If you are able to successfully set and achieve personal goals for yourself, you will experiences many benefits. Even if you do not reach all your goals, just having them can enrich your life in a number of ways.
“The tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goals to reach.” Benjamin Mays
The following highlights the many benefits you will receive if you create goals and stick to them.
First and foremost, goals give you a direction and destination. They give you something to aim for and direct your efforts towards. They help guide you to where you ultimately want to be in life. Setting lifetime goals is like choosing the destination you ultimately what to reach. Therefore, instead of wandering through life, you are able to determine where you want to go.
“The great thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes
Your goals give you a clear focus on what you believe to be important in life. Therefore, it is essential when setting your personal goals, you first think about what is important to you and what you really want to accomplish in life. If you take the time to truly reflect on your hopes and dreams, your goals will center on what is important to you. You then will systematically and consciously focus your attention on what is important to you. If you do not set well thought out goals, you tend to spend your time doing things that are not important to you.
“The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.” – Denis Watley
As we mentioned, goal setting helps you focus on what is important to you, what you want to accomplish, and where you want to be in the future. This perspective helps in decision making. If you know where you want to go, you are in a better position to makes decision that may affect your direction in life. You are able to make a better decisions on how you want to proceed if you know what is important to you and what you ultimately want to accomplish.
“Your goals are the road maps that guide you and show you what is possible for your life.” – Les Brown
Setting goals helps you take control of your future. Without goals, you tend to drift aimlessly. You do not have a plan for where your life is headed, so you just go with the flow. However, by setting goals, you have more control over where you are headed and how you get there.
By writing down your goals and the steps you plan to take to reach those goals, you have a plan for your future. So, instead of just aimlessly wandering through life, you are able to determine where you want to go and what you want to accomplish along the way. You are able to get a perspective and prioritize what you want to accomplish over the next few months and/or years. That control makes you responsible for your own success or failures.
When you establish a goal, you must also create a plan to reach that goal. The plan should have objectives that provide a step-by-step plan to accomplish that goal. This can help you stay focused and not to get side tracked and veer off course.
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined.” Henry David Thoreau
Goals give you hope and something to aspire to. In itself, having a meaningful goal to think about and envision reaching can be very motivating. As you start towards your long-term goals, you are able to accomplish some short-term goals. With those accomplishments, your long term goal becomes more realistic. The more short-term goals you are able to accomplish the more you believe you will reach your ultimate goal. That feeling of accomplishment fuels your desire and continues to motivate you to achieve even more. Additionally, that motivation and positive feelings will help you get over many obstacles you may encounter along the way.
Once you have clear written goals, your mind starts to focus more on how to achieve those goals. Instead of just hoping that you will do something someday, you start to take daily progress towards your goals. Even the smallest actions on a daily basis, add up to big results over the course of a year.
“Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.” -Louisa May Alcott
Goals make your life more challenging, but at the same time, they give you a sense of personal satisfaction. Setting and reaching your personal goals help you appreciate your capabilities, and gives you an idea of your full potential.
Goal setting is the principal tool for helping you reach your full potential. Every successful step toward attaining your short-term and long-term goals builds confidence and gives you a sense of personal pride. The more you accomplish, the better you feel about yourself.
“The moment of enlightenment is when a person’s dreams of possibilities become images of probabilities.” Vic Braden
People need a sense of purpose in their lives, and goals can give you that sense of purpose. Instead of just going through the motions and existing from day to day, your goals give you reasons to get up in the morning, a reason act, and a reason to live the life you desired.
The goal setting process helps you identify your purpose in life. By taking the time to reflect on who you are and what you want to accomplish throughout your life, you discover your purpose. If you center your goals on that purpose, your life becomes more meaningful.
“If you have a goal in life that takes a lot of energy, that requires a lot of work, that incurs a great deal of interest and that is a challenge to you, you will always look forward to waking up to see what the new day brings.” Susan Polis Schultz
