosperous people point to Brian Tracy’s work as the foundation of their success, thus he comes highly recommended.
Mike Pettigrew’s The Most Powerful Goal Achievement System in the World: The Hidden Secret to Getting Everything You Want focuses on using your subconscious mind to program yourself for success. He also spends a fair amount of time encouraging the reader to put emotion behind your goals and addresses how to reach your goals more quickly. Who doesn’t want to achieve their dreams more quickly?
The One Goal: Master the Art of Goal Setting, Win Your Inner Battles, And Achieve Exceptional Results by Thibaut Meurisse is in demand because it comes with goal setting worksheets and videos to guide you through the process. It also emphasizes the proper mindset required to execute on your goals and details the psychological aspects of goal setting.
If you aren’t already familiar with the concept of S.M.A.R.T. goals, Anisa Marku’s The Art Of Setting Smart Goals: Set winning goals and live a life of abundance, success and achievement is a must read. The smart goals template helps you to create specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based goals, as well as explain why each component is critical to your future success.
Michael Hyatt is quickly becoming a personal favorite and Your Best Year Ever: A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals is one you must read. You can even get a feel for his style by listening to his interview on the Do it Scared podcast. I especially appreciate his suggestions on how to quit-proof your goals and what to do when you feel stuck.
A newer book on the subject, Dreams Goals Life: Understanding the Mentality and Approach Needed to Achieve Every Goal You Set by Brad Floyd adds a novel spin with the focus on what to do on your way to achieving the goal. Sometimes we are so so impatient to reach the goal that we forget to reflect on what we are learning along the way.
Another one debuts in 2020-Debra Eckerling’s Your Goal Guide: A Roadmap for Setting, Planning and Achieving Your Goals. Her plan offers goal planning worksheets to provide a brainstorming and task-based approach to a goal achieved.
This outstanding book, The 5 Book: Where Will You be Five Years from Today? by Dan Zadra is spectacular because it forces you to think about where you want to be in five years. The years will pass one way or another, but will you be any closer to your long-term goals? If you follow the author’s suggestions, you will have a much better chance of getting there.
If you are looking for a book to help you break down your dreams into goals, then this is the book for you: Big Dreams, Daily Joys: Set goals. Get things done. Make time for what matters by Elise Blaha Cripe.This book also teaches skills to help you be productive and a particularly good choice for those who wish to live a creative life.
Goal setting for entrepreneurs who have a day job and a side hustle can be a bit tricky because it can sometimes be difficult to figure out your priorities. In Goal Setting: The Ultimate Guide For Side Hustlers the unique requirements of goal management that incorporates a side hustle is taken into account. The authors recommend some excellent online applications to support you in tracking your progress towards your goals.
Alexander Shandorf’s Goal Setting : Productivity for Life: Choose the Right Goals for Your Success provides some new ways to hold yourself accountable for goal achievement. For instance, have you ever considered giving yourself a penalty if you do NOT reach your goal?
In Clutter to Clarity: A Simple Guide to Decluttering Your Life, Reaching Your Goals & Living Your Dreams, Angel Lee Richards addresses one of my favorite topics-decluttering. It sounds counterintuitive, but when you remove the clutter in your life-physical or emotional – it really does help you gain clarity on your goals. Read this one if you are struggling to even identify what are your goals. This is also a good choice if you often think, “I don’t know what to do with my life.”
When you’d love to hire yourself a life coach, but simply cannot afford one, you need a guide that helps you to coach yourself. Talane Miedaner’s Coach Yourself to Success: 101 Tips from a Personal Coach for Reaching Your Goals at Work and in Life is the guide you’ve been looking for. The author’s coached many Fortune 500 executives on career goals and work goals. She shares her secrets inside these pages.
Angelica Alam’s Turn Your Goals Into Action: A Simple Guide To Tracking Your Success focuses on why it is so important to track your goals and habits. She provides a step-by-step plan to write your way to success.
So you’ve been reading through this list and reflecting on the fact that there is just one problem. Following through on any of these tips or hacks requires self-discipline. Need some help getting some? Read Self-Discipline: How To Build Mental Toughness And Focus To Achieve Your Goals by John Winters.
When you want to reach your goals, one shortcut is to study successful people and their effective patterns for reaching a goal achieved. Heidi Grant Halvorson takes a social psychology approach in Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals. How do successful people do things differently than the rest of us? Learn how here.
Kevin Stebbings asked the most difficult question of all in What Do You Really, Really Want?: Discovering What Matters Most And Taking Action To Achieve Your Important Goals. If we can clearly articulate our goals, we are probably 1,000% more likely to achieve them.
For those of us that like to geek out on the science behind a goal achieving mindset, Susan Fowler’s paperback is a gem. Check out Master Your Motivation: Three Scientific Truths for Achieving Your Goals to learn how successful people program themselves to consistently reach their goals.
If you are going to reach your personal development goals, it all begins with the right habits. B.J. Fogg’s Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything provides tips on how to start with small changes to create some life-altering habits that will propel you closer to your goals.
There is no better feeling than setting a goal and enjoying the satisfaction that comes with achieving it. If you are going to reach your long-term goals, reading these best books on goal setting is an effective first step.
The key to goal achievement is realizing that the time is now. Put some of these ideas into practice to create a dazzling decade that excites you, delights you, and fulfills you. To support you in that endeavor, you might want to take a look at these personal development books. A great place to begin your journey is to explore some ideas to transform your mind. With a winning mindset, you can take on the Roaring Twenties with gusto and make it your best decade, yet.
Could you use some accountability partners that are here to cheer you on, encourage you, and provide ongoing inspiration? Join the Act 2 Mom Facebook Community and let’s reach our goals together!
