Goal setting is one of the most commonly discussed topics in the realm of personal development. I’m very much into goal setting and I know how powerful it is. If you are yet to set any goal, you should. Stop living your life like a lost sheep following wherever the crowd brings you, live your own life today. There are plenty of benefits to setting goals, and you will discover 7 of them in this article.
You can always learn more about goal setting from this blog.
If you read any personal development books, you will notice that one of the most commonly cited keys to success is to set goals.
Tony Robbins says…
“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.”
Anthony Robbins
No matter what you want to achieve in life, you can do it as long as you set it as a goal and then work diligently toward it.
So, why do extraordinary people recommend goal setting? Here are the 7 benefits you should know…
1. Your goals actively direct your life
Do you know that when you set goals, your goals will direct how you live your life?
Imagine going through a weekend with no particular aim in mind, how would you go through the day?
Well, most likely you will wake up late since it is a weekend and you have nothing to do. After you wake up, you probably check updates on Facebook. And maybe you will watch TV and have a late breakfast.
In the afternoon, you may end up sleeping because there’s nothing to do. You feel bored. Or maybe you will end up hanging with your friends or playing games or watching movies.
This is what happens when you don’t have a clear direction or goals in life.
Things will be different when you have goals.
For example, if your goal is to lose some fat and to improve your knowledge in your career, you will go through your weekend totally different.
You might wake up early to hit the gym or go for jogging. You know you want to lose the extra fat to achieve your ideal weight. Thus, you spend less time on TV and on Facebook.
And since you wake up early, you will get a good breakfast and that really give you a good jumpstart of the day.
In the afternoon, you recall that you want to improve your knowledge on your career, so you end up going to nearby coffee house, enjoying your latte while reading books and doing research about your work.
How’s does that sound? Felling good? A great weekend?
When you have crystal clear goals in your head, you know what to do. This is why your goals will actively direct your life.
In other words, your goals and your intention will determine how you live your life. Your goals determine your destiny.
Your goals tell you what to do and what to avoid doing. This is the power of goal setting, it brings you toward the things you want in your life.
2. Goals give you reasons to be alive and wake up every morning
If you are living your life and going through each day without motivation, feeling sleepy and always seem boring, you need a goal.
Think about it, why do you wake up every morning?
If you don’t have a purpose in life, you will never want to wake up. You will choose to sleep as much as possible and wake up automatically without the use of your alarm.
If you say that you wake up because you need to get to work or else you will be late, think about it again.
Why do you go to work? Do you work because you need money or do you seriously love your work?
I have seen people who go to work for the sake of working. They don’t feel motivated and they always arrive at their workplace the last minute.
When they work on their tasks, they work for the sake of working. They will never do it with their best. Instead, they do it just to get the work done.
And they leave early and they try to avoid additional work whenever possible. Have you encountered people like this?
If this describes you, you probably don’t have a goal in your career or business. Or maybe, your goals are not exciting enough.
When your goals are what you truly desire to achieve in life, you will want to wake up to achieve them. Heck, you don’t even want to sleep because you can’t help but to consistently thinking about them.
Here’s another great quote from Tony Robbins that I love a lot:
“People are not lazy. They simply have impotent goals – that is, goals that do not inspire them.”
Anthony Robbins
Therefore, set empowering goals that will excite and motivate you. You should make your goals as something you look forward to each day.
And when you do, you will become unstoppable. Your goals become your life’s purpose and every day, you are working toward fulfilling something that inspires and recharges your soul. That’s the power of goal setting.
Want to learn how to set empowering goals and achieve them like a champion? Check out Goal Setting Formula.
3. Goals get rid of distraction and keep you focus
People who go through life without having a clear direction are always getting distracted. This is because they don’t know what they want. And thus, whenever something else comes to them, they will jump onto it.
If you read the biographies of successful people who accomplish extraordinary results in life, you will see that they don’t live an ordinary life because they don’t do what ordinary people do.
They have their own thinking and they have their own view about life. They live at their own terms and they dare to be different.
