Losing weight can be done, but it never seems to be easy. While the basic facts - eat less and exercise more - are pretty straight-forward, getting started can be rough. How can a person get motivated to get started? And perhaps even more important, how can you stay motivated to keep working at it even when the pounds are stubborn about coming off?

For many people in the western hemisphere, losing weight has become the national pastime! America, for one, is a land of fast food joints and easily accessible good tasting food. It is also becoming a nation of health clubs and joggers, as people try to hang onto their youthful figures. Not only that, but pills and even surgery for weight loss are on the rise, as people fight the battle of the bulge.

At first glance, it may seem that the reason we set personal goals is so that we can make more money or get more done. The fact is, money and productivity are not the areas of life that bring the most satisfaction and fulfillment to most people. Money is essential to life, however, and productivity is important in that it frees us up for those things that do bring fulfillment. Therefore, money and productivity goals are certainly in order.

Setting personal goals is a first step to attaining the life you dream of. It's possible, however, to set goals that don't really support that dream life. A key ingredient in learning to set and achieve personal goals is to get a good handle on what your most deeply held personal values are. If your goals are at odds with your personal values, you may reach your goals, but find that your life is empty and unrewarding.

Have you ever read the autobiography of a great financier or businessman of the past? How about the biography of a successful inventor or scientist? Most of the great achievers in life were natural born goal setters. They started at an early age to challenge themselves to reach the next objective. The rest of us need to develop the skill in order to make our dreams into reality. Goal setting forms a road map to the destination of fulfilled dreams. You know you want to achieve the goal. The question is how to get there.