How often do you set goals? How often do you revisit your list of goals? Setting goals is important, but we often don’t realise just how important they are as we continue to move through life.
Goal setting does not have to be boring. There are many benefits and advantages to having a set of goals to work towards, for example setting goals helps guides your focus and helps you sustain momentum in life. Goals also help to align your focus and promote a sense of self-mastery. In the end, you can’t improve upon something that you’re not entirely focussed on.
What is a goal?
According to Wikipedia the exact definition of a goal is: A desired result a person or a system envisions, plans and commits to achieve a personal or organisational desired end-point in some sort of assumed development. Many people endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines. In other words, any planning you do for the future regardless of what it is or how near or far in the future you hope to achieve it by, is a goal. Therefore, the next time you are planning to do the weekly chores or decide to watch a film after work, always keep in mind that these small tasks account as goals and while they may be seemingly insignificant you are goal setting.
Goals help give you focus. Imagine having to shoot an arrow without being given a target. Where would you aim? Why would you aim there? And what would the purpose be? This is a literal example of what life is like without a goal or a target in mind. It is pointless and a waste of energy and effort. You can have all the potential in the world but without focus, your abilities and talent are useless. At the end of the day, goals are what give you direction in life. By setting goals for yourself, you give yourself a target to shoot for. This sense of direction is what allows your mind to focus on a target. The roots of all the motivation or inspiration you have ever felt in your entire life are goals. Goal setting provides you the foundation for your drive. By making a goal, you give yourself a concrete endpoint to aim for and also to get excited about. It gives you something to focus on and to put 100% of your effort into, and this focus is what develops motivation.
We all set goals for ourselves, whether they are goals in our work lives or our personal lives and these goals and ambitions keep us motivated. As I have already written, goals are what drive us to ambition. Sometimes, we are guilty of setting ourselves unrealistic goals and we feel frustrated and disappointed in ourselves when we don’t achieve these goals. This is also okay and it actually helps us to understand our own limitations, that we are not always superheroes (or superheroines). Writing down our goals and the time frame in which we hope to achieve these goals helps us also because we can see them, visualise them and work towards them, and also feel a huge sense of satisfaction and pride when we can finally tick off a goal that we have achieved. A bit like a bucket list, I think.
I believe that it is also helpful to share our goals with our friends, families, those who care about us, those who work with us, mentor us and guide us, whether that is at work, or a team. Over the past few weeks, I have been spending time writing down the bigger goals, and dreams that I hope to achieve. Goals such as getting as fully involved as I can when I start my new job, as well as having and maintaining a good work/life balance, keeping up with Karate, start eating more healthily and doing more regular exercise. I’ve also set myself a very ambitious goal, which I have been becoming increasingly passionate about, and that is to go and work and live abroad again in the future. Hopefully, in a few years’ time, I will have my QTS and my PGCE whether that is to teach MFL, or English, and then once I have completed my NQT years, I would love to go and work and live in the United Arab Emirates – cities such as Abu Dhabi or Dubai look so dreamy and there are international British schools in such cities too.
“When you commit yourself to your vision and express it in achievable goals, you provide yourself with the motivation of where you are going and how you anticipate getting there.”