Identifying your goals is just like finding the bull’s eye on the target. Once you found your bull’s eye, you can then shoot the arrow straight at it.
Guess what will happen if you don’t know where your target is? You will shoot anywhere and everywhere. You can’t focus. There is no target for you to focus on.
Most people are living in mediocrity and they don’t dare to do things differently. They were told and programmed that they need to get good grades in school, and after they graduated, they need to find a stable job.
While I’m not saying that this is something you should not do, but I’m suggesting you think for yourself and find out what you truly want in life.
Start with setting an empowering goal that you are passionate about. If your goals is to build a business, so be it, stop following the crowd and don’t live like everyone else. Be yourself.
This is your life and you should live it the way you want. Don’t get distracted by other people’s opinion and start living at your best.
And this is exactly why goal setting is important. It helps you focus on what you want and at the same time, helps getting rid of your distractions.
4. Your goals allow you to improve, progress and get better
There is no way you can grow, improve, and become better when you don’t have a goal. It is only when you have a clear and specific goal, that you will be able to get better at it.
This is one of the most impactful benefits when you set goals. Think about all the professional athletes out there. They want to win the competition, they want to be the best, they want to break the records, and they want to get into the Olympics.
Whatever their goals, they have something in mind that they want to achieve.
And because of their goals, they work harder and train to get better each day. It is extremely difficult to go through the tough training without having a clear goal in your mind.
Imagine you’re a tennis player, but you don’t have any goal or target. Do you think you’re going to work harder and train harder? The answer is resounding no. Why? Because you don’t have anything to look forward to.
It is the same in any business and career. If you want to improve and get better results, first, you have to have a goal.
How much money do you want to make this year? How much sales do you want? How many clients are you going to talk to?
If you don’t have a goal, you will never bother measuring your progress and results. You will never bother to find out how many sales calls you need to make to hit your target.
The same if you want to lose weight. Well, how much weight do you want to lose? And what do you need to do to get rid of the extra fat?
You see, when you don’t have a goal to lose weight, you will never take any actions that are related to your goals. Do you get it?
People who strive to get better each day are people who have clarity in what they want out of their life.
Always remember that clarity is power. And clarity starts by identifying your goals. What do you want to achieve in your life?
Set your goals, be clear and specific with what you want, and you will become better because you are moving in the direction that you desire.
5. Your goals drive you and keep you motivated
This is common. Your goals will motivate you and drive you into taking action, period.
Unfortunately, most people’s goals don’t drive them, why?
The answer is that their goals are NOT exciting enough. They don’t feel like achieving their goals. To them, whether they achieve their goals or not is not a matter of life and death. It is fine if they don’t achieve their goals.
When your goals don’t matter to you, well, guess what, you will never bother about them either.
You have to set a goal that is what you truly want in your life. You have to be serious and treat your goal as something sacred. You have to protect it and never let anyone steal or talk you out of it.
I have seen a lot of people set goals as to how much they want to earn, but whenever things get tough, or whenever other people tell them it is impossible, they tend to lose faith and give up.
Never let this happen to you.
- Set a goal that is what you truly desire.
- Set a goal that will empower you.
- Set a goal that will drive and make you jump out of bed each morning.
- Set a goal that will motivate you and make you think about accomplishing it every moment.
- Set a goal that you look forward to achieving.
When your goals are empowering and exciting to you, you will never run out of motivation and energy.
I believe that nobody is lazy. They just don’t know how to channel their energy and motivation in the right place.
Think about it. Some people are able to wake up extremely early each morning to play golf. Some people are able to stay motivated until late at night to watch their favorite drama series.
Everyone can be motivated when they know what are the things that empower and drive them.
You just need to identify your hot button and set your goals around it. Find out what motivates you in life.
6. Goals hold you accountable and committed
What will you do when you don’t have a plan? Well, you will do whatever comes into your mind. You will be reactive instead of proactive.
Successful people are proactive and they go ahead and make things happen. On the other hand, mediocre people who don’t know what they want will do things based on their reaction.
