Importance Of Setting Goals

By Author: Tom Nehrenz
Total Articles: 4
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How many times have you heard about the importance of setting goals? Career gurus, wealth managers, weight loss specialists and life coaches all seem to live and die by goal setting. Why are goals so important to them?

The simplest analogy to highlight the importance of setting goals is that of taking a trip. Whether you take the old-fashioned method of plotting your trip on an atlas, whether you use Google maps, or you have a GPS, you always plan out your route ahead of time. If you are hyper-organized you may even take the time to plot alternate routes in case you run into trouble on the highway. Life is a journey and you can't get successfully where you want to go if you do not plot out a route towards your destination. There is no getting from point A to point B without setting goals.

When goals are set, the future is planned. There is no guessing where you will be in a week, a month, a year. You already know where you are going. Once you have a tangible list of the things that are important to you and that you want to accomplish, you've won half the battle. Napoleon Hill, the grandfather of personal success ...
... literature, said that goal setting is the starting block of all achievement, and goal setting is also the stumbling block of 98% of people who seek achievement because they never clearly defined an end point. So if you take the time to set goals, you have a much higher chance of success than 98% of the rest of the world.

In addition to defining your end point, setting goals helps keep you focused. Once you have your goals written down on a piece of paper and possibly shared them with a friend, spouse or coach, you are accountable for those goals. Anyone who has achieved success, whether personally or professionally, can attest to the importance of focus. Life moves quickly and if you do not have clearly defined goals you can easily become distracted from your purpose, until eventually your goals are completely forgotten. Focusing on your goals keeps your mind moving, constantly coming up with new ways to achieve.

Setting goals also creates confidence. Once you have your road map in-hand and you are focused on reaching your destination, your confidence will be much higher than if you simply stumble around blind hoping to achieve success.

So setting goals is important because they keep you confidently focused and on track to accomplishing your desired outcomes in life.

Tom Nehrenz is a certified life coach and offers a complimentary coaching program to help individuals and small business owners define their goals and reach them faster, including executive business coaching, career coaching, life coaching and many more.