Regardless of if you goal is losing weight, stopping an addictive behavior, improving you self-confidence/self-esteem) or recovering from a serious injury, there are benefits to setting goals as you fight to overcome the obstacles in your life.
Clearly identifying what will make your life more enjoyable.
By setting a realistic goal for yourself, you may have subconsciously determined a path that will bring you to a better place in your life.
For me, after I survived my ischemic stroke to the spinal cord, my goal was to return home and get my life back. I just wanted to put the nightmare behind me, but what I didn’t realize that my life would be more enjoyable in my own home than in a long-term care facility.
By having a clearly stated goal that you are aiming for, you can focus all your energy on the goal. When you are focused you can become locked into a mission. When you are locked into a mission you can stay on track and make good decisions that will help you move closer to your goal.
Staying focused on your goal means you are less likely you will get off track and make bad decisions that will delay or prevent you from reaching your goal,
Look at it this way, if you know your goal at Best Buy is to buy a computer, as you walk through the store knowing what your goal is, you are less likely to get off course and look at washing machines (right guys?)
Goals help keep you motivated
When you have a goal and you are locked in on achieving it, you will be motivated more to succeed.
A goal can give you purpose in life.
For many people, a devastating event can damage them in more than just in the physical sense. A loss of a loved one, becoming physically disabled, a divorce or break up all can be followed by feelings of despair and hopelessness. Those feelings may make it hard to get up in the morning and/or lead to serious depression issues.
If you have a goal after a setback in life, that goal can give you a purpose to keep going, to keep fighting, through the pain until you overcome the obstacle that was placed in your life.
Goals allows you to chart and measure your progress.
When you have a goal, and you have been working hard towards that goal for a period of time (sometimes months, sometimes weeks and in some rare cases days) you can look back to where you were at when you set the goal and see how far you have come. When you see the progress you are making, it often gives you motivation to keep working toward that goal – and if the progress is slow, you can use that information to push yourself harder.
Goals can help guide you to your destiny
A well envisioned goal mixed with focus and hard work, will be the guiding force to help you reach your destiny.
Goals can give you personal satisfaction.
This one is a no-brainer. When you finally reach your goal, you will feel satisfaction as you reflect upon what you have accomplished.
Accomplished goals can give the confidence to set bugger goals.
When you reach your first goal don’t quit – set a new goal for yourself. This new goal should be a little harder and/or a little bigger than your previous goal. Remember, success is always found outside of your comfort zone!
Tip: Don’t just have the goal tucked away in your mind, share it with friends’ neighbors, your support group, write it down, make it into a wallpaper or a screen saver for your phone and computer. post it on your mirror – do anything you can to keep that goal in front of you whenever possible.
