“Why do we even need to come up with life goals for ourselves, and even a whole list?” - some of the readers will probably think, tired of the endless series of tips for improving life. The matter, of course, is individual, but, as the author of the book “Essentialism. The Path to Simplicity” Greg McKeon, it’s still worth learning to prioritize in your life, or someone else will do it for you.
In other words, those who do not embody their own goals will embody others'. If you are completely satisfied with this, no questions asked, you don’t have to read further. However, if your life is not going exactly the way you would like, and your brain is enough to realize that not only the government is to blame for this (boss, parents, wife, husband, coronavirus - underline as appropriate), then the matter may be the lack of life goals. Or in their excessive abstraction and blurriness.
In general, if something goes wrong, it is useful to turn your gaze towards your life goals. At least try to do this. If you don't like this approach, you can refuse it at any time. But the valuable thoughts and ideas that come to mind will forever become your luggage, which will help you better cope with everyday routine.
Why is it important to have a goal?
So why is it important to have a purpose in life? Let’s immediately clarify that this does not have to be some kind of global goal like a Nobel Prize or an Oscar for best role. Goals do not have to be global. It is quite enough if they are yours and not imposed from outside.
Why does a person need goals in life?
- Goals add meaning to your daily routine. You don't just go to a boring, dull job - you earn money to go to Africa and go on a real African safari. You don't sit back and lie on the couch - you maintain peace of mind and concentrate your energy for future achievements.
- Goals organize your daily activities and protect you from unnecessary movements. When you don’t know what to do, agree to something or refuse, you can always relate the situation to your life goals and how the upcoming actions contribute to achieving it. People who do not have such guidelines, at least approximate ones, are doomed to hesitate longer and become more nervous in ambiguous situations.
- Goals give you motivation to take action and prevent you from getting discouraged when things are difficult for you. You were not fired from your job - you were freed up time to travel to Africa. And you can earn money not only by sitting at your desk in the office.
I think these three arguments are enough to somehow think about what you want in this life. And to make it more convenient to think, it’s time to transfer all these goals to paper.
Why does a person need to set goals?
Our life is based on movement. Everything around is moving. If the elements of the system lacked a target state, the world would turn into chaos.
For self-organization
An aimless life will not allow you to achieve success or improve your life financially and spiritually.
Human life goes into a state of disintegration and possibly degradation if there is no right direction. A person without a goal cannot manage his life. It flows with the flow within established traditions.
Life goals help you increase your level of self-organization and move to a new level of your capabilities. A person sets goals in life in order to rationally organize his affairs, habits, and daily routine.
To exercise control over your life
A man without a goal floats with the flow. He gives himself up to the power of the flow and is incapable of change. He has no control over his life. He has come to terms with his fate and does not want to change anything.
It is very important to take responsibility for your life into your own hands. Don't rely on the opinions of others. Everything that happens to you depends entirely on you.
People who set goals always know exactly what they want in the future. With all their strength they are approaching their achievement.
For self-realization
A person needs to set goals for himself in order to go beyond routine existence. By constantly learning new things and trying yourself in different areas of life, a person develops and receives new opportunities in life. Goals help you get out of your “comfort zone” and do something unusual and useful for yourself.
In the lives of most people, there is a desire to engage in self-development with one goal - to become happier and improve the quality of their life. There are four important areas in which it is important to develop.
- Physical;
- Social;
- Intelligent;
- Spiritual.
It is important not to focus only in one direction. All four levels must be included in your daily plan, otherwise your life balance will be disrupted.
To make your dreams come true
Dreams that seem so impossible to us turn into reality thanks to small steps towards their realization. By setting small goals and intermediate tasks, a person consistently goes according to plan towards his dream.
Dreaming is useful, but it is more important to support your dream with daily work and perseverance. Only there can you achieve the desired result.
Why make a list of life goals
Indeed, why make a list of life goals? Are you really unable to decide what you want and keep in your head the thought that comes into your head? The trick is that in order to successfully implement goals, they should be at least somewhat detailed.
For example, many people want to be happy, find their soulmate, and earn a lot of money. However, few people can clearly explain what it means to be happy, exactly how much money they need and for what. Yes, even a suitable other half is often presented based on secondary characteristics like “a blonde with a size 5” or “a handsome, rich brunette with a great sense of humor.”
