Step 3: CFL Goal Setting

“The absence of a goal is like aimlessly shooting to hit an unidentified target.”
Marcela Bennett

CFL Goal Setting is a simple technique for setting and achieving your goals. It’s an easy way to identify your most important goals and then work towards their achievement. CFL is really an acronym for, “Current Goals,” “Future Goals,” and “Lifetime Goals.” I’m going to recommend you set goals in each of these important categories.

CFL – Current Goals, Future Goals, Lifetime Goals

1. Current Goals – These are the 1-5 goals you are currently working towards achieving. Your Current goals may be things like, Run a Marathon, Graduate College, or Buy a House. These goals are currently your main focus. They have most of your attention.

   Each one of these goals should have a plan attached to them. Your plan should be the how to the goal. How are you going to achieve this goal. What actions do you need to take to move closer to it. You should be taking some kind of daily action towards these goals.

2. Future Goals – These are the goals that you want to do once you’ve accomplished your Current Goals. These goals are basically “On Deck.” Let’s say you have a goal to Run a Marathon, and after you’ve done that you want to try a Triathlon. I would write down, Complete a Triathlon, as a goal in my future goals. Once I was ready to train for the triathlon I’d move it up to my Current Goals, and develop a plan to achieve it.

   While a goal is in the Future Goals category you should do your best not to take action on it. It may be tempting to spend a few minutes working on a Future Goal because it’s new and exciting. Do not fall into this trap. This leads to unfulfilled goals and an unfulfilled life. If you set a goal you should stay determined to accomplish it.

3. Lifetime Goals – Lifetime Goals are all the things you’d like to do before you die. This is like a laundry list of things you’d like to see or accomplish. These goals may be so big that they need to eventually be moved to the Current Goals category. An example of this would be, Climb Mt. Everest. However, often these goals can be easily achieved. Maybe you have a lifetime goal to go Sky Diving. This could easily be accomplished on a weekend afternoon.

   Your Lifetime Goals should be the biggest category of goals. It’s important for you to write all the little things you want to do down. I’d take a good amount of time analyzing these goals. I’d write down as many adventures as you can imagine. Don’t limit yourself in this category.

Don’t forget to download the CFL Worksheets so you can easily fill in all your goals. They can be downloaded here: CFL 5 Worksheets