79. Six Reasons to Set Goals
I know what you’ re thinking:“ Robin, give me a topic that’ s fresh and original and challenging. Why are you writing about goals? We know this stuff. It’ s boring!” Few success practices are as important as articulating your most closely held goals and then reviewing them daily. Getting masterful at setting and then considering your goals on a consistent basis is essential to a life of greatness. And yet, guess what? Most people don’ t spend more than an hour a year doing this. It’ s true: People send more time planning their summer vacations than they do designing their lives.
In my mind, there are six big reasons for you to set goals: Focus, Growth, Intentionality, Measurement, Alignment and Inspiration.
Focus: Where your focus goes your energy flows. I feel so very blessed to be the success coach to some genuine superstars in the field of business. Billionaires, celebrity entrepreneurs, captains of industry. One of their primary traits of greatness is their focus. They know their“ vital few,” in other words, the key goals they need to achieve to get to the extraordinary. And then they focus like crazy on them. Goals breed focus. Simple but powerful idea.
Growth: Goal – setting promotes personal growth. The real value of reaching a good lies not in the result achieved but in what the journey you’ ve walked to get to the goal has made of you as a person.
Intentionality: It’ s easy to live life by accident and sleepwalk through your days. If you don’ t act on life, life has a way of acting on you. By articulating your goals and then reviewing them for five minutes each morning, you will exert your influence on life and live in a proactive rather than reactive manner. By setting goals, you will have a framework or decision matrix that will drive better choices. You will become aware – within a few seconds – when you get off plan. You’ ll make fewer mistakes and get more done in less time. As the novelist Saul Bellow said:“ A plan relieves you of the torment of choice.”
Setting your goals is a bold play for your Best life. Setting your goals is an act of heroism Because you are reaching for the potential that Has been invested in you.
Measurement: One of our corporate clients is El Al, Israel’ s national airline. We did some leadership training for its management team. Amos Shapiro, the CEO who ran the airline, offered me a tour of Tel Aviv’ s spectacular airport when I was last there. In one of the meeting rooms used by his staff, a statement appeared on a crumpled piece of paper stuck to a wall:“ What gets measured gets improved.” Big thought. Setting goals gives you something to measure. If your physical goal is to get down to 12 % body fat, you have a standard against which to measure your progress. And as you measure, you have a basis on which