Here are the work­sheets to use when apply­ing Michel Fortin’s G.O.A.L. method. You can sim­ply use the tables below as a model to guide you. You can use them on a sheet of paper, in your jour­nal, or on your computer.

But if you do pre­fer the print­able ver­sion, you can down­load this book in dig­i­tal PDF for­mat by click­ing here. Most browsers have the PDF plug-​​in already installed.

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“I prac­ticed the art of get­ting more things done rather than get­ting the really impor­tant things done well.“
– Alec MacKenzie

“We can no more afford to spend major time on minor things than we can to spend minor time on major things.“
– Jim Rohn

Now is the time to set your GOALs. Your “guides” are goals that will most likely stem from your per­sonal val­ues because, hav­ing gone through the process so far, you will have a pretty good idea of what kind of goals you truly want. Take a new sheet of paper and write at the top the words “My Guides.” Then, write down what you want to be, do, or have.

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“We are at our very best, and we are hap­pi­est, when we are fully engaged in work we enjoy on the jour­ney toward the goal we’ve estab­lished for our­selves. It gives mean­ing to our time off and com­fort to our sleep. It makes every­thing else in life so won­der­ful, so worth­while.“
–Earl Nightin­gale

“Suc­cess is a jour­ney… Not a des­ti­na­tion.“
–Ben Sweet­land

Goal achieve­ment is con­sid­ered by some to be suc­cess, for it is true that suc­cess is defined by the achieve­ment of a desired objec­tive. But you may have noticed that I like to use words such as “poten­tial,” “align­ment,” or “suc­cess­ful­ness” to describe this true suc­cess to which I am refer­ring. As you can under­stand, goals are per­sonal and suc­cess is rel­a­tive to the individual.

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In the autumn of 1996, I still remem­ber that faith­ful week and a half when it all hap­pened. My busi­ness went belly-​​up. They came to repos­sess my car. The land­lord, evic­tion notice in hand, came knock­ing on my door. And my ex-​​wife packed up her things, say­ing, “I’m leaving.”

But through­out this time, I had a flash of insight. One that changed the way I was think­ing but didn’t real­ize it until later.

You see, Drop Your Goals And Man­age Your Life is the result of years of writ­ing in my jour­nals, both prior to that event and fol­low­ing it. Why? Because…

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The other day, one of my coach­ing stu­dents emailed me about his dilemma — some­thing that’s all too com­mon in our business.

“Too many times,” he said, “I’ve known what I needed to do, and I always end up wait­ing weeks on end to do it.” He asked, “How do you cope with procrastination?”

Pro­cras­ti­na­tion is indu­bitably the copywriter’s most sti­fling prob­lem. Since our job is fraught with dead­lines, pro­cras­ti­na­tion can be one of the costli­est prob­lems in the copy­writ­ing busi­ness. It can mur­der your reputation…

… And your career!

So, how do you cope with pro­cras­ti­na­tion? Even bet­ter, how do you over­come it? Here are six tips I use, which helps me to get more done faster.

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