Why Goal Setting Is Important
Why Goal Setting Is Important:
List Your Goals And Set Specific Action Steps For Your Success
Goal setting is crucial for attaining what you want in your personal and professional life. Think about the times you’ve created long-lasting changes in your life. Examine what you’ve achieved and you’ll discover that there was most likely a planned and well executed goal behind it. Goal setting is very important and one that is frequently discussed on Divas With A Purpose. There are some specific reasons why we believe that goal setting is so important.
Clarity
Goal setting gives you clarity about what you want. It’s so easy to say “I want to be debt-free” or “I want to own my business” or “I want to declutter my home”. Most of us have vague wants and desires floating around in our heads, written down in our journals and even on our vision boards. However, if we don’t set down in concrete terms exactly what we want, we’ll end up spinning our wheels and being ineffective and frustrated. You actually create your goals twice – once in your mind and once later in reality. The clearer the vision in your mind, the easier it is to formulate concrete steps that will get you there.
Responsibility
When you sit down with a goal and start working toward it, you give yourself a sense of responsibility to see it through. Let’s face it – whether or not we attain our goal has little to do with outside influence and more to do with OUR attitude and actions. We can no longer blame others for our failure to get what we want. We become solely accountable. Having to answer to ourselves can be a humbling act.
Action
If you set your goal well, it will give you a concrete action plan. Wishing for things to happen doesn’t do this. You know that you have to get started today and take small steps toward your target. An important part of the goal setting process is breaking up your goals into smaller, specific action items and having a daily focus on what you’re working to accomplish.
Don’t forget that you can always download your free copy of the Divas With A Purpose S.M.A.R.T. Goals Planning Worksheets instantly by clicking here. These worksheets will help you list your goals and give you a foundation for success.
Motivation
Without a goal, how do you stay on target, especially when things go wrong? Making daily progress toward your goal through your action plan gives you the motivation to keep going. You can see how far you’ve come and you know that it would be a shame to turn back. For many, simply putting your goal into words and getting started is a great motivator.
Focus
“Successful people maintain a positive focus in life no matter what is going on around them. They stay focused on their past successes rather than their past failures, and on the next action steps they need to take to get them closer to the fulfillment of their goals rather than all the other distractions that life presents to them.”
What you focus on will grow. What you nurture will bloom. Having a goal and plan for achieving it keeps you completely focused on what you need to do in order to get there. It’s much harder to be distracted or led astray by shiny objects. If you set goals and action steps, you know exactly where to put your energy each day to get it done.
One Goal at a Time
Goal setting is important but there’s a right and wrong way to do it. Like any skill, it’s something you need to learn and practice. Most people don’t learn from their goal-setting mistakes and they continually struggle to attain the goals they desire. You’re motivated and you’ve got lots of changes you want to make in your life or business, but slow down. Sometimes it is best to take it one goal at a time. Choose which is most important to you and focus on it. Let the others wait. Once you’re in the groove with the first goal, you can think about adding something else. Most of us are too busy to tackle more than one and there’s the risk of burning out.
Let’s Talk About It:
Do you regularly set goals in your personal and professional life?
How do you stay focused and accountable?