Importance of Goal Setting

Importance of Goal Setting: Plan to Live Your Life Your Way

Why Set Goals?

Top sports-persons, business men, companies, achievers in all fields, know the importance of setting goals. That is the only way you know if you’re on track to achieve something, and if you’re on schedule.

Clearly defined goals with accompanying timelines, helps you to have a long-term vision, and short-term motivation to do all the things required to move you ahead.

As you achieve the intermediate (sub-goals), you’ll gain more confidence about achieving the goals that you’ve set.

All organisations have written goals for the company, as well as for all their employees. In case you don’t have a set of written goals for what you want to do / achieve, I strongly urge you to make one.

In What Areas?

When setting goals, its important to not just focus on your Work/Career, but also focus on a few more important areas in your life.

Here are some of the areas in which you should try to set goals:

• Career
• Finances
• Education
• Family
• Health

Setting SMART Goals

If you’ve had experience of working for a mid-size/big organisation, you’d know about how to set SMART Goals; most organisations use this concept.

Here’s what the SMART mnemonic usually stands for:

1. S – Specific
2. M – Measurable or Meaningful
3. A – Achievable
4. R – Relevant
5. T – Time-bound or Track-able

So for example, instead of having “To lose weight” as a goal, it’s always better to say “Want to lose 10 pounds in the next 3 months.”

More Considerations

Few more things to remember when doing this exercise:

• Always remember what you want to do in your life
• Know what is irrelevant or a distraction.
• Have a mix of short-term and long-term goals: One-week, One-month, Six-month, One-year, Five-year, and so on. Each should be a stepping stone towards the long-term goal!

Achieving Goals

Achieving goals is a different ballgame, and much more challenging. Because it depends on how aggressive your goals are, and how much hunger you have within to achieve those.

Here are few techniques that you can use to stay motivated, to believe in yourself, and to be in a positive frame of mind, all of which are essential ingredients for achieving what you want.

Take Little Steps
Any large goal should be broken down into a number of sub-goals, which can then be broken down even further if necessary. Each of the sub-goals has an associated action plan with it. Smaller goals are easier for you to handle, and help you to stay on course to your main goal. You also get the satisfaction of regularly having successes and achieving goals, which does wonders for your belief in yourself.

Visualization
Have you ever run through what you are going to say to someone before you have the conversation? Or seen yourself in your mind giving a presentation before you give it?

That is visualisation, and everyone uses it probably without even realizing it. And it is very potent.
You can use it not only for your goals, but for any aspect of your life.

Affirming Success
Another method for achieving your goals is to use affirmations, which means you repeat your goal again and again to yourself. This is another method of programming your subconscious mind, which is the source of all action.

A bad affirmation would be “I want to lose some weight”, a good affirmation is “I want to lose 10 pounds by the end of this year” as it sends the right messages to your subconscious. It knows that you exactly how much you have to lose (10 pounds) and when this must be done by (the end of this year). You know precisely what you have to do and when it has to be done by.

Maintaining Positive Attitude
To achieve your goals, you really need to have a positive attitude. There are many things that can cause negativity in your life, such as the people around, circumstances, constantly replaying tragedy in your mind, and so on. These things should be eliminated right away, and if you can’t, you need to at least realize the things that put you in a negative frame of mind, and focus away from those.

No ShortCuts
As you strive toward accomplishing your goals, you need to know that there are no secrets to success! There are no secrets to success — because they are available to everyone. You have to LOOK for them, and then DO something with them once you know them.

To Conclude

Having goals is like having a map; it helps you to stay on track, and to know if you are going in the right direction. As far as possible, have them written. Achieving the goals is a different ballgame however, it involves work. Achievement requires Knowing, drive and commitment, combined with careful and meticulous planning and a firm belief in your own self. With unwavering belief and commitment there is nothing that you cannot achieve, but before that you need to know what you want to achieve and how you are going to accomplish it. That is why Goal Setting is so important.