Other goals also need to be detailed. Just “going to see the world” is not an option. An option is to go to Africa on a safari, to Spain to see the works of Gaudi, or go surfing or diving in Bali. Of course, detail is needed here: plan the time and budget of the trip, select suitable locations, check whether the passport is expired. It’s difficult to retain so much information in your head, and there’s no reason to. So you need a list of goals, at least in order to free your brain from routine and develop an action plan, at least roughly, for achieving your goals.
Why do you need a list of goals:
- Decipher and detail abstract wishes for and from life - to be happy, find a good job, travel a lot, etc.
- Plan the details of achieving goals - finances, deadlines, locations, fundamental requirements.
- Free your brain from the need to remember many details - deadlines, locations, wishes, bonuses, discounts.
- Build priorities and understand what is important to you in the first place, and what can wait or is not at all important to you, but to your bosses, husbands, wives, parents, and society.
The last point - to set priorities and understand what is important to you first of all - is easier to do if the goals are set out in writing. So they will all be before your eyes, you can, as they say, touch each of them with your eyes, turn them over in your brain and honestly answer yourself how much this goal resonates with you. In addition, you will see with your own eyes goals that will remain on paper and will only cause you irritation. You can simply cross them out and not waste your nerves, time and other resources on them.
When compiling a list, you should avoid the other extreme, namely, excessive detail of the goal. So, if your goal is a new Audi, it is enough to specify the model. You shouldn’t refuse the purchase if you initially wanted a red Audi Q7, but only metallic blue is available on site. And even more so, there is no need to postpone the purchase if the car’s interior color is not your favorite. Instead, aim to find seat covers in the exact color you like best. However, if you wish, you can look for other options.
By the way, people who are not very strong in creativity can use ready-made lists of life goals, of which there are plenty on the Internet, and simply compose from the proposed long list your own short list of those goals that you like, resonate with, seem important or are simply pleasant to you. situation at the moment.
Why do you need a goal in life?
Success is the goal, and everything else is only of secondary importance. All successful people are completely focused on their goals. They know well what they need, and all their thoughts and thoughts are absorbed only in this. The ability to formulate goals is an indispensable condition for success.
With a clear goal, your mind will open up, releasing energy and finding new ideas to help you achieve the desired result. However, if you do not have specific goals, then you will helplessly float behind the current and flounder in the waves of your life. As you rush towards your goal, you will become like an arrow fired from a bow, aiming exactly at the center of the target.
Why do you need a goal in life?
As one of the rules of success says, it doesn’t matter where you come from, but only where you want to go. And this is precisely determined only by you.
- With clearly defined goals, self-confidence develops, competence and your level of motivation increase. Our minds tend to create reality and this is truly the greatest discovery in the entire history of mankind. In the beginning, everything that exists in material reality was an idea or thought, and then it all became reality. It is with a thought, hope, desire or dream that everything in our life begins. Thoughts transform and create the world around us.
- We become who we imagine ourselves to be in our minds. The world around us is just a reflection of our inner world, while our thoughts are mirrored and materialized. People who are unlucky in life constantly think about what they don’t want. They always think about their worries and failures and look for the culprit of their troubles. But happy people focus only on what they want most.
- Living without a goal can be compared to driving through thick fog. Regardless of the equipment and power of your car, you move slowly, unsteadily, and heavily, even if the road is good enough. As soon as the goal appears, the fog immediately disappears and this helps you concentrate on what you want. Clear goals allow you to increase speed and move faster towards the desired intended result.
- Once you determine your ultimate goal, you begin to confidently move towards it, and the goal also strives towards you. Remember, at a certain time in a certain place your goal and you will certainly meet.
In fact, neither the size of your desire nor its scale is important. When you think modestly, then in any case your small desires will come true. And if you want something global, then the most seemingly unrealistic plans and dreams will certainly come true.
Thus, the quantity and quality of your goals depends on you, and only on you.
What life goals should you put on your list to achieve?
We already said above that goals can be anything. The main thing is that you personally like them. They can be long-term or medium-term, for a month or a year, and even repeated annually. For example, celebrate your birthday in a new place every year. The main thing is to write them all down, and then sort them by importance, urgency and availability of resources to achieve.
Top 50 most popular goals:
- Lose weight.
- Pump up your biceps on your arms.
- Pump up your abdominal muscles.
- Run a marathon or half marathon.
- Learn English (German, French, Swahili, any other language).
- Write a book (article, song, collection of poems, dissertation).
- Learn to drive a car (motorcycle, scooter, light aircraft).
- Enter a university (institute, college, academy).
- Obtain higher education (second higher education, academic degree of Candidate of Sciences, academic degree of Doctor of Sciences).
