Every six months or so, I sit back and re-evaluate my business goals. What would I like to accomplish within the next 12 months? And how do I plan to achieve this?

Without brainstorming and putting ideas on paper, I’ll likely never reach a goal. As a self-proclaimed procrastinator, I know how to talk a good game. But when it comes to action, I tend to slack a little. I have all these brilliant ideas in my head for magazine articles and novels, but I let any and everything stand in my way of submitting proposals and queries. It wasn’t until I wrote down my goals—and posted them in a visible place—that I began achieving them.

Goals are key to success. Unfortunately, it isn’t enough to have goals. Don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely the first step. But how would you ever reach your goals without a clear plan? You can’t achieve most goals overnight. So it’s best to take a large goal and break it down into smaller goals.

Let’s say you’re looking to get a book published. Don’t expect the first publisher to accept your idea and story. Rather, plan to craft a fabulous proposal by a specific date; then plan to submit your idea to a certain number of publishers within a given time frame.

Keep this up, and you’ll hit every milestone.