It is important to have goals

The year 2022 kicked off a little over three weeks ago and some of you may have already given up on achieving any of your New Year's resolutions. Maybe you didn't even make any!

Dennis Coetzee, group manager of Human Capital at NWK and an international laugh coach, explains why it is important to have goals and how to set clear, achievable ones.

“The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.” – Bill Copeland

Setting goals not only motivates us, but can also improve our mental health and our level of personal and professional success. Whether you want this or not, time will pass in your life. In five years’ time, you’ll be five years older. Goals with specific measures and deadlines ensure that you are maximising your experience on earth. If you have already discovered your life purpose (the topic for a future article), your goals will help you get the best out of your purpose.

The importance of goalsetting

Goalsetting has been described as the inner technology of success. As Bill Copeland says, when you don’t set goals, you can spend your whole life running up and down and not achieve anything. In reality, you’re just fulfilling others’ goals – not yours.?

When you stop to set goals and think about what you want, you break out of autopilot and start living a life of your conscious creation. Instead of letting others tell you what to do, you proactively take charge and think about what you want. Even if things don’t go according to plan, it’s okay as you can review and adjust your plans and then steer your life towards your vision.?

Top performers, world-class athletes and successful people all set goals. That’s because when you set goals, you have a vision to work towards. You ensure that you are pushing yourself to get the best results, rather than resting on your laurels and waiting for things to happen.?

Lou Tice, a self-development guru, said that if you don’t set goals, you will either follow goals set by others, continue to do the same things or even worse – die or become stagnant. ?

Although everyone knows that setting goals is important, we often don’t realise how important they are as we continue to move through life. There are many benefits and advantages to having a set of goals to work towards.?

Setting goals helps you to:

• Trigger new behaviours.
• Guide your focus – what exactly to spend your time and energy on.
• Sustain your momentum in life.
• Take control of living your life.
• Stay motivated.
• Promote a sense of self-mastery.

In the end, you can’t manage what you don’t measure, and you can’t improve upon something that you don’t properly manage. Setting goals can help you do all of that and more. ?

Take the step

All goals are created twice: First in the mind, then in the physical world. The mental creation happens when you set your goals. The physical creation happens when you work on your goals and bring it to life. Without the mental creation, the physical creation can’t happen. When you set goals, you kick off the very first step to make your dreams happen, after which the next steps will follow.?

When you set goals, you connect yourself with your innermost desires. They help to motivate you and give you something to strive for. This is especially powerful if you’re not in a good place in life at the moment. Your goals help to remind you of the things you love, to redirect your focus away from the negative obstacles and to reconnect you with your innermost desires. When you are feeling negative and down, it’s often because you feel you have nothing worth looking forward to. Your goals are the rainbow to strive for, to push you out of the storm.?

Goals help you to achieve your highest potential. Without goals, you default to a routine of activities that keeps you feeling safe and comfortable every day. By setting goals, you set targets to strive towards. These targets make you venture into new places and new situations that put you into growth mode. They make you stretch beyond your normal self and reach new heights.?

Going through life without setting clear goals is a little like starting out on a trip with no idea where you intend to go. Now you might wind up having a very pleasant time, but the odds are against it. Somewhere along the way, you will be faced with having to make some choices. Now would you rather decide where to go based on the things you happen to have with you, or would you rather pack things that are appropriate for the destination??

Here is my question to you: How often do you set goals? How often do you revisit your goal list? What are your goals for the next year, three, five or even ten years? Don’t put off until tomorrow what you could do today.

Setting goals is a process that changes over time. The goals you set in your twenties will most likely be very different from the goals you set in your forties.

Whatever your age doesn’t really matter in the end, as long as you continually revisit your life goals and work to update them. If you just take some time out to set your goals now, I can guarantee you that you will definitely experience more growth as a person. By just spending a few minutes to articulate some aspirations that have been in your mind, you will experience more progress in your life a year from now than if you don’t. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s start writing your development goals!?

HOW DO I SET GOALS FOR MYSELF? WHERE DO I START?

Another self-development guru, Zig Ziglar, prescribed following the next seven steps:?

1.????Identify what you want or where you are stuck.

2.????Clearly spell out why you want to reach that particular goal.

3.????List the obstacles that stand between you and your goal.

4.????Identify the things you need to know to get to your goal.

5.????Identify the people you need to work with to reach your goal.

6.????Develop a detailed plan of action to reach success.

7.????Set a date on when you aim to reach that goal.?

Short- or long-term goals

Some people say that long-term goals are the kind you need to set if you really want to get anywhere. Other people say that long-term goals are too distant to get their arms around. ?

The best kind of goals to have, is a combination of short- and long-term goals. If you have only long-term goals, you may indeed find it rough going. The realities of life are that most of us have many pressing goals in the present – things we must get done on a daily and weekly basis. These things often cause us to put off the long-term goals. Or we may become demoralised because we don’t see ourselves accomplishing or achieving anything right now.

On the other hand, if you have only short-term goals, you may feel fragmented or lacking in a sense of overall direction and purpose. But when you combine them, you have the best of both.?

Just remember:

• Goals should focus not only on ends, but also on means.
• People can attend to just so many written goals. Don’t go overboard!
• Have fun.
• One goal should not be achieved at the expense of another.
• Face your goals with determination and resolve to never give up. Persistence is important for achievement.

This article was originally published in the July/August edition of NWK Arena.