Why Set Goals?

Goals Help You Establish Priorities and Decide What is Truly Important

It is important for us to choose what we are going to spend our valuable time on and be clear on what we are NOT going to spend our time on. It is important to understand that we can’t do everything and being clear on our goals allows us to prioritise and plan how we are going to spend our time.

When we identify and write down our top goals, that allows us to be clear on what is most important to us. It allows us to focus on what really matters most.

Achieving Goals is a Great Way to Spend Your Time

We are all busy. It is almost a competition. Some of us are busy being busy and some of us are busy working towards achieving our goals. It may take weeks, it may take months and it may take years. When you spend your time working towards your goals, you are spending your time on something worthwhile – that is YOU.

A great question to ask yourself regularly is, “Are my actions moving me closer to my goals?”

Goals Give You Direction and a Target

Dr. Maxwell Maltz, author of the classic Psycho-Cybernetics, said that human beings have a built-in goal seeking “success mechanism” that is part of the subconscious mind. This success mechanism is constantly searching for ways to help us reach our targets and find answers to our problems.

According to Dr Maltz, we work and feel better when our success mechanism is fully engaged and going after clear targets.

More Happiness

You have two chances at happiness all the time. One is how happy you are in the moment. The other is how happy are you with your life. The second is about fulfilment. By spending time achieving your dreams, investing in your life, designing your life, the more you will experience happiness in the moment. The more you drive your purpose and give your best, the more fulfilment you will have.

Goals Propel You Forward

A pattern that comes with working towards goals is that when you set your mind to something, you get excited and work like mad, and then motivation starts to wane. Having goals that you can focus on and visualise helps you better connect yourself with your inner desires and gives you the motivational energy you need to work through periods where your focus inevitably starts to wane.

Goals Help Us Believe In Ourselves

Setting goals for yourself is a way to fuel your ambition. Goal setting isn’t just about creating a plan for your life and holding yourself accountable; it’s also about giving us the inspiration necessary to aim for things we never thought possible.

You may wish to accomplish something that many people dream about, but few people ever actually accomplish. Unless you make it a goal for yourself and work towards achieving it, why would you ever believe that you could accomplish it? Unless you see yourself slowly making progress, your dreams and aspirations are nothing more than vague notions floating around in your imagination.

Goals Tell You What You Truly Want

By asking ourselves what we really want and constantly re-assessing our goals, we gain the benefit of introspection and self-reflection. We can figure out what it is we really want in life -  and then we can go out and do it.

Goals Help Us Live Life To The Fullest

When you take the time to set goals, you ensure that your life is geared towards getting the most out of every moment. There’s so much to do and experience in life, but many of the things we want to achieve and experience won’t be handed to us - we need to work for it.

Setting Goals is a Fundamental Component to Long-Term Success

The basic reason for this is that you can’t get where you are trying to go until you clearly define where that is. Research studies show a direct link between goals and enhanced performance. Goals help you focus and allocate your time and resources efficiently, and they can keep you motivated when you feel like giving up. Setting and achieving goals translates to feelings of success which in turn spurs greater productivity and confidence.

Live Your Best Life

Goals ensure you get the best out of life. Firstly, by becoming a better person, your new-found knowledge and abilities let you experience more out of the same life events compared to the previous you. Think about how your worldview is different now vs. the you 10 years ago. Do you see life with much more clarity, depth and perspective today than you were in the past? What may be a simple daily occurrence in the past holds a lot more meaning to the more highly-evolved you today.

Secondly, time passes in our life, whether we want to or not. Goals with specific measures and deadlines ensure we are maximising our output and experiences during our time here. Goals ensure you are maximising your life for all that it can offer you.

The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field  and never score.

Bill Copeland