Not having goals in life is like riding on a camel in an endless desert and you don’t even have any gadget to find the right direction, which will lead you to nowhere but near to the death.
What would happen if a ship or an airplane don’t have radar or compass to find the right direction to reach their destination?
Definitely, they would sink or crash at a point of time.
Now you may be thinking that why even I am asking you these questions and what is the connection between these questions and the having goals for life.
So let me tell you that there is a very strong connection exists because not having the gadget to find the right direction to survive is the same as not having goals in life.
In simple words, I can say that if you don’t have proper goals in your life you are gonna waste your entire life doing something that has no real importance in your life and you are not even made for that.
What Does The Goal Setting Mean?
Goal setting is a process to create the system plan through timeframes and measurable activities to accomplish something in the future.
Goal setting is the same as creating a map or a blueprint.
In this world, there is nothing that we created at once, everything has been created twice by the human, once inside their mind and then outside in the real world physically.
So to accomplish something in the life almost every successful person create a detailed map or blueprint in their mind which is called goal setting in the normal language.
Why Is Goal Setting Important?
Goal setting is important because this is the only thing which can really help us to become whatever we want, or to achieve whatever we want to achieve in our life.
We as a human being as the most intelligent species of the earth are not being put into this world just to eat, sleep, sex and then die. We are here to do something beyond these general things.
If we as a human being just spending our life by eating, sleeping, having sex and then dying then there is no difference between an animal and us because animals also can do these things.
So if you really want to do something in your life or want to become someone beyond these general and animals things then you have to work very hard to accomplish that and to do that you have to set goals for your life because without setting any goal it is impossible to accomplish anything in our life.
Goal setting is as much important as having a map and compass in the middle of the desert while you are riding on a camel to find the right path.
Goals are like those compass and radar that help ships & airplanes to reach their destination by showing the right way.
How To Set Goals For Life?
Goal setting seems like an overwhelming task at the first but if you know the right steps then it will become very easy for you.
Although every year most of the people take the new year resolution to set some serious goals for their life. But after a few days or weeks, they fail to follow the same.
If you really want to set and accomplish goals in your life then before that first you have to identify and overcome from the reasons what make people fail to do so.
And according to me, there are four main reasons for this;
- A big reason behind that is not choosing the right goals.
- The second reason is not having the clear goals.
- The third reason is not having the proper strategies to accomplish the goals.
- And the last reason is the lack of motivation.
Now you know the main reasons that can make you fail to set your goals and to accomplish those. So it is time to find the real solution to overcome the above-mentioned reasons to set life goals.
To do this successfully, you have to do some reverse engineering with the main four problems, and for that at first, you have to find the right goals for life and don’t worry I will help you with that.
SMART Criteria To Find The Right Goals For Life
Before setting any goal it is most important to find the right goals for life because this is not the thing which can be changed after you wake up in the morning next day.
So to choose the right kind of life goals wisely there are some very important criteria you should keep in mind.
The criteria are named as SMART goals.
Here SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound.
As mentioned in Wikipedia:
“The first known use of the term (SMART) occurs in the November 1981 issue of Management Review by George T. Doran. The principal advantage of SMART objectives is that they are easier to understand and to know when they have been done. SMART criteria are commonly associated with Peter Drucker’s management by objectives concept.”
S = Specific:
Your goals should be very specific and clear because if your goals are not specific then you will never be able to make proper strategies to achieve those unspecific goals.
For example: If your goal is to make money then it should be a specific amount like “my goal is to make 1 million dollars” not like ” I want to make so much money” because it will be like firing on the air without even setting the target.
M = Measurable:
Your goal should be measurable so that you can measure the progress of that goal which helps you to understand if you are really achieving the goal or not.
For example: If you want to make 1 million dollars as per the first example which is specific as well as measurable because you can measure the progress of that goal easily, like if you can make 50,000 dollars per month then it will take 20 months to make 1 million dollars.
A = Achievable:
Your goal should be realistic and actionable so that you can achieve that goal by taking the required actions based on reality. Never set a goal which is unrealistic.
