What’s The Purpose Of Setting Goals? And How Can They Help Me? By Doug Bennett

Think about your life for a second. Is it everything that you want it to be?

Can you go on holiday whenever you want? Eat out? Do you drive the car you want? Get to spend as much time with the family as you’d like?

If not, well, that’s where goals come in. Goals help to give your life meaning and provide you with direction.

Otherwise, “What’s the point?” indeed.

Goals keep you focused

We only get one shot at life. We are here for a minuscule amount of time, and we have to make that time count for something.

The sad thing is so many people lead sad and disappointing lives, and they don’t have to. All it takes is a bit of direction, and you can get that direction if you have goals.

A lot of people’s problems, concerns and fears are based on where they are in the present. They can’t see a way out because they aren’t looking forwards, and they haven’t thought about what is possible for their futures.

Anything is possible

However, the thing is, anything is possible for any one of us. We all have heard countless stories of people who have lost everything and found a way out. Many have even found a way to tremendous success, and they are human beings as much as the rest of us.

We all have a brain that is capable of incredible things, but whether we actually realise that depends on what we feed it. We have to feed our brain with the right stuff.

If we feed our brain with goals, with something to look forward to and focus on, we will all realise we are capable of so much more.

That is the point of goals.

As long as you are moving towards something that is realistic, then any hurdles and obstacles that get thrown in your way will be just that – hurdles: things we can jump over with the right goal-setting mindset.

Goals are integral to your wellbeing

The point of goals isn’t just to achieve some millionaire status and drive around in a Lamborghini (although that’s a great goal to have!). Setting goals goes beyond that in the sense that goals are integral to your psychological wellbeing and having a decent life.

The author Zig Ziglar says:

“Don’t become a wandering generality. Be a meaningful specific.”

Without goals, we are the wandering generality. We’re just wandering around aimlessly without achieving a great deal. However, by setting goals, we can become the meaningful specific and live a rich, fulfilling life.

Get a pen and a piece of paper

So, let’s start getting into the goal-setting mindset. Let’s start to add more meaning to the life we live by planning the life we want.

I would encourage anyone reading this to get out a pen and a piece of paper and just start simple. Jot down easy, realistic goals that can be accomplished now. Here are a few examples:

I always turn up 5 minutes before every meeting.

I don’t sweat over financial problems.

I work out 3 days a week

I will be diving into how we go about setting goals in future blogs, but for now just remember these three rules:

Start simple: Starting with simple goals, like the ones above, is a great way to get you in the habit of setting and accomplishing goals. Even little ones like this can do a lot to add meaning to your life, and they feel good once you complete them!
Be very specific: Whatever goal you have in mind, it’s important that you can visualise everything about it. If it’s a car, what’s the make, model and colour?
Live them: Whenever you write down goals or repeat them to yourself, it’s vital you phrase them as if you are living in them now, like the examples above. This will help reinforce them in your mind and turn them into a reality.

We all deserve a better life

So, what’s the point of goals? Well, you deserve a better life than the one you’re living now, don’t you? I’m not saying that your life is terrible, far from it, but everyone can be so much more if we set goals.

We all deserve a better version of life, so let’s start making a plan to achieve it!

If you’re keen to learn more about goal setting, seizing on opportunities or just getting the most out of life, I’d love to hear from you.

Feel free to get in touch via my website or email me at doug@dougbennett.co.uk