“If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.” – Andrew Carnegie.
The pandemic has been a difficult phase for all of humanity, and its resultant impact can be felt even today. Lost lives, lost livelihoods, social isolation, and distancing have all led to our despair. In such times, it is so important to keep our hopes up for a better tomorrow. Hope renews our faith and leads us into the future.
Setting a goal gives us hope. It gives us purpose, gives us commitment and this keeps us optimistic and constantly striving. The best way to deal with adversity and despair is to keep setting and resetting our goals. Without goals, we often end up questioning our effort and ability.
As Andrew Carnegie so clearly pointed out, setting a goal can keep your thoughts focused, direct your energy, and inspire the hope that is needed to move through and beyond a moment of despair.
Benefits of goal setting:
- You become aware of precisely what you want to achieve and how to go about doing it thus being able to accurately assess and measure your ability to accomplish the goals.
- Setting goals helps trigger new behaviors, helps guide your focus, and helps you sustain that momentum in life.
- Goals promote a sense of self-mastery. In the end, you can’t manage what you don’t measure and you can’t improve upon. Setting goals can help you do all of that and more.
Goal setting does not have to be boring. Most of us avoid it because living up to the goal becomes extremely daunting.
How should we set goals? How often should set goals? How often should we revisit them?
Suggested guidelines to goal setting:
- Make the effort to write down your goal in a place where you can see it every day.
- While writing down the goal, be reasonable and simple in the language.
- Be realistic in setting the time required to achieve that goal.
- Break down your ultimate goal into small doable checkpoints and attach reasonable timelines to them.
- Write down the tasks needed to be done on a day-to-day basis to achieve them. These notes will serve as your daily reminders and will keep procrastination and disappointment at bay.
- Keep ticking off these checkpoints as you move along (and feel the satisfaction at each checkpoint!)
- Don’t forget to reward yourself as you contend each checkpoint and move ahead.
- Keep reviewing your checkpoints at each level of attainment, and modify them as may be necessary to keep up with current trends
- Let your people know so that they may support and celebrate these attainments with you
Add commitment and determination to your goals and you will find that you are willing to take continuous and consistent action toward making your dreams a reality, despite any obstacles in your path, including difficult times.
Happy Goal Setting!