Art, engineering, medicine—every professional achieves greatness in their field due to goal setting. But what does that even mean? How do you set goals that lead you down the path you want to take?

The End

Before you can even hope to get to your destination, you have to know where you want to end up. Pick out what you want your endpoint to be. It can be as grandiose as performing at the Grand Ol’ Opry or as simple as landing a paid gig. Don’t limit yourself but don’t pick something that would be so intimidating it causes you to quit before you start.

The Middle

With the end in mind, next, you need the major, achievable steps along the way. The easiest way to do this is to work backward. If you want to sing at the Opry, you have to be a country singer. If you want to be a country singer, you have to be discovered. If you want to be discovered, you need an agent. If you want to get an agent, you have to apply. Now you have a fleshed-out roadmap. It may not list all the details (such as time frame), but it gives you achievable goals that logically lead to one another.

The Beginning

Now it’s time to start. What is the first goal that will lead you down your path? Go after it starting today. Be sure to always remain flexible. While you might not land an agent immediately, you could land small singing gigs here and there. These then culminate in a portfolio that makes you desirable to an agent resulting in a pick up later. In the end, there are many paths to your goal but they all lead to nowhere if you never take that first step.