In my many years of helping clients with goal setting, I’ve noticed many people underestimate the power and value of effective goal setting.

The truth of the matter is that what you focus on expands. What you focus on changes what you notice in the world around you. That’s the first step.

With a new set of smart goals, you put on a new lens and your brain moves in the right direction and filters information in and out. When you have crystal-clear, specific goals, your brain focuses on what can help you achieve those goals and filters out what will not help. When you are clear about your goals, your mind starts to pay attention to the clear goals you want to achieve.

Albert Einstein said imagination is more powerful than knowledge. When you give yourself permission to imagine what your life could be like five or 10 years from now, it can be as spectacular as your imagination will let you describe it. You give instructions to your mind to search for the information that will be relevant to the pictures you are creating in our head. Your brain will start to notice all the resources around you that will lead you to achieving your desired goal.

Your long-term goals start with smaller steps, manageable steps, and an action plan and should lead to the greatest value for everyone involved. By focusing on your personal goals and professional goals, you start to change your filters. The blueprint you create for the future can be a remarkably useful tool to help you visualize what you want to be, do, and have that you might have never dreamed possible before. The individuals living the most exciting lives and the companies typically making the biggest difference are the ones with the biggest achievable goals. It’s the best way for increasing their likelihood of success.

I have always loved this quote from Daniel Burnham, as it relates to the importance of goal setting: “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably in themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die.”

What career goals or business goals have you been working toward recently? Are your goals big enough to drive you to act? What is the next step you need to take to achieve those ambitious goals? Learn more about the goal setting process and how it can lead to personal growth and yield the best results, all while improving organizational behavior, at Achievable.com.