The Power of Big Goals – Why Goal-Setting is Important ?

There is a grand party about to take place in your social circle. You need to get a nice trendy dress for the occasion. When you asks your friend about his plan, he says he has decided to get a dress from a specific designer’s collection released just a week ago. You both go for shopping together. You move from one store to another to choose from so many options available in the market. After almost two hours of struggle, you are still unable to decide which dress to buy while your friend simply went to his favorite designer and got the latest dress in a couple of minutes.

Your initial indecision has cost you time, a lot of effort and frustration but you are still empty-handed. Your friend did not have to go through any of this trouble because he already knew what he exactly wanted.

People take more time to think about what they will be eating in dinner, than about the type of person they want to attract in their life. Most people do not think as much about their career choices as the time they take to decide about the car they want to purchase.

SETTING SPECIFIC GOALS

Let’s start from the question why there is a need to set a specific goal? Is it not enough that we just desire to have all the good things in life, all the luxuries, material and financial success? Why we have to be so precise about our objectives.

The answer is simple ‘if we don’t know what we exactly want, we can’t take the right action to get it.”

Most of us love to daydream. We daydream about many things. People have all kind of fantasies they imagine with open eyes. They dream about ideal lives, lot of money, attractive partner, prestige, fame, power and luxurious lifestyle. There is nothing inherently wrong to indulge in such fantasies. Actually I have a confession to make. I am the biggest daydreamer I have ever known. If you are like me, you have no reason to be embarrassed about it. Actually I encourage you to double down on your daydreaming.

Daydreaming is not a problem as long as you don’t remain stuck there forever. It is the first step of attaining your desire, fulfilling your potential and achieving something big. Just make sure you use the emotional power it brings, to move to the next phase of your journey towards fulfilling those desires. Daydreaming itself can’t take you that far.

Let me put some blunt questions before you:

• How many big goals do you have right now?
• How many of those goals are in the written form with a clearly defined action plan?

If you have none, then you are doing a disservice to yourself.  Setting big goals with action plan and daydreaming about your desires are two different things. You can’t hit a target that you can’t see, let alone a target you have not decided yet. How would you feel if you have a big goal, and a complete step by step plan to attain that goal? I believe that you would be much more confident in your ability to achieve such big goals.

OUR MIND CRAVES GOALS

Human mind is a goal-seeking mechanism. Until you put a goal into your mind, it will not do anything by itself. But as soon as you give it a target, a mission, an aim; it will start figuring out ways and means to reach that target.  When you are planning to buy something, you instantly start observing similar things around you which you previously were not noticing. Why this happens? Because when we set a specific goal, our mind starts observing all the things related to that goal.

In the same way, once you feed a problem to your mind, it literally starts searching for solution to that problem. Whatever goal small or big, you give to your subconscious mind, it will work day and night to help you find ways to achieve it, using all its resources.

Big Goals Help Us Achieve More

If you do not set goals in different areas of your life, then those areas will remain underachieved. It simply means that you are not performing as per your existing capacity and potential. Unfortunately, ninety-five percent people never set any goal in their lives at all, let alone big goals. You want to know who they work for; they work for remaining five percent who do set big goals in their life!

A study was conducted by Yale University in 1953 where they asked a series of questions from a graduating class, one of those questions was whether they have clear and specific goals with written plan on how to achieve them. Only 3% of that class had written goals with an action plan. After 20 years, the members of that class were again interviewed in 1973. It was found that the 3% people who had clear goals with the plan had wealth more than the combined wealth of remaining 97% people who did not have written goals. This is the power of goal-setting.

A number of studies have suggested that many people die within three years of their retirement. Why so?  Because they lose a sense of purpose in their life, they have no more goals to pursue, nothing to aspire to. So setting goals is not a luxury, it is a necessity of life.

If you predict your future from the eyes of current conditions, then you will not be able to unleash the unlimited possibilities available within and around you. Remember that a life of extraordinary significance does not happen by luck. It requires a grand vision which is then crafted with sheer amount of hard work, consistency and discipline. When you set a big goal, you create your future in advance. Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.

Goals Bring Clarity to Ambition

A person may claim that he can do and achieve anything he wants. But he will not be able to get anything until he decides what he actually desires. We are unlikely to hit a target we cannot see through our eyes or visualize in our mind.

The same thing happens in our life when we don’t decide what we exactly want to do and achieve. We go from one thing to another trying to fulfill many desires which push us in different directions. And we end up achieving nothing significant in life. When our desires are vague, how can we know what are the exact actions we need to take and strategies we need to follow to bring those desires into reality?

You need to be as specific as possible with all aspects of your goals. If you want to be rich, state exactly how much money you want and by what date, and what service you will provide for that money. If you want a car, decide the make, model, color, and features etc. and any other details related to your goal. Remember, vague goals produce vague results.

