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1. Take Control of Your Life
Many people today are sleepwalking through life. Even though they work hard, they don’t feel like they are getting what they want. That’s because they don’t have a direction of where they want to go, what they want to achieve. Students graduate and they’re not sure what to do with their life; adults work for years and are shocked when they reach their 30s/40s and they don’t know what to do next.
As Bill Copeland says, when you don’t set goals, you can spend your whole life running up and down and not achieve anything. In reality you’re just fulfilling others’ goals, not yours. It can be the fast food industry telling you to eat fast food because you’re “lovin’ it.” It can be the consumer goods industry telling you that you need this shampoo with 79% frizz-reduction formula because it’ll make your life better. It can be fashion labels getting you to buy their clothes because you supposedly look cooler in them.
When you stop to set goals and think about what you want, you break out of auto-pilot and start living a life of your conscious creation. Instead of letting others tell you what to do, you proactively take charge and think about what you want for yourself.
2. Get Maximum Results
Top performers, world-class athletes, and successful people all set goals. Michael Phelps (competitive swimmer and most decorated Olympian of all time), Kobe Bryant (NBA star), Mark Zuckerberg (co-founder of Facebook), Richard Branson (business magnate), and Elon Musk (CEO of SpaceX and Telsa Motors) all set goals. That’s because when you set goals, you have a vision to work toward. You ensure that you are pushing yourself to get the best results, rather than resting on your laurels and waiting for things to happen.
Know that what gets measured, gets improved. If you don’t set specific targets and milestones, how are things going to improve? There is literally nothing to work toward, and even though you may be working hard, your hard work may not translate into anything. As the popular saying goes, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” When you set goals, you are aiming for the moon. Your goals propel you to take more action that you would have otherwise.
What do you want to see 1 year from now? How about 3 years from now? 5 years? When you set goals, you think ahead, after which you can create your action plan. Even if things don’t go according to plan, that’s okay as you can review, adjust your plans, and then steer your life toward your vision.
Know that all things are created twice: first in the mind, then in the physical world. The mental creation happens when you set your goals. The physical creation happens when you work on your goal and bring it to life. Without the mental creation, the physical creation can’t happen. When you set goals, you kick off the very first step to make your dreams happen, after which the next steps will follow suit.
3. Creates Laser Focus
Goals give you focus. While a life purpose gives you a general direction, your goals give you laser focus as to what exactly to spend your time and energy on.
Let’s say you set a goal to create a pastry business. Even though you have no idea how to make it happen, the very act of setting a goal gives you a focal point. As you brainstorm for ideas, you realize that you can start by studying the local pastry market and pastry brands. Understanding the pastries that people like. Then, take baking classes to master your skills. At the same time, test recipes and let your friends taste your creations before selling them.
Think of your energy as the input and the results as the output. When you have a goal, you create a focal point where your energy can be channeled to create maximum reward. For example, a goal to achieve 5,000 visitors/day on your blog helps you prioritize and identify the most important tasks to achieve this traffic target, while eliminating low-value tasks that do not contribute to this vision. Same for a goal like to achieve straight A’s — here you prioritize and identify the key action steps to get top grades, such as picking the best class combination for optimal grades, studying past year exam papers, consulting your professors, and having a study timetable, while eliminating time wasting tasks like excessive use of social media and binge-watching TV shows. This then creates maximum results.
