Did you know that there is a scientific formula that states if you put in 15% of the ground work then 80% of the task will take care of itself - due to the butterfly effect! This is not just personal development spin. If you put in place solid foundations then the house you build will not fall down!

This is why we hear so many personal development stories where someone has a set a goal and worked hard to achieve it taking small personal development steps each day, week and month to get closer to their goal. All of a sudden the goal, almost miraculously, materializes. Everyone thinks that this person is lucky but it isn't so. They laid the groundwork and the butterfly effect took over.

Now the butterfly effect is in fact chaos theory. It states that small changes made now can have a massive effect later - if a butterfly flaps its wings in Tokyo there may be a tornado in Florida a few weeks later.

In personal development this chaos or butterfly effect can be used to our advantage. By setting goals and taking small steps to reach them we can have huge results later.

Follow these 4 simple rules when you set goals:

1. Think of something that you really want to achieve or acquire. Turn that desire into a personal development goal.

2. Think of a personal development plan that will help you to reach your goal.

3. Set stepping-stone goals. Disect your personal development goal by setting smaller goals from it that build on one another until you have achieved the main personal development goal. Create daily and weekly goals that you know you can achieve. This is real personal development. You are developing yourself by achieving small steps. These small steps will keep leading you towards your ultimate personal development goal.

4. Work with the butterfly effect. Take small steps or small actions that may have tremendous long-term effect. For example, a well-known personal development "guru" wrote one article and posted it to his site. He did no more work on it!

The short, but well written and knowledgable, personal development article spawned thousands of duplicates as it was posted on blogs and websites by interested website visitors. Before long the writer was asked to produce the content of the article in an in-depth personal development book. This was the butterfly effect in action!

Follow these personal development steps to goal setting and you will be surprised at the results you get!