19 Important Reasons Why You Should be Setting Goals for Yourself Now
Why is it important to set goals for yourself?
Do you know what you will be doing in 5 years? How about 5 months? Tomorrow? Does it matter if you have no clue as to where your life is heading and what you want to be doing with it?
The answer is yes if you want to succeed in life if you want to grow and progress and see yourself flourish and live life to the full.
Goal setting is there for you to get the best out of life. Without goals in front of you, you will lack focus and drive.
Goal setting gives you not only the impetus to get out there and do something but also gives you structure and determination.
Think about it, all through your formative years, you had goals set for you and in the early years, you wouldn’t have been aware of them; learning to walk and talk, early life setting goals.
Going to school and passing exams, making friends, going to university, and getting your first job, are all goals set out before you. Imagine if none of these goals had been set in place, how do you think your life would have turned out?
“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible”
The difference as you get older is that you can choose the goals that you want to set, the goals that are going to add value and growth to your life. These are the goals that you want to be working towards……..the problem is many people, don’t know how to go about setting them.
Imagine what’s possible once you stop doubting yourself!
Often the hardest thing to overcome before setting goals is the doubt that invariably sets in. How many times have you wanted to set a goal or had an idea about something and then you have talked yourself out of it?
Before you begin setting goals you need to work on that destructive inner voice that tells you you can’t do or achieve something.
That is there through fear, fear of the unknown, fear of failure, and even fear of success, it’s just an emotion, nothing physical and with careful coaching and retraining of the way you think, it can be eradicated for good. Let go of the fear and self-doubt and the goals that you set for yourself will be realised.
19 Important Reasons Why You Should Set Goals
The goals that you set yourself will determine how your life plays out. If you have aspirations and want success and wealth in your future then you need to be setting goals now. Leaving life to chance will mean that life doesn’t happen the way you want it to.
1. Setting goals keeps you in control of your life
The more goals that you set, the more control you will have over your life. Goals give you meaning and purpose. Having something to aim for means that you are always positively focused on the future.
Instead of sleepwalking into your future, goals will make you wide-eyed at all of the possibilities in your life.
2. You will reach greater heights when you set goals
When you set a goal you are automatically saying that you want more from your life. Goals are always about getting more from life and reaching greater heights.
3. Goals will motivate you to be the best version of yourself
Goals motivate you and give you something to strive for in life. They will push you out of your comfort zone and make you see yourself in ways that you never thought possible.
Setting goals helps you become a better version of yourself. Goals will always put you in a positive place, which is important if you see yourself in a negative situation and are looking for a way out of it.
4. Goals will help you to live your best life
Setting goals will allow you to get the best out of your life.
If your goal is to be fit and healthy, reaching it will mean that you will have given yourself the best chance to have a long, happy fulfilling life.
If your goal is to have a happy, gratifying career and you reach it, then you know that you will be doing something that you love and that excites you.
5. Goals will make you accountable
Life passes by so quickly. Remember where you were a year ago. Has anything changed in your life? Are you still feeling stuck? frustrated? trapped?
When you have set goals you will be accountable to yourself, and you will be giving yourself a reason to make life better and to progress. Instead of just talking about change you now will have a reason to make the change.
6. Offers you a long-term perspective on what you want to achieve
When you have a goal, you have a long-term plan on what you want to achieve stretching out before you. Your goal can be organic and change and grow as you need it to, it can take on different directions but ultimately, having a goal gives you a long-term perspective on what you would like to achieve in your life.
7. Helps you to gather the momentum and enthusiasm necessary for your aims
If you are looking to change your life but are struggling to bring it about, start setting some goals. Well-planned goals will help you to gather the momentum and enthusiasm necessary to achieve your aims by laying out structure and direction in your life.
8. Concentrates the mind on the knowledge you need to gain
A goal will help you to focus your mind on what you need to achieve to get the job done.
Instead of ruminating on different thoughts, goals will give you precision focus and the concentration required for success.
9. Helps you create a strategic plan needed for your achievement
Creating a strategic plan around goal setting is useful if your goal is complicated or involves many elements. If it is a goal that is going to take a long period or has different aspects to it, creating a strategic plan can help to make sure nothing goes awry and your goal is completed.
10. Goal setting helps you define the nature of the activity you should take
How are you going to go about achieving your desired outcome? Setting a goal enables you to define how this will happen. Your goal should be challenging enough to motivate you but should not be so difficult as to put you off.
11. Helps you zero in on the activity you need to take right now
Planning allows you to lay out a step-by-step guide to achieving your goals so you always know what you should be doing and when.
This means that nothing important will get overlooked and everything will be done in the right time frame.
It will keep you on track and will prevent you from becoming stressed and disorganised.
12. Assists you to formulate an ordered action plan to enable you to reach your ultimate goals
A large goal could comprise a series of smaller goals that you need to complete. Having this sort of organised plan prevents mistakes from occurring, important steps from being missed out and pressure and stress from arising. It can allow you to see how far you have come and how much further you need to go to reach your ultimate goal.
