For most, achieving their goals is something like “wishful thinking”. I’ve seen parodies of “The Secret” and they are unflattering, possibly insulting to our actual nature.
The real reason why you will want to set goals is to ensure that you constantly get enough motivation to keep moving. Goals are actually represented by your submodalities (we’ll have an article to talk about that later), which are affected by beliefs, values and identity.

Each of these concepts requires a separate discussion, but the interesting thing you might want to do is to consider how compelling a goal really is. To make a goal compelling, you need to probably follow a sequence similar to this:
#1 – Get into the appropriate state (usually a state of relaxed awareness)
#2 – Picture your goals in the future. Observe it from a distance.
#3 – Bring it closer and intensify the colors, sounds and vibrance of the future image.
#4 – Step into it and experience it in full as if you are already there.
#5 – Imagine how good it feels to be able to achieve this
#6 – Figure out how to achieve it (activate your resources)
Most people know how to get here, but it doesn’t really work, other than to make you feel good most of the time. You need to get triggered in case you don’t get this done. For example, you may find that you slack off from your goals and targets.
In this case, you need another sequence to get you back on track:
#7 – what happens when you do something that is counter productive to your goals? what images do you see?
#8 – play this out into the future and grab that image from the future. Play the movie of the consequences you may have there and intensify this reality.
Now, this may seem “bad”, but I think in order for your desired reality to become real, it’s important for you to learn how to stay on track. In other words, don’t just have the pull (toward) factors working in your favor: use the push (away from) factors that will help you avoid the potholes!