If setting goals is an activity you prefer to avoid, I think I know why that is.
You don’t know what you want.
Sure, you want to make more money. You don’t want to work for someone else. You’d like to have more freedom to go places and do things. You’d like to spend more time with your loved ones. You’d like to have a cushy nest egg for the future.
Okay. How do you plan on having those things? You have to start setting goals.
“Whatever it takes,” is not a goal.
Goal setting involves establishing specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-targeted (S.M.A.R.T) objectives. – Wikipedia
Unless you’re independently wealthy, you have to work. And you pretty much have to work about eight hours a day (give or take). So, what do you plan on doing, ideally, with those eight hours? (A goal to not have to work eight hours a day is not reality. What do you want to do?)
I know a lot of you are feeling trapped. You probably think “setting goals” is not an answer. But if you want to get somewhere, you need a plan – a map – direction. Setting goals gives you direction.
You have to decide what you want first of all. The problem with so many people is that they do not know what they really want. In other words they are not at all clear about what they want in life. – WikiHow
You may be unhappy with where you are but you haven’t really thought about how to get happier. You don’t have a clear vision of your future and you’re not setting goals.
How do you expect things to change?
Setting goals is definitive. It’s like saying, “I’m going to do [blank] and I’m going to earn [X dollars] doing it. Here’s how…” Be specific!
Do you want to get out of your day job? How are you going to do it? How much are you going to make? How are you going to make it?
If you don’t know what your goal is, you’ll have a hard time going after whatever it is you really want. By setting goals you’re giving yourself a plan to get where you want to go. It’s that simple! Set your mind on a task and you’ll accomplish it.
Keep it real! Pie in the sky dreams that don’t fit your life won’t work…
For example, you can’t buy a $750,000 house if your income goal is only $50,000 per year. This is called non-integrated thinking and will sabotage all of the hard work you put into your goals. – TopAchievement.com
It’s time to start setting clear goals. Without them, you’re just wishing for “something” that will never come.
What are your goals? Are they specific? Have you written them down?
