Setting goals is easy but achieving them isn't.

That's why setting "SMART" goals - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely - is the first step in making your goal a reality.

Make your goal as Specific as possible and express it in positive terms. Do you want to stop losing money or do you want to start making money? How much money do you want to make?

How do you Measure success? You'll need a way to evaluate your progress and determine if you're moving towards your goal. For example, if you want to improve your finances, then you should have a way of keeping track of income and expenses.

Is your goal Achievable? Consider whether you have the resources necessary to achieve your goal. If not, you need to determine if you can assemble everything required to streamline your process. Remove any obstacles before you get started!

Realistic goals are achievable goals, unrealistic goals are just dreams. It's not necessary to be negative but take time to honestly evaluate whether you're being realistic. Losing 30 pounds in 2 weeks is not impossible but it's not very likely and certainly not healthy.

Make your goal Timely by stating a due date for your goal AND the action steps involved in achieving it.

Align your goals with your values.

If your goal doesn't reflect your beliefs and character then you'll have difficulty achieving it. And even if you do manage to get what you want, you won't be very happy.

Set a goal which is meaningful to you and be clear about the consequences of your outcome.

Applying Real-World Business Management By Exception

One of the key principles for project management success is ensuring that the PM responsibility must be matched by equivalent authority. The PM can’t be made responsible if they don’t have the ‘clout’ to make things happen.

Each individual on the project, and that includes the project manager, must be provided with a clear understanding of the Authority, Responsibility, and Accountability given to them so that their work can be accomplished.

The Project Management Plan establishes project management's interpretation of the why, what, how, who, how much, and when of the project. It's the Bible, Quran, Tanakh (select your religious text of choice) for all aspects of the project.

PRINCE stands for PROjects IN Controlled Environments.

Prince2 is a structured method for effective project management. It is a process-based approach for project management providing an easily tailored and scalable method the management of all types of projects. The method is the de-facto standard for project management in the UK and is practiced worldwide.

A Potted History of Prince

The method was established by the central computer and telecommunications agency in 1989, originally developed from a project management method created by Simpact Systems in 1975 this was originally known as PROMPTII. Four years later in 1979 it was adopted by the CCTA (know known as the Office of Government Commerce) as the standard used for all government information projects.