Thursday, April 05, 2007

Setting goals


"The person who aims at nothing, usually reaches their goal"

Most of us start our lives with the majority of things being planned for us. Our parents provide for us, cook our meals, and choose our holidays. As we move through the educational system, we begin to make choices over what we are going to specialise in. And eventually we seek gainful employment.

However, the majority of people 'drift' through their lives. There is nothing wrong with this, except that a lot of people go around with a deep dissatisfaction that their lives seem to have little structure or purpose. And Clever People Who Research This Kind Of Stuff (CPWRTKOS) tell us that people whose lives have structure and purpose are generally 'happy' people.

Why not spend some time setting some (reasonable) goals for yourself?

Oh, and 'being happy' or 'getting rich' are not goals, they are fantasies. A goal is a specific, measurable thing.

Give quantities, numbers, dates, and times to your aims. Make sure that each of your goals is measurable.

Committing your goals to writing is important. It helps focus your thoughts, and gives you the ability to check back on your progress in the future.

Remember, you only get results from the physical actions you take, not for the great ideas you have. In order to get any kind of tangible results, you must act on an idea. You must build it, implement it, make it real.

The route to your goals will rarely be a straight line. When ships cross oceans, they are (technically) off course most of the time, but their navigation systems continually track their progress and compensate accordingly.

Goal setting works the same way. It gives you motivation and direction for what you need to do each day. As you begin moving towards your goals, you'll gain new knowledge along the way. You may even modify your goals. That's all good. You're making decisions. You're adapting. You're learning. You're learning how to learn.
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