Goals: Going Forward or Backward?

G -> Goals. Set Goals:
R -> Reality Check:
O -> ...
W -> ...

Reality Check. Determine where you are now in relation to where you want to go.  If you do not know what your current situation is or where you are at during the start of your journey or project, "going towards your goal" would be a blind, directionless, and wasteful use of your time, effort and resources.

This may be because of either of the following 3 cases you may fall into:

Case 1. Your current situation may already be where you want to be. Expending time, effort and resources going after something you already have would simply be wasteful. 
Case 2. Your current situation is already better than where you want to go. You may be going from a "good" situation to "bad" situation. In your attempt to move "forward", you may actually be driving yourself "backward".
Case 3. If you do not know your current situation relative to your goal, you will never know if you will be falling under Case 1 or Case 2 above.

So know where you are now to be able to know if you are trying to go forward or backward. Know your current "reality".