Your Goal Guide

Book excerpt: While most goal-setting books focus on helping people achieve their goals, only Your Goal Guide starts with that first, crucial step: helping professionals figure out what it is they actually want. In this book, author Debra Eckerling take readers through The D*E*B Method, her brainstorming and task-based system. It's a roadmap for setting goals, and then creating a plan to achieve them. D*E*B stands for: Determine Your Mission, Explore Your Options, Brainstorm Your Path. Numerous factors stop people from accomplishing their goals. They don't give their goals enough thought, jump in head-first, and waste a lot of time. They spend too much time overthinking their goals, and, even, if they manage to get started, they abandon the project midway, since it was taking way too long. They try to figure out their goals in their head and get nowhere; they have no plan. People are constantly re-evaluating their professional - and personal - situation. Then, they get to the point where they must take action, whether it's due to circumstance (their job is being eliminated, they're in an unhealthy work environment, they have to move), choice (they want to start or grow their own business, it's time for a career change), or both (they want and need to increase their income). But how? The challenge is to figure out how to set and reach your goals, while the rest of the world - and the rest of your life - is business as usual. Your Goal Guide, by Debra Eckerling, is a roadmap that combines writing exercises with systems to help individuals set, plan, and achieve their professional and personal goals.