When you look at your yearly sales figures - tax time does make you review those sorts of things - and they aren't nearly as good as you have predicted, it is time to refocus and set new revised goals. With the few challenges that have come my way in the last year or two, I find that I have needed to revisit the way I set my goals.

According to Martin Avis, who's regular newsletter keeps me buzzing a long, when we set our goals, it is natural to aim for the summit. We look for the highest point that we can imagine.

And whilst that is great - all achievers should have a clear vision of their ultimate target - but it is only a part of the goal-setting process.

To really achieve, we must realise that a true goal, one that has any chance of being realized, comes in two parts:

1. The top of the stairs 2. The next step.

Martin gives a really clear example . He asks you to imagine a person with arthritis looking up at a flight of stairs. The task is immense. The flight of stairs may as well be a mountain.

But the first step isn't so bad. The person just needs to grip the handrail and haul - not too difficult, not too painful.

The second step is just as easy as the first one - and so on all the way up.

And, with the goal broken down into "step by step" isn't too ling that the top is reached, but it wasn't a mountain climbed - it was twelve simple steps.

So, when making your new goals, every goal that you set should stretch you beyond where you are right now. It should be something that is beyond your current abilities to reach IN ONE STEP.

But right underneath where you've written down that huge objective, you must also write down the first step that you will take on that journey.

It is like pulling on a rope. To begin with you can't clearly see what is tied on to the other end. You know it's there, because the rope is heavy, but all you can see is a shadowy outline.

With each pull on the rope the outline becomes more and more distinct until it is right there in front of you. All you have to do then is reach out and grab it.

So don't forget when you write down your goals - they come in pairs: the big leap and the little step. And in many ways, the little step is the more important.

As Michelangelo is quoted as saying: It is not that we aim too high and miss our goals, but that we aim too low and achieve them!