If you have not set personal goals (at least for this year), it is like setting out on a major journey with no real idea of your destination. One of the implications is that you feel as if you are adrift, working hard but don’t seem to get anywhere worthwhile.
Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your vision of this future into reality. You need to spend enough time to think about what you want from life and set yourself personal goals to achieve them.
Setting goals is like designing your own future. A life best lived is a life by design. Not by accident, and not by just walking through the future with apprehension and managing to survive. If you can start giving your life dimensions, design, and purpose, through goal setting, the results can be absolutely staggering.
Goal setting gives you the chance to experience the power of your imagination. Think about it. Imagination builds cities. Imagination conquers disease. Imagination develops careers. Imagination sets up relationships. Imagination is where all tangible values and intangible values begin. So what you need to learn to do is use this powerful resource. Tapping this resource of imagination for goal setting involves thinking about your future, thinking about tomorrow or the rest of the day, thinking about the rest of the year or five years or ten years. You can use your imagination to start prospecting for the future, for what could be possible for you.
Another reason for personal goals is the forward-pull they offer. You want to make sure that the greatest pull on your life is the pull of the future. You need not live in the past and let your life be continually pulled and influenced by the past. Yes, we must remember the past and review the past to make it useful to invest in the future. But here’s the key: Make sure that the greatest pull on your life is the pull of the future. If you are skimpy on your dreams and objectives, if they’re not very well planned, then they don’t pull very hard. You might have more of a tendency to be pulled by the past or to be pulled apart by events or circumstances or to be pulled apart by distractions.
So, to save yourself from being pulled apart by distractions or pulled back to the past, you should start, this year, to really design the future through goal setting so that the greatest part of your attention and focus pulls you forward into the future to accomplish your goals. Goals are like magnets—they pull and the stronger and more purposeful they are, the stronger they pull. If you set excellent goals, they will be strong enough to pull you through all kinds of down days, down seasons, and challenges.
With these benefits, why don’t you start setting personal goals. If you do, you’ll go through this year with anticipation, and accomplish a lot.