Your Goals are Important

"People with clear written goals, achieve far more in a short period of time, than people without them could ever imagine." - Brian Tracy

"Setting Goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible." - Tony Robbins 

(Photo credit - www.michaelhyatt.com)

Goal Setting has become so vital in this modern day and age. In the rush and hurry of our daily lives we often forget what our most important priorities and highest values are. 

Goal Setting reconnects us to our source and provides us with a clear map for our life ahead. If implemented and tread upon well, it will help create the life of greatness we desire. Thus we must develop the habit of goal setting.

Goal Setting and the Marathon Problem

 

( Marathon Photo Credit - www.expertenough.com)

 

Like many of the other habits I mention in this book, I understood the importance of this habit while a student at high school. I had taken part in a cross-country team marathon relay event. The team had twenty runners and the total distance was 60km. Each runner had to run about 3km. As I had not run for a while, I was out of shape and lacked practice. I could barely run a 100 meters without losing my breath.

I tried practicing hard before the event, but there was not enough time before I found myself at the starting line of the race with my team cheering me on to run the longest 3 kilometers of my life. I started running with the baton in my hand and soon got tired and then the noble art of small-scale goal setting saved me.

I noticed that every 20 meters or so there was a lamppost on the running trail. So I decided I would keep these consecutive 20 meter lampposts as my smaller goal to reach the 3km finish line. Thus I would focus only on the next 20 meters, take a small break and then focus on the next twenty meters. This way I soon reached the last100-meter of my section of the marathon race. When I saw the time I realized I had beaten my personal best by a whole one minute. I finished the race panting, but the art of small scale goal setting had brought out the extra-ordinary in me.

John Goddard - The Master Goal Setter

  

John Goddard was one of the world’s most famous anthropologists, explorer and adventurer. When John was 15, he took out a sheet of paper, sat down on the table and wrote these three words at the top of the sheet, ‘My Life List’. He then noted down 127 goals he wanted to accomplish in his life. Because he had clearly written down his goals, later in his life he finished over 108 of these goals. It included climbing mountains, visiting countries, meeting local tribes as an anthropologist, writing a book and more. The power of goal setting and his personal drive changed his life.

 Harvard Case Study on Goal setting

 (Students must realize the power of goal setting, to help them relize their bigger dreams. Photo Credit - www.gospelcoalition.com)

Similarly there was once a Harvard Case Study conducted on the 1979 Harvard MBA Program students. They were asked, “How many of you all have clear written goals for your future. Only 3 percent had written goals, 13 percent had goals but not in writing and a whopping 84 percent had no goals.

Ten Years Later the members of the class were interviewed again. The 13 percent of the class that had written goals were earning twice as much as the 84 percent that had no goals. But the 3 percent that had written goals were earning ten times as much as the 97 percent put together.

 
Break Down your Goals to Smallest Possible Task you can do Immediately 
 

Thus firstly you have to make sure you break all of the larger goals you have during the day into the smallest possible achievable targets. Then you can follow any system of goal setting that best suits you. I personally follow the ‘Daily Five Goal Setting System’ that I developed during my days as a high school student. These are the steps-

• Take an A4 size sheet of paper or a new page on a journal you maintain– Then write down the date and day on top of this sheet. Then write down a motivational quote or a sentence to inspire you during the day. A statement that works for me is, ‘I will give a 110% today and will complete what I set my mind to, no matter what.’

• Write it down -First thing in the morning, get up and write down the five most important things that you must complete by the end of the day on a large white sheet of paper.

• Prioritize - Then prioritize them, as which goal is the most important and which is least important.

• Be Specific -When you write your goals down make sure, you are very specific about exactly what you expect of yourself, e.g. I have run 3 miles today.

• Vary your Goals – You must also make sure that the five goals you set are slightly different from each other. If you have a large project that will require focused attention, then you can work on five different areas of the project or assignment.

• Space your goals out – While you write your time frame to complete each goal make sure, you give yourself enough time to recuperate and have plenty of rewards to push you towards accomplishing you target.

You cannot hit a target you are not aiming at. So decide what your target or goal for the day is and work on hitting it everyday of your life. Set your first big goal, right after you finish reading this post.