Setting Goals

Posted by Nikki Young

July 2, 2008

Not too long ago, a few things changed in my life that completely turned my days upside down. I found myself going through days only completing tasks of personal interest and not doing anything which impacted my life positively. It was then that I sat down to re-write my goals and when I picked up my goal book and turned to a blank page, I just sat there and stared at the piece of paper, not knowing what to write down.

For a good 12months my goals have been very similar, in regards to work and financial goals they where always top priority on my list. However, when I sat down to re-write my goals what I had written for the previous 12months was not applicable anymore. I had stopped working in my business, I went back to school to study full time and I had no idea what I was going to do or what I really wanted to do.

Sitting down and having no idea what to write as my goals, really brought home to me that for the last week and half after closing my business, I had been living my days with absolutely no direction of where I wanted to be and who I wanted to become. It made me realise that the reason I was feeling like nothing was happening in my life, why I was feeling confused and somewhat depressed, was because for the first time in a long time, I didn’t know what I wanted to achieve.

After thinking about what I wanted to accomplish in my life, I was able to write down my goals and I have been productive ever since. Everyday I will complete one more step towards achieving each goal I have until I have successfully achieved them.

It’s unfortunate that many people don’t ever write down their goals, they will just live day by day and live everyday as it comes. Studies have shown that only around 3% of people have written goals, with those who have clear and concise written goals being more likely to achieve them than those who just say they want these things to happen, or wish they would happen.

When I look through my goal book, I can see where I have successfully achieve a goal, in all honesty I don’t believe I would have achieved them when I did if I didn’t continue to write them down and act towards them.

A goal I had around 12months ago was to purchase a new car, not only because I was paying a lot of money continually taking my car in for a service and replacing parts, but also because people could hear me coming a mile away! The car I wanted to own was a Subaru hatchback, because this car was a recent release I endeavored to find the car at the price I could afford. For a good 4months I spent time at least once every 3days looking online to see if my dream car was placed for sale at the price I was able to pay. After 4months my dream car was put online and I purchased it. The question is could I have successfully purchased this same car if I didn’t have it as a goal? Maybe… but I doubt it, because:

1. I wouldn’t have financially prepared myself for purchasing the car

2. I wouldn’t have spent time looking for that particular car within the right price to suit my budget

3. I wouldn’t have worked toward finding this particular car every week, if I hadn’t written it down in my goal book once a week next to a picture of the car, and imagined how happy I would be once I had it.

In fact, if I hadn’t written the goal I probably would have settled for driving my own car for an even longer period of time.

Although this may seem like something that everybody does; everyone buys a car, everyone ends up buying a house, everyone ends up going on holiday at some point in their lives. There is a difference between purchasing your dream car, and just a random car, there is a difference between finding and buying your dream house, than just buying any house.

For this reason I find it essential that everybody sets goals to achieve whatever it may be in their lives, big or small, short term or long term and not just settle for living everyday as another day. Clear and concise written goals will help you to understand what you actually need to do in order to achieve them.

The problem with not writing goals is how will you ever really know what you want to achieve in your life if you don’t have clarity of where you want to be and who you want to become?
Some of the best words I heard which really made me take control of my life a few years ago, where these words from Brian Tracey;

“Accept responsibility for your life”

You are responsible for your life; nobody else is responsible for your actions and your choices. If you want to lose weight, you are responsible for what you put in your mouth and how often you move, nobody around you is accountable for those actions. If you want to earn a good annual income, you are the one who is going to need to find out what areas of knowledge you will need to obtain in order to get the job you want with the income you want, no body else can read the books you need to read, or practice the things you need to practice in order to be successful in this area.

If you haven’t written down goals, make sure you sit down at some point today and write down all the things you want to achieve in your life, even if they seem impossible at the time. Write down what you need to do in order to achieve your goals, and in what time frame you will endeavor to have them accomplished. Continue to revise your goals and work towards them every single day and enjoy experiencing how the power of goal setting changes your life!

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