13. Setting goals stops you from becoming constantly distracted
It can be all too easy to become distracted when you are beginning to start or complete a project. Setting goals can help you to avoid distractions that can throw you off course and sabotage your plans.
Goals can keep you focused, and can prevent you from becoming bored.
14. Goals with a deadline have been shown to improve performance
As humans, we often need goals to help us reach deadlines and improve our performance.
Imagine planning a road trip and not setting a destination, the chances are that you would give up or end up not achieving everything that you want to.
This is the same in all areas of life. A goal gives you something to work towards and a deadline to achieve meaning the chance of success will be far greater.
15. Setting goals has been shown to have a positive effect on mental health
A study by Weinberger, Mateo, and Sirey (2009) has shown to have a positive effect on mental health. The study which you can view here demonstrates the importance of goal setting for good mental well-being.
16. Goal setting allows you to learn new skills and absorb greater knowledge
Your skill set and knowledge can be greatly enhanced by goal setting.
Learning new skills that you may never have been introduced to before, discovering new ways of undertaking tasks, and reading new materials, are many ways to improve your overall capabilities by goal setting.
17. Setting goals helps to encourage the persistence and commitment necessary for success
Persistence and commitment are always going to be needed for you to achieve what you set out to do. Laying out goals can help you to encourage these two qualities,
A goal will show you what is still needed to do and you will also be able to see how much you have already achieved, which should boost your confidence and make you more determined.
18. Setting goals can actually give you more free time
If you are planning a big project, setting goals can free up much-needed time and can also mean that you have more free time. Instead of not knowing what you are doing and when, and having a chaotic life, a goal will help you to plan your day and to plan time for yourself, while still getting everything done.
19. Goal setting can give you massive inspiration and personal satisfaction
You set your goal, you laid out your plans, you followed them through and you did it. You completed your goal.
This should give you a massive inspiration to go out and do something else and also give you personal satisfaction in a job well done.
How to Set Goals
Deciding that you want to set goals does not automatically make them happen. There needs to be a plan of action to make your goals realistic.
Setting a goal plan is the first step that should be taken.
SMART Goals. This is a great technique for setting and accomplishing your goals. You may already be aware of this tool but do you apply it in your own life? Using the SMART tool is one of the best ways of setting and achieving your goals. The acronym stands for ;
S- Specific. Make sure that the goal that you are setting yourself is specific. It must be well-defined, clear and precise.
Anything vague or way off is doomed to fail. Don’t make it too complicated, keep it straightforward and easy to reach.
M- Measurable. Your goal must have parameters that it can be measured by. If you are looking to lose weight set a target, saying you want to lose weight isn’t measurable enough, setting a target enables you to see when you have reached your goal.
A- Attainable. Your goal must be something that you can reach. If you know that something is entirely out of your reach don’t set yourself up for failure as this will just knock your confidence.
Don’t set them too easy either, as they need to be something that stretches you, it’s only when we go outside of our comfort zone that we really start to achieve great things.
R- Relevant. Make sure that the goal that you set is relevant to you. The goals that you set should be going to take your life in the direction that it needs to be going or that you want to be going. If your goals are too scattered then nothing of any consistency will be achieved.
T- Time-bound. You need to set a time for your goals. Setting vague, long-off goals means that you are unlikely to complete them. Set yourself a deadline to work towards, this will create in you a sense of urgency and your goal will be completed much faster.
Vision Boards and Journalling
Journalling and creating vision boards are two other great techniques for setting goals. These tools are a highly visual way of seeing exactly the goals that you have set.
The beauty of vision boards is that you can have them visible in your home so that your goals are always at the forefront of your mind. Every time you see your vision board it will bring your goal to mind.
Journals are an excellent way to reinforce your goals. The power of writing them down means that they are given physical substance, they are there on paper for you to see, and it’s a reinforced commitment to yourself.
Hire a Coach
Many love the idea of goal setting but find putting ideas into practice too overwhelming. For people who have a lot of external commitments, taking time out from their lives to plan and set goals can leave them feeling stressed and overburdened.
This is where hiring a professional coach can help. Having a coach to work through your goals and plan gives you extra accountability.
When you have another person to answer to it can give you extra impetus to put the work in. A coach can also open you up to more ideas and can see strengths and talents that you don’t see yourself which can all help in achieving your goals. A coach is also somebody who will be there to support you and encourage you when you need it the most.
Final Thoughts
Think of what you could achieve in six months if you started setting some goals today.
Setting the above plans into action could see you reaching some long-held dreams in no time, changing areas of your life that you have wanted to change.
Until you take that first step you will have no idea what you can achieve. Let today be the day that you start making a real change in your life and your future.
If you would like to listen to the audio version of this blog post click below;
If you have any thoughts on goal setting please comment and share below
