Do you have goals for your life? Things you would like to accomplish? Today I’m going to talk about the importance of goal setting for actually getting what you want out of life.

Let’s say you want to lose weight. That’s good, but it’s pretty vague. The more specific you can make a goal, the more likely you are to see results. “I want to lose 5 pounds this month.” That’s better. Now write it down somewhere where you can refer back to it often, such as on a sticky note on your computer or refrigerator. It has been shown that writing down your goals makes success significantly more likely. Better yet, tell someone else your goal, too. Now you’ll have someone else checking in on your progress and you’ll feel more motivated—you don’t want to let them down.

Just setting a goal doesn’t do much good if you have no idea how you’re going to do it. Start writing down ideas for what you plan to do to move toward your goal. Maybe you’re going to look up healthy recipes; start walking a mile on your lunch break; pick one ‘weakness’ item—like ice cream—and cut it out this month. Having concrete steps in mind helps break down a goal into more manageable chunks. Instead of just wishing, you are doing something. Setting goals and action items also helps guide your subconscious mind into working for you behind the scenes. Once your mind is trained on a idea, you may find barriers breaking down and a new source of strength.

Try starting with short-term goals, and then—once you get a few under your belt—set more medium- and long-term goals. There is no limit to what you can accomplish over time if you are writing down goals and coming up with ideas for how to achieve them. Don’t be discouraged if some of your ideas don’t pan out, or you miss some targets. Nobody’s perfect. The important thing is that you are making progress and feeling better about yourself. You are no longer just sitting on the couch wishing things could be different. You are setting goals and moving forward.

Some of the long-term goals that I have achieved include successfully changing careers, getting back to a healthy weight from significantly overweight and moving to Hawaii. A more over-arching goal was to reduce stress in my life and achieve better mental health. Moving into a lower-stress career and lower-stress locale were sub-goals of this. Some of the steps that I took included buying books to learn about—in my case—web development; going back to school for a new degree; doing an internship in my field; applying for jobs in Hawaii; following a blog on what to know about moving to Hawaii and finding exercises that I enjoy. Each step brought me closer to my goal.

Some of my current goals include—in no particular order—losing an additional 10 pounds, being able to afford buying an apartment in Hawaii, growing a new set of teeth (seriously), completing a 100-mile bike ride (I just did 100 kilometers), losing the gray in my beard, starting a new relationship and increasing the traffic to this blog by 10X. I need to break these down into more concrete steps and set reasonable timetables, but I am not resting on my laurels.

What can you accomplish if you set your mind to it? There really is no limit.