Let me be very blunt.  Goal setting can ruin your life.

Learning to set and achieve goals is a fundamental part of achieving success in life, and that includes making money online.  However, setting goals and then doing nothing to achieve them is kind of like turning on the propane gas on your BBQ and not lighting the burner.  You can cause an explosion.

Whenever I’ve found myself frustrated and depressed in life, it has always been the result of having some kind of goal or desire to achieve or have something in life, but not being able to do what’s necessary to get it.

There are billions of people on this earth who have absolutely no desire to make money online.  They don’t even know such a possibility exists.  They go to work every day, without the frustration of what it feels like to want to make money online and not being able to.  They may not love their jobs, but they also have no entrepreneurial desires like you and I.  Because of this, they don’t suffer.

The secret to properly utilizing the amazing power of goal setting in your life is to set goals and then to achieve goals, not just to spend your time setting goal after goal, and never achieving any of them.  That is a recipe for frustration and disappointment that will slowly chip away at your self confidence and eventually ruin your life.

How to Get and Achieve Things

Here’s a simple truth that warrants being etched into our brains:

Getting and achieving the things we want in life is a result of thinking and acting in a certain way, for a certain period of time.

It sounds very simple, but the application of this simple truth eludes most people.

If you set a goal to achieve something, such as for example to make your first $500 online as a Blogger or Affiliate Marketer or the author of your own Digital Products, you must follow this simple truth in order to achieve your goal.

In order to make that $500, you must think in a certain way, and you must act in a certain way, for a certain period of time in order to reach that goal.  What most people do is that they set a goal such as making their first $500 online, and then they continue to think and act the way that they’ve always thought and acted and they expect to magically get different results.

Let me simply things even further:

People who make money online think and act differently than those who don’t.

Once again this sounds very obvious, but most people (including myself for a period of time) just don’t get it.

The way I think today, and the way I act today is different from the way I thought and acted a couple of years ago when I was trying to make money online as a Blogger but wasn’t succeeding very much.

Once you set some goals to make money for yourself, whether it be as a Blogger or an Affiliate Marketer or some other way, it’s time to start looking at your thinking.  You need to start asking yourself “How do people who make money in this way think?”, “What do I need to change about my thinking to think this way?”

This is not an easy thing to do.  I struggle with it myself all the time.  I’m looking at Affiliate Marketers who are making six figure incomes PER MONTH, and trying to wrap my head around their way of thinking.  I know that the reason I’m only making ~$7,000/month as an affiliate marketer at this moment is because I am thinking and acting like a $x7,000/month affiliate.

I know that in order to get to the $100,000/month mark I need to change the way I think and the way I act, otherwise I’ll never get there.  Being aware of this gives me a huge advantage, because even though I’m not thinking and acting that way yet, at least I know I need to change and I’m looking for those things that I need to change.

Most people have their heads stuck in the sand, and they set goals like “I want to make money online” without realizing that how they think and how they act will have to change in order for them to achieve this.

Magical Thinking

Goal setting can ruin your life if you make the mistake of thinking that setting goals is the same thing as achieving them.  Setting goals is just a part of the equation.  It’s necessary in order to be very clear on your intentions, but it doesn’t do much for you if that’s all you do.

A lot of people will set goals and then sit back to see what happens.  Setting goals doesn’t change anything.  The magic Internet tooth-fairy is not going to magically make your Blog start generating $100,000/month just because you set a goal to do so. 

Don’t set goals and then sit back waiting for something “out there” to change to accommodate for your goals to come to fruition without any change in the way you are thinking and acting day to day.  It’s not going to happen.

You’re just going to find yourself frustrated, depressed and annoyed with yourself because you set a goal and now you desire it’s fulfillment but you’re not making any progress towards it.  Very quickly you’ll find yourself a grump that nobody wants to be around.  If you weren’t serious about reaching your goals, you probably would have been better off not to even set them.  At least you would have saved yourself a lot of frustration.

The Universe Moves With You

Now, once you set some goals and become really committed to achieving them, you will find yourself willing to change your thinking, willing to change your actions, and willing to be patient enough to keep thinking and acting in that certain way until you produce the result you wanted.

When you’re in that space, you will find that almost magically things "out there” seem to shift and move in accordance to some kind of universal system that does bring about the achievement of your goals in ways you never dreamed of when you started, but to tap into this universal movement it must first come from within you by changing the way you think and the way you act.

In other words, don’t set goals and then sit on the sidelines waiting for them to appear in front of you.  Grab the bull by the horns and really start to dive into refining the way you’re thinking and the way you’re acting, in order to get what you want.

Life is not a passive form of entertainment like watching TV or a movie.  Get off your butt and do something.  You’ll be amazed how powerful setting and achieving goals can be in your life when you actually implement both sides of the coin, instead of just setting goals and sitting around depressed and frustrated waiting for them to achieve themselves.