Why Goals MatterGoals are simply your intentions specified, clarified and written down, with deadlines.
From an early age your accomplishments and your happiness are determined by your intentions, the decisions you make and the extent to which you carry them through.
In the Western world we are faced with an overwhelming number of choices. A modern superstore has over 100,000 lines – compare this to the range available to our grandparents just a few decades ago, or to people in many other parts of the world. Imagine entering a superstore with no idea of what you wanted to buy and no idea of how much you could afford to spend. You’d be in total confusion.
Until you narrow down your choices in a meaningful way, you’re like a scattergun, firing shots in all directions, hoping to hit something, but not sure what that may be. Once you decide which choices are most likely to bring you happiness and fulfilment, decisions become very much easier. Gone is the hesitancy, self-doubt and stress. You’re
clear on what you want, and ready to go out and get it.
Life coaches help their clients to be clear about what they want. Setting personal goals also lies at the heart of self-coaching. If you’re not clear where you want to get to, how can you map out your journey? How do you know if you’re heading in the right direction? How do you know when you’ve arrived?
You need goals on several different levels:
- Major (long-term) goals, which define the overall direction and shape of your life.
- Medium-term goals, the stepping stones that bring the long-term goals into focus.
- Short-term goals, which contribute to your medium-term goals and provide a framework for your day to day actions.
Your Values
Goal setting is a vital skill. But before you establish your goals, you must step back and decide what is really important to you in life. These are your values. It’s important that your goals reflect your ideals and interests and make full use of your talents.
For your goals to be truly motivating and valuable, they must be:
- Grounded in your deepest values. You must have a clear idea of what’s important to you and the kind of person you want to be.
- Balanced. A balanced life is one where each life area is in harmony.
- Consistent and complementary. It’s pointless setting goals that contradict each other.
- Physically possible (for you).
Let’s consider your values.
Benefits Of Setting Goals
Your Mission
Work-Life Balance
It’s important to get the work-life balance right. Work is an important part of life, but it should never take over.
If you love your work and get on well with your colleagues you are indeed fortunate, but what if you don’t? For many people work is just a drudge, with no real satisfaction other than the pay. Sadly, only a small percentage of people truly love what they do and gain genuine satisfaction from it.
If you are unhappy with your work-life balance you need to review your working life and decide whether it’s time to make changes. Everyone has the potential to earn a living doing something they enjoy - if they go about it the right way.
Step One: Summing Up
Setting challenging yet realistic goals consistent with your talents, values and interests is the starting point of a fulfilling life filled with happiness and success. Long-term goals give you a much needed sense of purpose and direction. Medium-term goals bring them within sight. Short-term goals keep the momentum going and enable you to fill your days with meaningful, useful activity. Very few people are happy to be aimless and unoccupied.
Clear goals keep you focused, allow you to take decisions more easily, make full use of your energy, your talents and proclivities, help you plan your time more effectively and enable you to accomplish far more. They are the means by which you create your future, rather than the future creating you.
I’m often asked whether it is healthy to be obsessed with goals. I answer that choosing goals is not about being obsessed, although you must bear in mind if you want to achieve at a high level, that outstandingly successful individuals are usually passionate about what they are doing. You don’t have to be
obsessed with goals, rather use them to clarify what you want out of life and progress steadily towards them, enjoying what you’re doing and keeping your life in balance.
Staying Motivated
The key to staying motivated lies in our old friend, the ITIA formula.