Which category do you want to be in?
When there is something you are looking forward to, you will be more committed to doing it. You will have accountability because it is something that you have promised yourself.
This is especially true when you have made the public commitment.
Imagine your goal is to lose weight and you tell your friends that you are going to hit the gym twice a week. And if you did not achieve your ideal weight by the end of 3 months, you will give all your friends $100. Do you think you will have the accountability and commitment to workout in the gym?
You know the answer.
This is how your goals can make you more committed. There’s a saying:
“If you’re interested, you will do what is convenient; if you’re committed, you’ll do whatever it takes.”
And commitment comes from setting a clear and specific goal.
You can’t be committed if you don’t know what to do, right? It is only possible to commit to something when you know what that something is. And that something is your goal.
Before you can be committed to taking the shot, you must first identify your targets; crystal clear targets.
Hence, set clear and specific goals. Don’t delay, do it right now. Use the technique I shared in Goal Setting Formula and bring your life to the next level.
7. Goals allow you to live the life you want
Thoughts are things. Whatever you focus on and think about all the time, you will get it. This is how the Law of Attraction works.
I love to share the story about Jack Ma. He said that once his wife told him that he did not belong to her, he belongs to Alibaba. And Jack had to agree.
Jack Ma said that he is so obsessed with growing his business that he can’t help but to keep thinking about the business at every moment. When he eats, when he drinks, when he walks, when he takes a bath, etc, he can’t stop thinking about his business.
And that is why his wife said that he belongs to Alibaba, the company that he started, and not her.
Do you know why successful people are successful?
“Extraordinary people talk about ideas, goals and dreams all the time. Average people talk about events and what is happening. Mediocre people talk about other people and they complain most of the time.”
So what do you talk about most of the time? Stop reading and ponder about this for a moment.
What did you talk to your friends or colleagues or your spouse just now? What thoughts do you hold in your mind constantly?
Remember, your thoughts become your life.
If you always think about having not enough money, then it will happen in your life. You will feel like having no money all the time.
And to change the situation, you must first change your mindset. Think about something which is more positive and better. Think about how lucky you are, how good you can be, and how wonderful your future can be.
When you change your thoughts, you change your action. When you change your action, the results will change and so with your life.
And this is exactly why goal setting is so important. One of the biggest benefits when you set goals is that your goals will remind you of what you want to achieve.
In other words, your goals will dominate your thoughts. And when all you think about is your goals, guess what will happen? You will become obsessed with your goals and can’t wait to take massive actions to realize them.
This is exactly why I said that your goals allow you to live the life that you want.
No matter what you want to achieve in your life, the first thing you need to do is to set it as a goal. Let your goals guide you.
Where To Go From Here
So you know the benefits and the importance of setting goals. What should you do now?
Take out a piece of paper, write down all the goals that you want to accomplish. You can follow Jack Canfield’s advice of writing 100 goals to achieve in your life. And then narrow down and focus on just a few goals that are truly important to you.
It doesn’t matter how many times you have written down your goals. Repetition is the key to mastery.
If you are reading this right now, I suggest you practice active goal setting; that is, to write down your goals every day.
The more you do it, the better you will become and the more you are aware of your goals.
You will then program your goals into your mind. You inject the ideas of what you want to achieve into your subconscious mind.
When this happens, things will become automatic. You will develop habits to take action and move toward your goals.
This is how extraordinary people achieve extraordinary results in life.
However, it all starts from having a clear and specific goal that will motivate you in life. So do it right now. Set your goals.
And below are some extra resources to help you understand more about how goal setting works and how you can set and achieve your goals like a pro:
Why Deadlines for Your Goals Are Important
10 Tips How to Make Your Goals Motivating and Exciting
How to Turn Your Goals into Actionable Plans
One More Time: How to Achieve Your Goals
How to Measure Your Progress to Effectively Achieve Your Goals
Goal Setting Checklist: The 7 Elements Your Goal Must Have
Or better yet, join my training at Goal Setting Formula to master the skill that will help you achieve greater success in life.
