Imagine yourself in a car at night, driving down a long, barren road with flat empty fields along both sides. You have been driving for many hours, and you have no idea where you are headed, or if you will ever reach your destination. You don't know this because you never decided where you are going. You are just driving with no plan.

You might be enjoying the feeling you get from the freedom of the open road. However, eventually, you will begin to get frustrated and feel stressed by the uncertainty of not knowing where you are going.

Setting yourself personal and professional goals will help you set and reach your destination. If you have no goals you will eventually run out of gas along the side of that barren road.

Don't quit your day job.

I was reminded of the importance of goals as I read Sean McCabe's new book, Overlap: The Ultimate Guide to Turning Your Side Passion Into a Successful Business. McCabe is an entrepreneur who has had several successful businesses over his career. We met in-person at Jeff Goins' Tribe Conference recently and spoke more about his book. He wrote it to encourage readers to go after what they truly want to do professionally. He doesn't preach what others do about quitting your day job. Instead, he encourages you to carve out time to work on a side business that can bring you joy and reward you financially. This all begins and ends with the goals you set for yourself.

In Overlap, McCabe describes his own goal of writing the book and how he completed it in just one month. He describes his process of writing 80,000 words over two weeks. McCabe includes a clever strategy to help readers set and reach their goals.

A strategy to achieve your goals.

Begin by creating a long list of all of your life goals. McCabe recommends determining which of the goals on your list will have the biggest impact on your life if accomplished in one year. He then says to start a new list and write that one goal on the top of the page. Follow this with twenty bulleted items that will get you to accomplish that goal. Dedicate one day for each item and repeat this for twenty days. 

I would add that you might need some extra time on some of the items, but you will be surprised how little time it actually takes to complete them when you write them down. It also helps to reconsider watching YouTube and Netflix during this period because focus is key.

McCabe writes, "Successful people know what they want, and they invest every ounce of their energy in going after that one thing. You can achieve many great things in life, but you can achieve only one truly great thing at a time. If you try to pursue many goals at once, you will not succeed at any of them." He adds that you should visualize achieving your goal. He says to, see it, actualize it, and internalize the fact that it will happen. Never feel you have failed to reach your goal, just that you haven't achieved it yet.

Make an on-going list of what is effecting you positively and what's doing so negatively. Doing this will help you understand what is slowing you down from achieving your goal and what is helping.

Communicate your goals.

A key message in Overlap is to communicate your goal every day to everyone in your life. Make them associate you with the goal you plan to accomplish. It needs to be on their minds when they think of you. You can even add the people in your life to your list. Some will support you all the way, while others may try to talk you out of it or even speak negatively of your goal.

McCabe writes, "If the people in your life don't know what your goal is they can't help you achieve it." He goes on to remind his readers that we need to know the goals our friends have and do our best to support them as well. As I always say, networking is a two-way street.

Why not pull your imaginary car over right now? Fire up Google Maps or grab the old Rand McNally from the glove box. Choose your destination. You are far more likely to make your journey a success when you know where you want to arrive.

Leave a comment with your goal. Maybe we can help you get there.

It feels like it is impossible to stay focused when you work online. We get distracted by social media, email, and cat videos all of the time. When my computer isn't distracting me my iPhone is. I expect you get distracted too. I found a simple productivity tool that works, which I have made available to you here. It's the new and improved, Daily Goals Worksheet. Prepare to conquer your to do list, rock your goal setting, and achieve your personal goals and business goals.

I have used countless apps and software to help me get the work done, but I fail too often. The main problem is each time I have to open an app, I get distracted by something else on the device. I'll see a notification, status update, or my mind will wander and force me to open Reddit.

Last year, I came up with a solution to help me stay focused. It involves three ingenious innovations: paper, pen, and coffee (coffee is optional). 

My Daily Goals worksheet is simple. You print a copy for each day of the week from Monday to Friday and use a slight variation for Saturday. Print it, fill it out, and keep it in front of you all day. That's the most important part (next to filling it out) - keep it where you can see it. 

How to use the Daily Goals

8 Steps to Your Daily Goals Worksheet.

1. Sunday night decide what you need to achieve by the end of the week. Fill in this main goal for each day. This should be the same thing on each page. 

2. Decide what your main goal is for the end of the month. Keep this the same, so you can be laser focused.

3. Add each day of the week. The main document is for Monday - Friday, the other is just for Saturdays. 

4. Add a dollar sign in the box on the left if this item will earn you money. This helps you stay focused on what feeds your family (and buys you coffee).

5. Notice the "P"? The P stands for "personal". Each day of the week, add two personal goals. For example: exercise for thirty minutes, read for one hour, play soccer with junior, write a chapter, cook dinner.

6. Try to introduce two people in your network each day. Everybody knows someone who is looking for a job or is hiring. Perhaps these are people who should know one another because of similar interests. Look at your email and LinkedIn for ideas.  

7. The "B" stands for "business". Each day of the week, add six business goals. For example; follow up with John Doe, update expense report, review analytics. 

8. The tick boxes on the right are for ticking off what you get done. Feel the complete satisfaction of using a pen to check mark this area when you get the work done. You will get the work done.

On the Saturday page you will notice a slight variation. There are two business goals and six personal goals. Focus Saturdays on yourself. There is no page for Sunday. Go outside and play, get to a new movie, watch football. You have earned your free Sundays.

I know we all get interrupted. Distraction happens even with a printed daily goals worksheet in front of you all day. When you do get distracted, look back down on your desk, or up to your whiteboard or mirror (or wherever you stick your daily goals worksheet). Focus on your goals and get back to work. 

Let's make this year your most productive year yet. If you find this helpful, please share it with your friends and colleagues. 

Now go download your daily goals worksheet to get started.