Successfully executing any personal strategic plan for change requires that as you develop your plan, you effectively incorporate these seven steps for attaining each and every goal.

1. Take Responsibility
I find that most people who don't achieve the results they want in there life typically skip this step. In fact, of all the steps this one is the most important. Take responsibility for your life and your desires. This means that you accept that regardless of where you are right now, what you have or don't have, is a manifestation of your choosing. Taking responsibility means that you are in control of your thoughts, desires and results.

2. Be Specific
For a dream to become a goal, it has to be specifically defined in terms of operations, what will be accomplished. When a goal is broken down into steps, it can be managed and pursued much more directly. "Being happy" or "Being Rich" for example, is neither an event nor a behavior that is specific enough to accomplish anything. When you set out to identify a goal, define what you want in clear and specific terms. Express your goal in terms that can be measured. How else will you be able to determine your level of progress, or even know when you have successfully arrived at where you wanted to be? For instance, how much money (specifically) do you aspire to make?

3. Create a timeline.
Once you have determined specifically what it is you want, you must decide on a reasonable timeframe for having it. The deadline you've created fosters a sense of urgency or purpose, which in turn will serve as an important motivator, and prevent inertia or procrastination.

4. Choose a goal you can control.
Unlike dreams, which allow you to fantasize about events over which you have no control, goals have to do with aspects of your existence that you can control and therefore manipulate. In identifying your goal, make sure it is within your control.

5. Create a strategy that will get you to your goal.
Pursuing a goal seriously requires that you realistically assess the obstacles and resources involved, and that you create a strategy for navigating that reality. Willpower is unreliable because it is based on your emotions. Your environment, your schedule and your accountability must be programmed in such a way that all three support you long after your emotional high is gone. Steady progress, through well-chosen, realistic, interval steps, produces results in the end. Know what those steps are before you set out.

6. Accountability
Without accountability, people are apt to con themselves. If you know precisely what you want, when you want it by - and there are real consequences for not doing the assigned work - you are much more likely to continue in your pursuit of your goal.

7. Action
If you've gone through the first 6 steps, then the only thing left to do is take action towards your goal. Without positive energy towards what you desire you are still left with nothing but a dream.

You are a special and unique individual, with your own individual goals, values, talents, interests and personality. You deserve to spend your time doing meaningful work in an enjoyable environment. And, the more you love what you do, the more likely you are to succeed in all the ways that are important to you...intellectually, socially, and financially!