WHY ARE GOALS IMPORTANT?

Why are goals important?

Life is very unplanned and uncertain but we can surely have goals to give a destination to ourselves and an action plan to decide, which journey we should take?

If we do not decide on goals we will keep on hopping from one option to another, choosing the various actions from time to time without having anything concrete in hands.

A goal is the idea of the future or desired result that a person wishes to plan and commit to achieving within the desired time period.

These goals need to have some features which we can determine by making them SMART.

S – SPECIFIC

M – MEASURABLE

Define the evidence which will prove you are making progress and reevaluate when necessary which are basically specific numbers. If this is unavailable then you will not able to track your progress. For e.g. – Rather than saying I want to be a successful businessman, you should say I want to grow my business from 1 crore to 2 crores.

A – ACHIEVABLE

The goal must be achievable and attainable. This will help you to find out ways you can vision things clearly and work towards it. The goal should be well broken into small parts and the feasibility of resources should also be checked in detail. For e.g. Is your team capable of completing the task in the designated time period?

R – RELEVANT

The goal should be aligned with your values and long-term objectives as if it is not aligned, then the goals will not result in the achievement of your life purpose.

T – TIME BOUND

The goal should be set within a realistic timeline or end date and the tasks should be accordingly prioritized. The focus will be more on the important tasks and urgency won’t occur.

When the goals are SMART they are well defined and descriptive which helps in better achievement and motivation. These are really important for development and success. But, the key is, it requires some practicing to make it part of daily life.

You can take up a challenge of 21 days in order to make it a habit with the help of a Goal planning cheat sheet.

So, having goals are important for a lot of reasons:-

• Goals provide you a roadmap to attain success.

• Goals tell you from where to start and where to end and you know your starting point and destination.

• The goals are the targets at which you point in your life.

• Goal setting tells you about how you are moving and what is your progress. If some changes are needed then that is also visible in the goal-setting.

• If you set goals you will accomplish more and grow more.

• You need to have the correct mindset in order to achieve the goals which include 100 % commitment, being in a 0 comfort zone, and resilience to change.

• Your course of action is definite and fixed.

• You will have better concentration, better focus, and in some time consistency will also be there in your approach.

• You will learn new things if you set goals.

• When you measure goals and see you have reached a target you will be motivated and you will be more determined towards goals.

• The goal-setting process helps you to clarify what actually your desires are and you understand the importance of following them. You also become committed to fulfilling them.

• You need to start doing in order to achieve goals.

• If defined in writing it keeps your head and heart in place.

• Loner goals when broken into small parts help you to take one step at a time.

• Goals help in better decision making.

• Goals help you to decide your priorities and let you focus on the important things.

Once goal planning is done you need to plan actions and take steps to achieve it for which you can check this detailed video and know all about goal planning.