For example: if I go with the earlier example where you have set a goal to make 1 million dollars within 20 months which is absolutely realistic and achievable goal if you take the right actions.
But if you set a goal to make those 1 million dollars within one month, this would be an unrealistic goal and you can never achieve this kind of goals unless you win a lottery or do something unethical which I never suggest.
R = Relevant:
Whatever actions you take to achieve your goal those actions or steps should be relevant to your goals because if your actions are not moving you toward your goals then it will become impossible to achieve any goal and the goal will become irrelevant.
For example: again as per the earlier example if your goal is to make 1 million dollars within 20 months then you have to find the right ways to accomplish that goal in the given time and you have to take proper actions to make at least 1,666 dollars per day to reach your goal.
So in this situation, you have to find some sort of job or business that can make 1,666 dollars per day, and for that, you have to develop and improve your skills to qualify for that kind of job or business. But if you are not taking proper action to develop the required skills then your goal is not relevant anymore.
T = Time-Bound:
Every goal should have a time-bound deadline because the deadline increases the possibilities to accomplish the goal within the given time. If you don’t set a deadline for your goals, then you will never get serious about your goals.
For example: I remember when I was at school & college whenever we got an assignment to complete, even before the 30 days of submission date, but we always used to procrastinate and complete the assignment at the last moment just before the submission deadline ends.
So if you don’t set a timebound deadline for your goals then you will always procrastinate and never take action to accomplish the goals.
SMART Goal Summarize:
So if I combine all the criteria from the SMART criteria then it teaches us that we should have an exact specific goal which should be easily measurable and based on reality, as well as we should take the right actions or steps to make our goals relevant and the final thing is that every goal should have a timebound deadline to complete.
How to Reach Your Goals by Keeping a Journal?
Keeping a journal for your goal setting is the best things ever you can do, it is just like seeding your goals in the journal.
When you write your goals in the journal and also record the strategies and actions you need to complete to reach your goals then it becomes easy to achieve the goals.
Although the human mind has unlimited memory still we need a well-organized journal to write down our goals and keeping track of those goals so that slowly the goals register in our subconscious mind.
There are many kinds of journaling people do but here I am talking about the goal journal where you will only write the things related to your goals or will support you to accomplish your goals.
To begin journaling you can use a normal diary, an app on your mobile phone or both of them at the same time, it totally depends on you.
Benefits of Keeping a Goal Journal
Since journaling is a very broad topic so there are so many benefits to keeping a journal but in this section, I will be telling only about those benefits which are relevant to our main topic and also can help you to achieve your goals.
- Journaling will help you to record your goals in a well-organized way.
- It can help you to keep track of your actions to accomplish your goals.
- You can always remember your goals through your journal it will never let you forget about your goals.
- It is very helpful to establish the new habits to move towards your goal.
- Keeping a journal will help you to utilize your time and not wasting it.
- Journaling can help you to prioritize your day to day tasks.
- It will motivate you every single day by showing you the past recorded tasks related to your goals that you have been completed successfully.
How To Organize The Goal Setting Journal?
Although you may have learned so many strategies about the goal setting journal over the internet still in this section I am going to share with you my own ways to organize my goals in my journal that help me to stay organized and focused towards my goals in life.
To be honest I won’t say this is the best way that you should follow but I would definitely say that these journaling strategies are helping me a lot in every single day of my life.
There are a few steps that I follow and you also can follow for your goal journaling which I am going to elaborate in the below.
Lifetime Goals:
This is not as simple as you think. Setting goals for life is a very big challenge for anyone who wants to pursue.
But let me tell you that this is the most important thing a human ever can do because in today’s time most of us are just spending our lives around the things that are not that important for us.
We do not have any mission for our lives which can keep us inspired all the time and also whenever we feel useless.
It may take a few days to decide the goals for your life till it ends, but you have to take the time to find the answers about what you want to do with your life before you die.
When you get all the answers just write down all of them in your journal so that you always remember your mission in life.
Goals Till You Get Old:
As soon as you decide the life goals you are ready to move to the next step which is setting goals until you get old based on your main life goals.
