I like to think of goals as "peas in a pod". If your goal is too big, you'll get frustrated and give up before you even begin to gain any traction.

If you've made it this far into reading and your main goal is "I want to make a billion dollars!", please call me when you do.

Although I talked a lot about pursuing an interest in your career a lot before, setting goals really applies to all aspects of your life. You can apply this to health, relationships, money, or anything you want to achieve.

Set small goals so that they are readily achievable and encourage you to keep going (after all, they are markers of progress). In order to have direction, you also need a general direction, or an overarching theme.

This is why I like to call goal setting "peas in a pod". The small, easily achievable goals are the peas, and they are within the larger pod, the theme you are aiming for.

Let's use fitness as an example.

Say you're overweight and want to lose about 30 pounds. You eat fried foods and pop nearly everyday, and don't exercise at all.

It would be unrealistic to get out of bed and proclaim, "I want to be thin! I'll do twenty push-ups every day."

You know what will happen?

You'll get to the second (or third) push-up and say to yourself, "Ah, I give up."

Do you know what your goal was? It wasn't a pea, it was an entire elephant!

So start with a pea. Something like, "I'll substitute my pop for water at least twice this week." Once you can do that regularly, set another goal.

The overarching "pod", or theme, is to lose 30 pounds, with small goals in subsequent steps.

The reason why this works so well is because there is the vision of a large accomplishment to look forward to, but also small goals to remind ourselves of our progress.

Here's another technique that is incredibly useful to keep you from straying from your goals.