- Get married (get married, start a new romantic relationship).
- Travel (see a new country, a new continent, go on all the regional weekend tours).
- Find a good job (prestigious job, high-paying job, job close to home).
- Quit smoking.
- Say no to drugs.
- Defeat a chronic disease (better health, catch colds less often).
- Get a tattoo (can be temporary).
- Dye your hair.
- Change your hairstyle.
- Learn to ride a bicycle (hoverboard, hoverboard, unicycle).
- Jump with a parachute.
- Go scuba diving.
- Learn surfing (windsurfing, kitesurfing).
- Master horse riding (on a horse, camel, elephant).
- Master fencing (golf, squash, tennis, rock climbing, any other sport).
- Master aikido (taekwondo, karate-do, judo, any other martial art).
- Learn to dance (waltz, tango, salsa, hip-hop, any other dance).
- Learn to swim (swim on your back, swim with fins and a mask, dive, jump from a 10-meter tower).
- Learn to draw.
- Learn to take photographs.
- Learn to sing.
- Learn to play the violin (guitar, piano, drums).
- Learn to cook.
- Learn to sew.
- Learn to embroider.
- Learn to knit.
- Learn to shoot military weapons at a shooting range.
- Fly in a hot air balloon (hang glider, paraglider).
- Do a personal photo shoot.
- Buy a car.
- To buy an apartment.
- Build a house.
- Grow a garden (vegetable garden, flowers, vegetables on the windowsill).
- Master programming (website layout, mobile applications).
- Master design (web design, 3D design).
- Create your own business.
- To act in a movie.
- Take part in a competition or talent show.
- Win elections (to local councils, parliament, to any elected position).
- Get an Oscar.
- Receive a Nobel Prize.
We will not rank these most frequently encountered specific goals by importance. We have already discussed that everyone's personal goals are different, and what is important to one person may be completely uninteresting to another. The main thing is that you understand how to make a list of life goals.
Algorithm for compiling a list of life goals:
- Think about what you want in life and from life. Write it down.
- Think about what inspires you in this life. Write it down.
- Think and write down what you need to implement steps 1-2.
- Sort items by timing, importance and availability of resources.
- Think again about whether these are exactly your goals and whether you really want to achieve them.
That's all, actually. Your personal list of life goals is ready. Don't be discouraged if something doesn't work out. Perhaps the goal was imposed and not yours, in fact. Don't worry if your mood changes and some goals become irrelevant. Life moves forward, the situation changes, and we change too. Finally, feel free to revise the list and add new items to it. The list of life goals is not a dogma at all, but a guide to action that can and should be updated in accordance with trends that are relevant to you personally.
And one moment. According to some psychologists, the human brain tends to confuse the fact of setting a goal with achieving it. There is something here, because this is what all affirmations are built on - affirmative judgments in the present tense. Psychologists advise saying “I am rich and successful,” and not “I want to become rich and successful.”
But if it were that simple, everyone around would have long ago become rich and successful. In fact, for many, the affirmation works a little differently: the brain, having received the command that you are already rich and successful, stops thinking about how to achieve this, because, according to your own assurances, you have already achieved this. Therefore, remember that even one small action on the way to the goal is always better than tons of plans for the implementation of which nothing has been done. If you have difficulties with choosing and setting goals, we invite you to our “Self-Knowledge” course, which will help you quickly understand yourself, and, therefore, more clearly formulate your goals and desires.
And in conclusion, I would like to quote the lines of a wonderful poem written by poetess Marina Fedortsova. They perfectly reflect the essence of our topic today:
Don’t put off life until later, What then only heaven knows You dream of something big, Acting dishonestly today
If it happens one day later, You will never miss it, Only life will suddenly seem like a dream, Flew by mediocrely and emptyly...
And there is no need to hide something at the bottom of the wardrobe until better times. Don’t put off life until later. This is the manner of sleeping bears...
We sincerely wish that everything you dream of, want, desire, and strive for will happen in your life. And so that all the necessary resources and opportunities present themselves on time, and not when it is hopelessly late. In fact, this is exactly what our article is about. Like any other article dedicated to planning and setting life goals.
Good luck!
We also recommend reading:
- Storytelling
- Personal Development Plan
- How to set goals - another technique
- How to review your progress over the past six months
- How to choose a job you like
- Lessons of wisdom from La Rochefoucauld
- Eight mistakes when setting goals
- Documents that everyone should have
- 10 steps to achieve your goals
- How to define your mission and find your dream
- Personal goal setting
Key words:1Self-knowledge
