The Importance of Goal Setting

It all starts with your goals. You need to learn how to set goals to realize your potential. It's a crucial part of living a good life. Write your goals down, read them, review them. Keep them burning in your mind until you bring them to fruition. You should have goals for key areas of your life.

Seneca said, “If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favourable.” If you don’t have goals, you're like a ship without a destination. And if you have goals but are not seeing results, it could be because you don’t know how to set goals properly. Let’s drill down into how to set goals properly.

Embrace the truth of your situation. Realize where you are and where you want to be. Formulate your big goals into smaller SMART goals. Break your big goals into smaller goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. This will help you break them down to manageable parts that you can accomplish one at a time leading up to the big goal.

Find out how to get to where you want to be. Acquire knowledge, information, train yourself and seek wise counsel. You cannot control what you don’t understand, now is the time to seek understanding. The more you understand the less you fear.

Take action, start moving from point A where you are to point B where you want to be. Track your progress to see if you are on track or off track. Analyse the result and outcome your actions are producing.

Have a sense of urgency, move quickly, don’t waste time, be impatient with taking action but know that good things take time, you have to be patient with results. Adapt your plan of action and your steps based on the analysis of your outcomes. It is only by testing things out that you get to see if you are heading in the right direction. Don’t give up, you can never achieve what you want without falling on your face a few times in the process of getting there. Falling and getting back up, reassessing is part of the process.

Rinse and repeat this process until you achieve your goal. Keep at it and soon you will see that yesterday’s dreams will be today’s reality. Remember, "If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes." – Andrew Carnegie