People often ask me what the most important quality for success is. Throughout my career I have worked with hundreds of supremely successful people and they all had one easily identifiable trait in common: They all knew how to set goals for themselves and work hard to achieve those goals.

The ability to set goals and make plans for their accomplishment is the “master skill” of success. It is the single most important skill you can learn and perfect. Goal-setting will do more to help you achieve the things you want in life than will anything else you’ve been exposed to.

And yet according to the best research, under 3 percent of Americans have written goals, and under 1 percent review and rewrite their goals daily. Most people don’t understand the importance of setting goals, or they don’t know how to do it. Or maybe they’re simply afraid of failure.

Today I would like to share with you five key concepts that will help you to reach your goals more effectively. Each of these keys starts with one of the letters in the word “GOALS.” Whenever you find yourself getting off the track, simply repeat the word “goals,” and think about how each letter stands for a key that just might apply to your current situation.

G = Get to It!

Sometimes, the only difference between a successful person and a failure is that the successful person has the courage to get started, to do something, to begin moving toward the accomplishment of a specific goal.

You may have a long-range goal. In order to achieve it, you need to sit down and make a list of all the steps that you will have to take to get from where you are to where you want to be. Then begin with the first and most obvious thing that you can do on that list. Complete it, and then start on number two.

Don’t worry about the long term. Just concentrate on the obvious first step that you can take. Surprisingly enough, everything else will take care of itself.

The Confucian saying, “A journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step,” is so popular in so many languages because it is so true.

O = Opportunity

Successful people do not wait for opportunities to turn their goals into reality. Instead, they make their own opportunities, because they are perfectly clear about the kind of life they wish to create.

Once you have taken the time to decide exactly what you want, you will experience an endless flow of opportunities that will help move you in that direction.

A = Ability

Many people hesitate to set high, challenging goals because they lack the ability necessary to turn those goals into reality. But remember that we all lacked knowledge and experience when we started out in our careers or fields of expertise.

Since you gain the ability necessary for high achievement through knowledge and experience, if you increase the speed at which you acquire both of those, you increase the speed at which you move ahead.

L = Leadership

Leadership is simply the ability to get results. And you begin to get results when you accept full responsibility for yourself, for your job and for the outputs required in your position.

You demonstrate leadership when you refuse to make excuses or blame anyone or anything for the problems you are having. The acceptance of the responsibility of leadership enables you to move ahead and take action.

When you are not satisfied with your job or income, and you sit down and make a written plan to change it, and then take action on that plan, without waiting for anyone’s approval or permission, you are behaving like a leader.

S = Stay With It!

Between you and every goal that you wish to achieve, there is a series of obstacles. The bigger the goal, the bigger the obstacles. Your decision to be, have, and do something out of the ordinary entails facing difficulties and challenges that are out of the ordinary as well. Sometimes your greatest asset is simply your ability to stay with it longer than anyone else.

When you look around you, you will see that all achievement is the triumph of persistence. You will see men and women everywhere who are struggling with and overcoming adversities in order to accomplish something that is important to them.

… And so can you.

Goals enable you to do the work you want to do, to live where you want to live, to be with the people you enjoy, and to become the kind of person you want to become. If you set your goals and create a plan that will help you achieve those goals, nothing can stop you from finally winning through.

To learn more about how you can radically improve your life through goal-setting, please accept my free report, Goals!, as a special gift to you.

The report breaks down my proven goal-setting process into easy steps that will help you achieve the life you want faster and more easily than you ever thought!

To download the report, please click here now.

Thanks to success coach Brian Tracy for an inspiring guest article!