Goal Setting: Why Set Goals?

As I was updating my goals and reviewing my progress this week, I was thinking about the beneficial effects that goal setting has had in my life and my work the past 4 years that I have been consciously writing down and reviewing my goals.

Goal Setting is helpful for two simple reasons:

1) It helps your mind stay focused on your highest priorities  2) It tells your subconscious what is most important for you and what to look for in your environment to identify opportunities.

Numerous academic and business research studies compared the performance of people (students or employees) who set goals and the ones who don’t over a number of years and it has been repeatedly proven that goal setting does indeed increase performance, productivity and achievement.

Of course many will argue that goal setting alone doesn’t work. Some people might set unrealistic expectations about themselves and their performance and end up feeling unsatisfied and disappointed.

Smart goal setting means setting short term reachable goals to reach long time bigger goals and putting a concrete plan down around achieving your goals. Setting a ‘I will be a millionaire in 5 years with the most successful company in my market’ goal, without any plan of daily actions and set of smaller goals (monthly, quarterly, yearly) on how to achieve it, is just creating illusions.

The easiest way to go about it is to write down your top goals in each of the main areas of your life 1.Finances 2.Career/Work  3.Family  4.Health 5. Social/Relationships 6.Mental/Spiritual – long term (ie next 5 to 10 years), short term (for the next one year) and monthly. Once you have your goals, draw up a plan of actions you will take monthly and for the next one year to achieve those goals.

Happy goal setting!

(Note: Look out for the audio interview of Nik Halik to be posted in the next few days. An inspiring story on the goals he set when he was a child, including becoming an astronaut, a millionaire and a rock star and how he has achieved them)