Achieving your dreams and creating the future you want always begins with one important first step: a goal. Whether you're looking to help your child set goals so she achieves academically or you have your own financial or self-improvement goals, there IS a science to setting–and meeting–them.

A 2010 study in Applied Psychology followed college students who went through a multi-step goal setting program. Those who followed it completely showed significant improvement in their grades compared to those who did not.

While New Year's resolutions are notoriously short-lived, a clear process will put any objective you've set for yourself within reach. No matter what you have in mind, you can apply these steps to whatever goals are important to you, and the whole process should take less than 90 minutes.

1. Take a few minutes to write about the future you'd like to achieve. It's okay to start with a vague idea, but include as many specific details as possible.
   
   
2. Looking at the future you've envisioned for yourself, pick six specific and attainable goals that could help you achieve that future.
   
   
3. Number your goals according to their order of importance.
   
   
4. Look at each goal and write a paragraph about how achieving that specific step will benefit you.
   
   
5. For each goal, break it into smaller more manageable steps.
   
   
6. Identify obstacles that may get in the way and come up with a strategy for overcoming them should you need to do so.
   
   
7. Write about your commitment to reaching these goals.

That's it. Sound easy? Perhaps. But by taking the step of committing your goals to paper and working through these steps, you've laid the groundwork for success.

A goal is simply a dream with a deadline. May all your dreams come true!