Setting a goal can be intimidating – but goals are not so scary when you break them into smaller goals. Management expert and bestselling author Brian Tracy offers these tips on goalsetting, which FocalPoint coaches and trainers use to help business owners like you.

1. Give yourself small rewards.

Psychological research has found that even the tiniest rewards can keep you motivated to complete more tasks. Rewards can be treats like a piece of cake or a half-hour of watching TV, or they can come from the satisfaction of completing a small task, like cleaning the sink or doing the dishes. Little boosts of happiness throughout your day will keep you energized and optimistic about the larger goals you are working to achieve.

2. Structure your day for flexibility.

Break your day up into time blocks, within each of those blocks, leave room to go with the flow. For example, you might have a block for “organization,” where you take care of whatever organization you need to do, from tidying your office to cleaning up your account books. Or you might have a block for “responding,” where you fill out and sign forms, reply to emails, return phone calls, and handle any other tasks that fall under the “response” umbrella.

3. Set specific daily goals.

Start by figuring out exactly what you want to achieve this year, and quantifying that big goal. Then break down that goal into sub-goals for each month, week, and day. Now that you’re looking at the hard numbers, you know exactly how much you have to achieve each day – in terms of sales, income, new customer sign-ups, or any other metric that’s important to you. For today, just focus on meeting those goals.

4. Leverage your fear of missing out.

Constantly remind yourself what you can achieve if you worked a little smarter or harder. You might want to show up to the office late today – but think about how much more rushed you will be when you get there. You might want to head home early – but remember how much time you could save if you did a little bookkeeping before you left. Always stay focused on the best possible scenario, and don’t settle for anything less.

5. Keep your goals to yourself.

Writing your goals down privately can be a powerful motivator (psychological research has found that when you talk about your goals with other people, you actually lose motivation). It seems that publicly discussing a goal – or even fantasizing about it too much – gives your brain the same reward as if you have actually achieved it; your motivation drops. Keep your goals quiet.

6. Start small to build big.

As long as you keep meeting your daily goals, your big goals will take care of themselves. Still, you can give yourself some added motivation by scaling up the rewards as the goals get bigger. For example, you might treat yourself to some dessert when you meet your daily goal today, but you might treat yourself to a night out on the town when you meet your weekly goal; and maybe to a full-on vacation when you meet your yearly goal. Make sure you always have something bigger to look forward to.

With the help of these tips from Brian Tracy, you will be well on your way to goalsetting in a way that ensures your goals actually get met. Plan carefully, stay on target, and you will see your goals start to come together.