When people decide to set goals, most of the time they follow a basic pattern: 1) they decide what they want, 2) they come up with an action plan to get what they want, and 3) they work the plan. 90% of the time, this method works - people generally set pretty low, short-term goals, and this plan of attack works best with goals that aren't complicated. If a goal isn't achieved by this method, people will throw the goal out the window, citing it was ?too much work? or a variety of other excuses.



But what about that other 10% of goals? Surely there has to be a way to achieve those goals - many people have set tough goals that were achieved. What were those people doing differently than the others? The answer is simple: they were assessing their resources before they made their plan.

Assessing what resources you have at your disposal before you plan out your goal aids you in several ways. You're more likely to make informed decisions and better plans to achieve your goal quicker. You're also more likely to get better, more specific help from others than if you were to blindly run head first into a plan.

Assessing resources comes in two main steps:

1. First, you have to take a good look at what resources you have to work with.

2. Next, you have to decide on if you want to improve what you have, or get another resource that you need.

Look at what resources you have to work with.

The resources at your disposal will always fall into one of five categories: your personal skills, your personal resources, other people's skills, other people's resources, and your environment.

1. Your personal skills. Your personal skills are the skills that are unique to you. This can range from things like self discipline, to mastery on the bass guitar, to being great at calculus.

2. Your personal resources. Your personal resources are the material objects (and related items) that you personally own. This includes things such as owning TV, having a high speed internet connection, and so on.

3. Other people's skills. Other people's skills are just that - other people's skills. When assessing what resources you have, we normally look at what skills other people have that you don't have.

4. Other people's resources. Same as above - this category consists of other people's resources.

5. Your environment. The last category is your environment. It includes the city you live in, what kind of weather you encounter throughout the year, what kind of people you run into, and so on.

When people claim there are a variety of ways to achieve the same goal, it's because they are looking at solutions through various resources. For example, if I wanted to take a set of great pictures of myself, I could filter my problem through the different resources:

1. My personal skills: I can set up a timed camera to take the pictures and do it myself.

2. My personal resources: I can spend money and buy a new, updated camera to use.

3. Other people's skills: I can pay to have my pictures taken at a professional place.

4. Other people's resources: I can borrow somebody else's camera and take pictures myself.

5. My environment: I can leave the city and find somebody who can take the kind of pictures that I want to have.

Most of the time, after assessing what you have, you can get a pretty clear idea of what would be the optimal action to take. This method can also be used for brainstorming - you can brainstorm three different solutions, and get an even wider variety of solutions. (As a side note, each category isn't all inclusive; as you can see, there's a little bit of overlapping in between.)

How can you improve on what you have and get what you need?

Sometimes the resources we have aren't up to par. We might be lacking in something to make our dreams come true. If I wanted to be the world's best public speaker, but I have severe stage fright, that's a severe handicap that I need to overcome before I can continue.

Finding the solution to overcome your problems can be tricky, but often times the solution is right under your nose. For improving personal skills, there are a variety of ways to achieve a level of competence. You might take guitar lessons if you would like to be a folk singer. Or, you might join Toastmasters if you want to become better at speaking. The library is full of books devoted to anything you want to learn; perhaps a trip out to your local one is in order. Improving personal resources normally involves money - it's all about getting or upgrading what you own. If you want to become a top chef and you're cooking ware is looking falling apart, maybe an upgrade is needed before you can seriously go on.

Improving other people's skills is a bit trickier. Sometimes this includes shopping around at different places - as with the example before, if you want to become a folk singer and need to learn guitar, maybe you have to go around to six different guitar teachers before you find one who's skill and experience is what you are looking for. The same applies to other people's resources - you may have to knock on five of your friend's doors before you find the item that you're looking for.

Changing your environment is the easiest category to immediately change - anybody can get in their car and start driving anywhere, whenever they want to. Becoming a famous actor or actress is a dream for many, but you probably won't have much luck fulfilling that dream in Kansas; you'd have better luck in Los Angeles or New York City.

Take a moment now to look at one of your main goals, and brainstorm different solutions based on the five types of resource categories I've listed. Are there several different solutions you can employ to achieve your dreams quicker?