I can sit here and tell you all day about the importance of setting goals, but I want to get one thing straight before I start. You can read this article one time or one hundred times, but nothing you do will make a difference unless you take action. It sounds so simple, but often times it is the hardest part. I’ll tell you right now that if you don’t take action when setting your goals, you will never achieve any of them.
Why Set Goals?
What’s the point of setting goals? Why should I tell myself what I need to do, before I’m going to do it? The answer is simple. Setting goals gives you an outline of what you need to achieve in order to accomplish what you’re trying to do. It gives you a target—something to shoot for. Sometimes something to shoot for is all you need to accomplish your goal, but that’s not the only benefit of setting goals
Goals help you focus your time and effort. By outlining what you need to do to achieve your goal, you will be able to manage your time more easily. You’ll have a roadmap in front of you with directions on how to get to the destination—your goal. This can be very helpful because now you’ll be able to focus your time on what matters most, and you’ll spend less effort by knowing what you need to work on and what you don’t need to do.
Goals provide motivation and persistence. By setting a goal for yourself, you will always have something to strive for. You’ll be motivated to work hard towards achieving your goal, and strive to constantly work towards the goal until you reach it. Goals will also help you prioritize your time much better by focusing on what’s important and working on less urgent chores or activities some other time.
How to Set Goals
Before you go about setting major goals in your life, there are a few things to keep in mind. Be sure to follow these simple guidelines when pushing yourself to achieve your goals.
Goals must be specific. If your goal is too broad, you may have trouble finding a starting point, or knowing exactly when you have reached your goal. Start by stating exactly what you want to achieve. Don’t just tell yourself you want to make a million dollars, think about how you would make a million dollars.
Goals must be believable and achievable. Be honest with yourself and set a goal you know you can attain. A good goal would be high, pushing you to be better, but not too high. There’s no point in setting a goal to swim across the ocean if you know you’re not a good swimmer. Be realistic and start small if you have to. Make it your goal to swim across the local lake first, then go bigger from there.
Goals must be challenging and push you to be better. A goal should be about something you’ve never done before. It should push yourself to be stronger, faster, or even smarter than you have been. It won’t help you at all if you set your goal to run the mile in 7 minutes if you ran the mile in 6 minutes last week. The purpose of the goal is to push you to be better. You could try to run the mile in five and a half minutes this week and 5 minutes next week.
It helps to put target dates, times, and measurements on your goals. This will help you track your progress and push yourself to meet deadlines. If you told yourself you were going to achieve your goal in a week, then it will strive you to work hard towards your goal once it gets close to your deadline.
Lastly, write your goals down on paper. It’s one thing to know what goal you want to attain, it’s another thing to actually see your goal on a piece of paper in front of you. Tape it to your door so you’ll see it each time you walk out of your room, or on your mirror so you see it every morning when you wake up. It will be a constant reminder of what you need to do to reach your goal.
