That is why one importance of goal setting is that it provides a venue for one to know himself or herself better. By knowing oneself better, and humbly admitting shortcomings and realizing talents and skills, one can estimate his or her own capability or capacity, which, in the long run, would be helpful in other and various aspects of life. How would you know that your goals are attainable? Easy. If the financial component of your project, plan, or goal, is larger than the source of your finance, then there is problem. Or perhaps the load of the work resulted in company planning you have just attended is too much with the present manpower in your company, then the goal you have set is not smart because it s not attainable. By being specific, you have to specify the desired and target outcome of a set of actions or moves. By being specific, you also set measurability of an action, so you can check every now and then the progress you are doing over a goal. Be realistic on setting goals. Do not set goals, which are, in general and from the start, impossible to achieve. 4. Potential development. Perhaps some of your talents and skills need an improvement, or are maybe already clamoring for an improvement. Life, after all, is discovering your potential and developing it in the process. 5. Academic. Perhaps you're no longer getting any mental stimulation lately. Maybe your education-related goals had expired many years ago. Buying financial magazines and books or attending crash courses and seminars would sometimes make up for costly investments, but for sure they would definitely be worth it. Every now and then, devise measures and techniques on how you could evaluate your progress when it comes to the achievement and efforts in achieving your set financial goals. These two can be easily confused into one thing but they are different. Do not make the mistake of planning to improve your personal over-all goals in order to "carry over" your professional goal. Attack the two concerns separately. Of course it is only natural that some aspect of your professional goals are preset in your personal goal setting and vice versa.