In this step, you have to write down your goals in more details and these should be the breakdown of your main life goals. Also, you need to make targets that how many portions of your life goals you want to accomplish till the time you get old.
Believe me, most of your life goals that need active actions should be completed within this period of life because after you get old you cannot stay as active as when you are young.
In this way, you can achieve whatever you want in your young days by taking the right actions.
Goals Before Retirement:
Either you are a 9 to 5 person or do your own business, you would have to get retired from your work someday. So why not make some great plan and accomplish them before the retirement.
In this step, you have to choose some major goals from the life goals and then need to make plans to accomplish them before your targeted retirement day, so that after the retirement you can focus on your other most important goals of life.
Goals For The Next Five Years:
Now break down your every life goals in the chunks for five years and then take the right actions to accomplish those goals within the five years, but don’t ever forget that this should take you closer to your main life goals.
Divide your goals as required then make a separate section in your journal and record all of them and also write what actions you need to take to complete those.
Yearly Goals:
Now you should make a separate section in your journal and then divide all the goals of five years in one year chunk and then start taking right actions so that these goals can take you closer to your five years goals every single year.
Quarterly Goals:
So now create a section in your journal where you should write all the goals for three months that can take you closer to your yearly goal as well as to your life goals. And most importantly write the actions or steps you would need to take.
Monthly Goals:
Here you have to set your monthly goals which can slowly lead you closer to your quarterly goals then yearly goals and so on.
Don’t forget to record these all in your journal so that you can track each and everything from time to time to keep yourself motivated and focused.
Weekly Goals:
This is one more section that you have to create in your journal to write all the small chunks of your weekly goals so that you can reach your monthly goals and so on by taking the right actions.
Daily Goals:
Now this section is the most important section from all because this section alone will decide if you are going to accomplish your life goals in reality or not.
In your journal, you have to create this section of daily goals every single day without any miss and also have to take the right actions or you can say the right steps to complete your daily goals at any cost.
This will alone help you to establish new habits and those new habits will push you towards your life goal every single moment by creating a chain reaction.
How To Stay Motivated And Focused To Achieve Goals?
We are humans, not robots. So sometime we may feel exhausted and demotivated during our lifetime especially when we can’t see any result of our actions.
So, in this case, I would like to give you an example and a great advice which I have learned from my mentor.
• First, let’s start with the example;
If I ask you a question that, suppose you have planted a seed of a mango tree, would it give fruits in the next week or next month? Is that possible?
Your answer will be definitely a BIG NO! Because it doesn’t work that way.
When you plant a mango seed it will take few weeks to sprout then few months to become a plant then few years to become a big tree, after that you will be able to get your fruits.
And during these all the long years period you have to take care of that plant all the time by giving your labor to it, also you have to take care of this plant from outside calamity until it becomes a strong tree.
So now hope you got my point behind the story.
Our goal is like that seed which we have to take care all the time by giving our time, labor and the right actions until it becomes a big strong tree which means until it accomplished.
• Now its time for that great advice given by my virtual mentor Mr, Sandeep Maheshwari;
If you really want to stay focused and motivated to achieve your goals then break down your big goals in small actionable goals and then take proper actions to achieve those small goals, when you achieve those small goals immediately give yourself some sort of reward.
That reward can be anything big to small as like giving yourself some sweets, by doing that in your mind you can associate that reward as an achievement prize, which creates a feeling of happiness.
And then our mind would want that same feeling again and again and that will encourage us to achieve our goals all the time so that our mind can taste that feeling of happiness again.
Conclusion
Whatever I have taught you in this entire article all I follow myself and not all of them are my own created concepts but I can say that I had to learn from many books, articles and also from the videos across the internet and then I have been able to write this article.
In the above, I told you to create many sections in the journal which is really the crucial thing to do but the more important thing is to take the right actions to achieve those goals, otherwise, all the things would become useless.
“Setting goal for life is the key to success.”
By the way, if you want to add on something to this article or want to say something then must write in the comment section below.
Stay happy and inspired!
