“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail” is a well-said sentence, which you probably have heard before, at least a couple times. Actually, it is not only nice in sound when you read it out loud, but also meaningful and educational when you critically study about it. Simply, the person who created that sentence wants us to understand the power of planning (before doing), goal setting (before acting) and/or thinking (before drawing).
Personally, I may not be able to come up with all the nice things to talk about that sentence like the person who originally wrote it. But I have set a lot of goals, achieved many of them and learnt the importance of goal setting too. Therefore, I hope that what I am going to share with you about the importance of goal setting can satisfy you and let you see its value the way I have.
1. Goal setting allows you to design your future.
If you were given an opportunity to design or create your future, would you ever say ‘NO’? Then, why do you say ‘No’ to goal setting? Frankly, I don’t guarantee you that goal setting can get everything you want to happen in the future. But, my experience has taught me that it can get me and you most of those things, or at least very close to those targets you want.
Let’s think this way. If you shoot a watermelon with a gun from a 20-meter distance without aiming, how much confidence do you think you can hit it? How about with aiming? Please, be honest. If you really feel and believe that life should be lived unpredictably in a way that you don’t want to know what is going to happen to you and what you are going to do about it, I suggest you stop reading this article. But if you want to take control of your life, go on and you will know how to do it.
2. Goal setting disciplines your daily activities.
Do you honestly believe that you are now leading a disciplined life? Have you students ever wondered why you usually feel lazy, want to take things easy, and do crazy things by not going out to do what you are supposed to do?
I believe most of us have felt so and the reason behind this is that we don’t know EXACTLY WHY we have to do what we are doing and what we are going to get if we can complete the work. I don’t know whether you realize it or not, but it is just almost impossibly hard to get you to do something that you don’t know WHY you’ve got to do it.
They say what you do everyday has a huge impact on your future. If this is true, it also means that you are going to have a very good future (the one that you want) if you can discipline your daily activities well. How can you discipline your daily activities?
From my experience, you’ve got to know exactly what kind of future you want to have and use the trace-back technique. For instance, in the next 6 months I want to have a strong and healthy body and be able to defense myself in hand combat (this is the kind of future I want). So I strictly command (discipline) myself everyday (7/30/365) to jog 15 minutes, do abdominal training another 15 minutes, and learn martial arts techniques for half an hour. Sometimes, I had to get up early at 5 o’clock in the morning to do this. You think I like it? No, but it is something I have to do to have the future I want.
Self-discipline is actually very important for anyone who thrives for big success in life because no one, and I mean on one, on earth likes to do hard work even though everyone wants to accomplish big things, which is the reason that we need to have some discipline to control over our feelings, moods, and actions especially for doing difficult things. For example, every student wants high GPA, but no one wants to read book, do exercises, complete assignments, and etc. When these things get tough, almost everyone gives up.
3. Goal setting inspires you to live a great life.
I think if life-changing power existed, not a single person in this world would ever design his life to become a bad, useless person. No one would ever pick up a pen and write: “In the future, I want to become a beggar, so that my spouse will become a co-founder of my begging business and the best of all is that my children do not need to go to school and learn anything. They can just inherit my business”.
No, hell no! Everybody wants to have a great life. All people want to live in happiness.
So, if you can actually write your goals down on a piece of paper and stick it on anywhere that you can see every day, those goals will come back to inspire you every single you look at them. Whenever you are down or feel upset, you can just read your goals out loud to yourself and I can assure you that you will become non-stop again in just a matter of minutes.
Personally, I have my goals everywhere, on the dressing mirror in my bed room, on the bedroom door, in my mobile phone, in my computer, and etc. I write and revise them on a daily basis, especially immediately when I get up and just before I go to bed in order to get motivated for the whole day. I think if I forgot my goals and were not motivated by them, I would not be able to write this article now or create www.teplivina.com at all.
4. Goal setting lets you measure your success.
In goal setting approaches, there is a part that talks about measurement. In that part, you are advised to provide the exact number/statistics of things you want to have. Some materials even advise you to actually see or touch what you want to achieve. Without proper goal setting, you may know that you want to succeed in doing something, but you fail to know how much/far/long exactly.
Most people who don’t write their goals down in papers usually face with this problem; in their head there is no mechanism which allows them to estimate the extent they want something or if there is, they will forget it easily. Also, goal setting can tell you whether the amount that you want your success to be is reasonable or not. In goal setting, you must set realistic and achievable goal, or your goal is just a goal and will never be realized. Too big a goal makes you become restless and greedy and too small a goal makes you poor.
5. Goal setting uplifts you.
You may get this point confusing with the one that I said goal setting inspires you. Actually, goal setting can also help you see yourself better than you have seen yourself.
You know, people with big goals are the most shining, positive, and motivating people in the world. They just feel good about themselves and love doing what they are doing. Try setting some goals for your life if you have usually had a low self-image or self-esteem about yourself and what you have or do.
Sometimes, you don’t know how good you are until you put what you are doing and want to do in writing. Then, when you read your goals, it is like you are reading an autobiography written about your life and which you have power to change. This is a clever staff because you can actually see how potentials you are, thus making you a person full of confidence and self-motivation.
6. Goal setting lets you live a stress-free life.
Whether you acknowledge it or not, most if not all people living on this earth are ambitious. We all just want and demand more and more. Sometimes, we want even something that we don’t deserve, thus pushing ourselves so hard and causing ourselves stress, frustration, and even death.
Therefore, one of the ways to solve this endlessly-wanting-more problem is goal setting. You and I need to set goals and determine exactly what we want. We don’t have to demand what we don’t want until it makes us stressful. The goal in life is to live a happy life, in which stress is not included. We work for what we deserve and want only. Besides that, just let it be. I can say that this is also the reason God gives us two hands.
7. Goal setting balances your life.
Goal setting, if done correctly and properly, can influence many aspects of human life. For example, your goal to maintain a balanced diet can affect your finance, health, socialization, and relationship and more.
I think all people want a balanced life (no one wants a billion dollar, but a sick body). That’s why you need to learn about goal setting, and how to set them right and appropriately. Well-balanced life is crucially important. People can’t be extreme on any aspect of life that they forget about others.
For instance, as a child you will not be happy if your dad is too busy earning money without caring to look at you or talking to you. As a student, I bet you don’t want to study 24/7/365 that you don’t have time to do anything else or meet anyone because you are too busy learning to get high GPA. Even though you can achieve the top GPA, I think you are not going to feel happy either since you have sacrificed too much to get too little.
(If you are interested in knowing how to set goals properly, please read: The Purpose of Goal Setting and Wh-question goal-setting approach)
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