(Today is a guest post from Michael Hyatt. You might have heard of him. He’s a plucky, young blogger who I think has a real future in this biz.) 

Here’s a fact: I like dreaming more than doing. But here’s another fact: Dreams aren’t worth much without work.

It’s easy to forget that at the beginning of a New Year. We set resolutions and get caught up in the euphoria of the dream.

We’re so determined that it’s almost like we’ve already lost the weight, got the raise, run the marathon, and raised the money to cut the record. But—reality check—we haven’t. It’s still January!

It’s going to take a lot of effort to yank those dreams out of the clouds and bring them down to earth.

In my experience, the most important tool for the job is goal-setting. I’ve been doing it since college and have worked to hone the process ever since. Along the way I’ve learned a lot about what motivates people to achieve their dreams and what prevents them from doing so.

One of the main things that slows our progress—and something effective goals can help you with—is what I call the messy middle.

If you’ve set New Year’s resolutions before, you’re already familiar with it. It’s called February. And April. And June.

It’s the part of the hiking trip when you feel winded, look at your map, and realize you still have seven more miles.

It’s the downhill stretch of the month when you’re still looking at an uphill sales number.

It’s the moment in the writing project where you’re scraping to come up with the words and realize you still have to write five more chapters.

It’s the gym visit you’d rather skip, the playground date you’d rather forget, the part-time job you’d rather quit.

If you’ve ever done anything important, you know exactly what I’m talking about. And it can be dream-killer if you’re not careful.

It doesn’t matter how passionate you are about what you’re doing, you’re going to hit rough patches, maybe long ones that seem like they’ll never end. It’s the unpopular part of dreaming, the work part. It’s the middle of the journey. And it’s usually messy.

This is where we get discouraged, distracted, and disenchanted.

The trick to getting through, as I’ve discovered, is to harness the power of goal setting. I’ve created a free, three-part video series to show you how to do it.

You can start watching here (it’s only available a short while longer).

Of course, you’ve seen the statistics on New Year’s resolutions. Studies show that traditional goal setting doesn’t work. It fails because identifying what you want is only a small part of getting what you want.

What’s needed is a proven process, refined over decades, to help you:

  • beat procrastination and distraction;
  • stay focused on the big picture instead of drowning in the details;
  • push through your fears;
  • access emotional energy you didn’t know you had; and
  • create breakthroughs that trigger incredible personal growth and propel you forward.

This program equips you with immediate, actionable steps to get going and stay the course.

One of hardest parts about achieving our goals is losing our bearings. When we battle the resistance day after day, it’s easy to get disconnected from why our dreams matter in the first place—why we’re working so hard.

If you lose your why, you’ll get lost in average and never make it to awesome.

This process also ensures you stay connected to the why. It becomes a tether line that helps guide you through the hard stretches.

Starting is the fun part. But the middle’s where you make it happen.

If you want to have your best year ever, it begins with effective, achievable goals that can lead you past the obstacles and through the setbacks we all face in the messy middle.

(For more from Michael Hyatt, check out his blog, follow him on Twitter or read his book Platform. It’s honestly the number 1 blogging book I recommend when folks ask me for advice.)