Hi guys and welcome back to my blog. I hope everyone is doing great and since it’s my first post for the New Year, Happy New Year to each and every one of you. May this new year be filled with joy, opportunities, success and health. Thank you so much for riding with me throughout this journey. I love y’all and I promise to make you proud everyday.
Last week, I experienced something with the kids at work and it has inspired me to come up with this article. After the break everyone got back to school happy and refreshed. I decided to spend some time with the kids and do a little experiment. Basically I got into the classroom and had a chat with them where I asked everyone to share with me 3 goals they had set for the New Year. To my shock, I couldn’t find one student who had 3 goals…. Some didn’t even have one goal. At the end of the week, only 3 kids over 187 had 3 well thought goals. This experience triggered my interest in today’s topic.
As you know from my previous articles, I am a planner. I plan every single thing I’m doing. That’s why I hate last minute plans. Like someone could tell me they have two tickets for an amazing show later and want me to go with them, I’ll find an excuse to not go because I didn’t have time to plan. So I tried to explain to the kids why it’s important to have goals and I was so happy to see their little faces light up with admiration as they look at me speaking. They promised to find 3 goals that they’d share with me throughout the year. I know my kids aren’t the only ones without actual goals for the year. I could do the same experiment with friends and family and the results could be just as shocking. So here’s an article to help you understand why settings goals is important.
What’s a “goal” ?
As you all know, I like to educate people on the terms I’m using in my articles. A goal is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan and commit to achieve ( from the book “A theory of goal setting & task performance”). In short words, a goal is something you want to achieve. It’s the final result of a process. It’s important to have goals but it’s also important to know what you are going to do in order to achieve them.
Why are goals important?
1. Goals are a source of motivation. When you set goals your number one priority is to achieve them. To do so, there is a list of things you need to do. By having a goal you become motivated. Without goals our lives become a routine. We don’t need to be motivated because there’s nothing to achieve. For example one of my kids said that her goal for the year is to buy every single product of the Cantu line with her own money. She’s a student so she doesn’t have a salary but with her goal in mind she will be motivated to save money from what her parents give her until she reaches her goal.
2. Goals help you focus. We tend to get bored easily. Sometimes we try so hard to stay focus but we end up letting go. It’s also not easy to focus on everything we’re doing at once. Our goals help us focus because when we have a goal, we’re always looking towards the next steps and this attention keeps us in the right direction.
3. Goals help you find your purpose. Like I said to my students, without goals we’re just like a bunch of zombies or a bunch of machines. Our life is a routine. Everyday we wake up and do the same thing over and over again. We don’t even have a reason to live in that case. When you set goals you know exactly what you want in life and someone who knows what they want are most likely to become successful. “It is, therefore, the act of setting, achieving and surpassing goals that make living your best life possible”.
4. Goals fight procrastination. Our attitude in life is driven by our eagerness to reach our goals. We all procrastinate once in a while, myself included. However when there’s something that you wish to achieve in a short period of time, you realize that procrastination is really a threat. I can use my experience with the blog to help you understand. I have a goal which is to write an article every month or two articles per month. No matter how tired I am and no matter how high my level of procrastination might be, my desire to achieve this goal always takes over and fight against the procrastination. Without this goal, I’d just stay in bed and watch series.
5. Goals attract self-confidence. This is pretty simple. We all get happy when we achieve something no matter how small it seems. Therefore when we reach our goals, it automatically boosts our confidence.
As you can notice, the title and the cover picture of this article don’t match the content of the article. “Aim and score” the purpose of goal setting is to be able to achieve something or simply follow a dream. When you define your goals you aim towards them and the achievement of those goals is the equivalent of scoring goals in soccer which explains my cover picture. Remember to always shoot towards your dreams. You might not score today but you will one day. “Don’t be afraid to shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land amongst the stars”.
That’s all for today. I really hope you enjoyed the article and if you haven’t already, please find at least three goals for this new year. Write them somewhere where you can see them every morning and therefore you’ll be motivated to achieve them. Goal setting is really important, try it and thank me later. Until we meet again, stay safe and be blessed…. always!