When you intend to buy a particular model of a car, you start seeing that car everywhere on the streets. Why this happens, because when we focus our attention to a certain thing or task, our mind starts observing and attracting the situations and opportunities related to that thing.

So we need to set specific goals with complete clarity so we exactly know what we are pursuing.

THE KIND OF GOALS TO PURSUE

Now as we know the importance of goal setting, lets see what kind of goals we can pursue.

Majority of people never set any goal and those who do; they set so small goals that even if they achieve them, it will not have any major impact in their lives. Som people are afraid that if they set any big goal, they will not be able to achieve them. They don’t want to disappoint themselves so they try to be realistic in their goal setting.

You may have heard about SMART goals, smart is actually an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound. All these concepts look good, but there is a problem with being Realistic.

Realistic goals are generally those goals which we think we can achieve based on our existing reality, circumstances and resources. But what if our reality could be amended; our circumstances could be changed and our resources could be increased in future. And how much they could be increased is up to us. There is actually no ceiling to the growth of our resources and abilities. The only limits we have, are those that we put in our minds.

Remember that nothing great can be achieved with rational thinking alone. A little bit of craziness is required to do something big, to achieve something great, and to realize aspirations.

Andrew Carnegie Said:

If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.

andrew carnegie

You need the kind of big goals that will stimulate the infinite hidden potential currently dormant in deep layers of your soul. When you set a big goal, you feel a dramatic shift in your approach to everything you do because it gives a new vision and a new direction to your life.

All the people who have molded the reality of the world were crazy, they had irrational ambitions otherwise they would have conformed to the norms of the society and could not dare to do something different.

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

george bernard shaw

Abraham Lincoln, Edison, Steve Jobs, henry ford and many others were all unreasonable people. Without their ‘crazy’ big goals, this world would not be the way as we see it today.

SET REALLY BIG GOALS

Don’t make the mistake of setting small goals. They will not motivate you enough to take action. Losing 10 pounds is not easier than losing 50 pounds because there is no real attraction in losing 10 pounds, it does not offer any value, any benefit. Inspiration and motivation comes with big goals.

“Dream big dreams; only big dreams have the power to move men’s souls.”

marcus aurelious

• If your goal is to become General Manager of the company where you are working, then what’s stopping you to set a big goal to be the President of that organization, OR even start your own company?
• If you are aiming to earn 10,000 dollars a month by the end of next five years, then why don’t you raise your benchmark to 50,000 dollars?
• You may have a desire to be a part of local political organization. There is nothing wrong with it. However, you can also visualize yourself becoming a senator in the next ten years.

People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don’t deserve them, or that they’ll be unable to achieve them

paulo cohelo

I have a question for you:

What goals you would pursue if you have complete belief and faith that you can achieve them?

Those are the big goals that you should be pursuing.

WHY YOU WANT THAT GOAL

There is no need to be concerned about how you are going to attain those big goals. How, is not important at this point, The biggest question you need to ask yourself before going after any big goal, is WHY?

Ask yourself why you want to achieve that goal? What is the reason that you are ready to go through all the hassle and discomfort to have something in your life? When the why gets stronger, the how gets easier. You should have a strong reason to achieve something because when you have compelling reason, you will get motivation to find your answer how difficult it is.

People may think you are a crazy person when they know about your ambitious dreams. They may try to discourage you. They will advise you to think rationally and practically instead of going for the stars. But you don’t have to listen to them. I am not saying that they are your enemies. They may be your well-wishers, your friends and relatives.

However, no one can enter into your mind and see the things they way you can see. No one can take away your right to dream. So don’t let any other person’s limiting beliefs to become your reality. Don’t let anyone stop you from going after what you want. And don’t ever set your life goals based on other people’s expectations.

Setting big goals is the first step towards living the life of your dreams. Put all your creative energies, your heart and soul into deciding what will be the worthwhile goals to pursue in all areas of your life be it your personal life , your profession, your physical goals ,goals about your relationships, spiritual or financial goals.

If you are serious about your big goals, then you need to decide today. Take a piece of paper and write down every aspect of your goal with complete clarity and detail, and ask yourself a few questions:

1. Is it really my goal – or is it someone else’s goal for me?
2. Why is the goal important to me?
3. Is it a big enough goal to motivate me ?
4. How will I feel if I don’t achieve it?
5. What should be my daily schedule to reach such a big goal?

The answers to these questions will help you to decide and take the right actions on daily basis. Those actions will then build momentum in your journey towards your destination. It is the the destination that you have decided not the circumstances, not the political conditions, not the society.

If you keep faith and remain persistent in your efforts despite facing difficulties, I believe that you will soon be able to realize those dreams into reality.

Good Luck !