If you are unhappy with your current level of productivity at work or your effectiveness as a parent or household manager, allow me to suggest to you that tracking your achievements will turn your life around. Without goals and priorities, you may make it through each day and even make a little progress here and there.

That sense of achievement is a big motivator to keep on climbing those mountains of life, so it is essential to get your priorities in order and set goals, achieve, and give yourself credit every one of your successes.

To address goal setting for a wider audience, let's address the misconception that setting goals is just for your career.

This is unfortunate because at home, where we play the roles of spouse, parent, and household manager, organization and achievement are key to all other successes. To those folks I recommend to use the term "life list" instead. When it is time to put pen to paper, if you prefer, scribble "LIFE LIST" at the top of yours. Maybe even put some doodles around it. Whatever makes you excited to continue.

Your goal setting starts with brainstorming. Carve out a quiet time and place to contemplate what is important to you and what you want to achieve in your life today, as well as in the distant future. Open your mind to include your wildest dreams, regardless of cost or plausibility at the moment. From this page, draw your goals, dreams and desires and start to prioritize them.

It is time to make your lists now, so grab a pen and paper and make some headings.

A long term goal might be to buy a bigger house or become debt free. Take it a step further and in addition to "short term" and "long term", create your own categories so that every thing that came from your brainstorm has a heading under which to sit.

Achieving the goals and recognizing them is motivating. Before you know it, even your far fetched goals will be getting crossed off your list, your quality of life will be improved and you'll be motivated to set more goals.