Today I would like to write about the importance of having clear goals. Frankly speaking, this articled should have be written before my previous article “Basics of Planning Theory”, because of the chronology of actions: choose a goal, create a plan, act. Anyway, it is not too late to write about goals.

A goal is a wish that you intend to realize. If you want something, it is a wish. If you intend to realize your wish you make a goal. For example, “I want to buy a new car” is a wish, but “I’ll save 20,000USD to buy a new car” is a goal. In the second example it is clear that I’m going to undertake some actions.

Why is it so important to have clear goals?

Setting goals shows you what direction to go. If I work full-time for 50,000USD per year spending all the money I make, but want to retire at the age of 40, the chances that I’ll actually retire are probably zero. I’m moving in the wrong direction. On the other hand if I set a goal to retire at 40 I would be more likely try and change my spending habits and search for extra income so that I would be able to retire early.

With a specific goal you can see clearly what you actually want. I want to be rich. Everybody wants to be rich. However, the term “rich” is different for everyone. Plus the meaning of this term is changes according to time and personal mood. So it is unclear whether I’m becoming rich or not. I think having net worth of 1mil USD and passive income of 200,000 USD is enough to be rich. Therefore, if I set a goal to reach that amount of net worth and passive income I can see more clearly who I want to become.

A goal is required for a plan. That is right, because a goal is the end point of a plan. It is impossible to write a plan without a clear goal(s).

You will feel more confident when you chose your goals. When I want something very much but don’t have clear goals, I start to feel a bit blue and frustrated. I don’t feel that what I do will actually lead me to what I want. So I’m trying to set many goals, even small goals that I can reach in a day.

Goals make life more interesting. May be it sounds strange but this is what goals do for me! I want to improve my Japanese, so I set a goal to study one Kanji (Chinese characters used in Japanese language) per day. Because studying Japanese is fun and interesting to me, setting such a goal is fun too.

Goals help you to build your life and increase your chances for success. Some people just follow the flow of their life. Being passive they don’t set goals, but rather do things they think they have to do. Following the everyday routine they don’t see opportunity to build their lives in the way they want. Setting a big goal such as getting a masters degree or changing where you work can make a big difference in your life. It will help to give you more control of your life.

There are a few things that I think would be useful for you to keep in mind when you are choosing your goals:

Choose the right goals. Set a goal only if you are really going to act to achieve it. It is important to keep quantity and quality of your goals in balance.

Choose a clear goal. Try to specify your goals as clearly as possible. Using numbers when choosing goals can be highly rewarding.

Now you know about the importance of goals. I hope from now on you will start choosing your goals. Goals that will make your life happy and fun.

In this article I covered “goals”, in the last one “plans”… next week’s article is about “actions”! Stay on touch!

-O.

Goals are extremely important for me as well.  I have only recently started to better understand the importance of choosing good goals and the profound affect they can have on ones life.

I see many friends who are unsatisfied with their jobs and always talking about changing or finding something better.  I think the real problem is that they do not have any goals of where they want to be or understand what they are working for.  All through school we are given goals in a way.  Study for this test or pass this class or graduate from this educational institution and so on.  All in all I think most people understand that they are working towards completing school.  Once out of school though it is difficult to see what you are working towards besides something to fill your days until your eventual departure from this world. This is not a very inspiring view of life.  If these friends had good goals they would understand how their job fit into the plan for achieving the greater goal and I think be able to find more satisfaction in their job and life.

Lastly I think one of the most important things O. said was about setting small goals.  I typically set large goals then medium goals and a bunch of small easily achievable small goals.  By achieving all of my small goals I will achieve the medium ones and consequently the large ones.  The greatest benefit of this comes in motivation.  I can see that I am making progress on a daily basis which gives me the encouragement to keep going.

-T!