Why Should You Set Goals?
Imagine you are going to an unknown destination with no map printed on paper, yes I am old school like that or no compass, no GPS, and certainly no Google maps or the internet to give you directions! Daunting, isn’t it? Every unknown destination requires a start and a sense of direction because how do you intend to get there? It’s either you will get lost on the way, or you will go back home without completing your mission or reaching your destination.
The Importance of Goal Setting
In the pursuit to change my career and my life, I have listened to many motivational speakers: the likes of Warren Buffet, Leslie Brown, CJ Chan, Tom Bilyeu, Steve Harvey, etc. I mean the list is endless. One common thing that popped up almost in every video is that “without clearly defined goals you cannot achieve your dreams.” And I totally agree with them.
As I have mentioned in my previous articles, due to a lack of direction my life became a complete mess and yes I acknowledge that fully. This is the main reason I want to start over on a clean slate by doing things right this time around. I have been studying a lot about goal setting and the information that I am reading, I am going to put into practice. I have already seen for myself that setting goals do work and I am only a beginner in this, imagine what is going to happen once I have a clear understanding and start setting career goals, financial goals, and whatever goals there are out there. I will be unstoppable.
Where Do You Start?
The challenging part is figuring out how to set goals and where you should start. As I said, I am learning as well and I honestly can’t say there is a specific place to start. I just sat down with my laptop and start typing things I want to achieve monthly. I wrote career goals, how much I want my savings to be at the end of the year, and how I am going to pay my debt.
Trust me it wasn’t easy and I don’t think it is meant to be easy but challenging enough to motivate you. There was a time I feared opening the spreadsheet because it was so overwhelming, other times I would feel bad for moving goals around or for deleting some and writing new ones. But as I continue learning and reading, I found out that it is okay to revisit your goals and change things around if necessary.
Examples of Goals
It is a possibility that sometimes you do want to set goals, but you don’t know exactly what qualifies as a goal. During a job interview, I have been asked where I see myself in 5 years or what is it that I am looking to gain from the position I was interviewing for. These are pretty simple questions don’t you think? Well, they are but I couldn’t give a straight answer because I was never clear about what I wanted in life.
The way I understand it goals are personal which means they will vary from person to person. But overall, a goal is anything that you want to achieve because it is important to you or because you need it for the betterment of your life. Below is an example of different goals but please beware that this is just an example as there are many goals to develop different areas of people’s lives.
Personal development goals
Career goals
Financial goals
Academic goals
You can’t accomplish much in life without working towards a certain goal, therefore this means that to achieve anything or to get anywhere you want in life you need a clear direction, and this is where goal setting comes in. Every area of your life can benefit from goal setting as mentioned there are different types of goals.
