Why set Goals?
With the new year only an hour old we got to thinking about what lies ahead for us in 2008. One thing is for sure, we have to get to Sydney next year to see the new years eve fireworks. What a spectacle! I have had enough of watching it year after year on the idiot box so now it is time to put some plans in place for actually seeing it first hand.
This got me thinking about the difference between the dreams we have for our lives and the goals that we set or should set if we want to get somewhere.
The way I see it is that we have dreams or aspirations for our lives as the overall plan that we are working towards and goals as measurable steps on the road to these dreams.
Without goals we have no way of knowing if we are getting closer or further away from our dreams, and without setting goals the dreams we have for our lives may seem so far away that we are tempted to give up altogether. Each small success that we have with our goals can be seen as one more step on the road to the life we desire, take those steps away and all we have is one long road that looks too long to even contemplate.
Planning out and writing my goals was something that I struggled with early on. I am the kind of person that stores everything in the old grey matter and have become quite good at it. It wasn’t until I wrote everything down that I realized I was actually not getting the things done that would put me one step closer to my dream, instead I was wasting a lot of time doing I don’t know what! If there could be one ‘rule’ when it comes to goal setting it is to write everything down and go back over what you have written at least once a week.
As an example, part of building our niche websites involves adding new content to each site on a weekly basis, so I mentally set aside Monday’s to do this. Funnily enough, when I look back at the dates of each post made there are times when some sites got forgotten for a fortnight or more. Now after writing the goal on the whiteboard near my desk there is no forgeting Monday’s and what do you know, there has been new content added every week since doing this! Funny that.
I know writing website content every week is not exactly an awe-inspiring goal to achieve but the way I think of it is that every new piece of writing is one step towards building a large site, one step towards getting better search engine placings, one step towards attracting more readers and therefore increased revenue and that is one more step towards my dream of being financially free. As you can see that goal is very important because it gets me one step closer to my dream.
If I was to focus solely on achieving financial freedom instead of the steps taken to get there I would feel very overwhelmed at the amount of time and effort it takes to succeed and probably give up after a short amount of time. This is why I think setting attainable goals is crutial to achieving success in any part of your life.
Craig