Setting goals is considered by many the most important step in achieving success. Whether it’s a personal goal to lose weight, or a financial goal, setting goals in generally leads to a higher chance of success. But why? In this blog post we will go over why setting goals leads to success.
We had the privilege of speaking with a few experts on the topic of goal setting and how it relates to success. Through our conversation, we gained valuable insights on how to effectively set and achieve goals. As someone who has also experienced the benefits of goal setting, I was able to contribute my own input based on my personal experience. Let’s dive into the key takeaways.
Setting Goals: A Key To Shifting Attention And Concentrating Energy For Success
According to Shauna Pollard, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist and owner of Shauna Pollard, LLC (https://drspllc.com/), “In general, setting goals can help to shift attention to goals that matter and help people to concentrate their energy for a prolonged period of time on important concerns. This is more likely to lead to success than vague desires or undefined intentions.”
Having vague desires or undefined intentions can hinder success. This is because with vague and undefined intentions, tracking progress is almost impossible. If you don’t see progress, your chances of giving up increases significantly.
Basketball Example
If you’re a basketball player and want to get achieve the goal of becoming a better jump shooter, just going to the park and shooting around lazily won’t get you where you need to be.
You need to track the amount of shots you take and make, this way you could improve every single time you get out and practice. More specifically, you should track each spot on the floor that you shoot from.
If your goals are specific, you’ll be able to continuously shift your energy on what is moving the needle.
SAAS Example
For example, let’s say you want to create a SAAS. When you set goals for this process, you will be able to learn along the way which will lead to higher chances of success.
One goal throughout the process of creating a SAAS may be to test it by sending it out to your target market.
If you just go with the flow and don’t set specific goals, there’s a chance the SAAS won’t be successful.
One more example would be losing weight. If you have a vague desire to lose weight instead of setting a goal of losing a certain amount of weight in an exact time frame, you won’t be able to track your progress and will likely not reach it.
Setting Goals and Achieving Objectives Leads To A Snowball Effect
Setting goals not only helps shift your attention to important concerns, but it also serves as a powerful accountability tool.
According to Dr. Yasmine Saad, Founder and CEO and Senior Licensed Clinical Psychologist at Madison Park Psych, “When you achieve a goal, your motivation to complete the second goal will increase so goals act like snow ball effects for motivation and therefore, they are more likely to lead to success.”
Let’s say you have a goal to run a 5k, if you achieve the goal of running 1 mile straight, your motivation to run the 5k will increase, making it more likely that you’ll complete the goal.
If you don’t set a goal and just aimlessly run, you may not be as motivated to reach the end goal. This is because you won’t be able to see the smaller wins you achieve.
Each goal achieved is a building block for another goal.
Setting Goals Promotes Self Awareness
When you document your goals, you’ll realize that over time you’ll be more in tune with your strengths and weakness.
When you know your strength and weaknesses it allows you to become more rounded which ultimately will lead to more success in the future.
If you have the goal of having a content business. You want to launch a brand that has a blog, YouTube channel, and social media accounts supporting it.
You may realize through that process that you’re absolutely terrible at recording YouTube videos. But this realization is a good thing in terms of your future success because you will be able to do what it takes to become better.
Not only can you learn to get better at your weaknesses, you could also get better at leveraging your strengths. If you’re a good writer, you could make sure that your posts are top notch, and outsource the video creating process.
Building Resilience Through Goal-Setting for Greater Success
“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Nelson Mandela
While setting goals you will undoubtedly encounter obstacles and setbacks along the way, but over time if you stick with it you will develop resilience. You will become more tenacious, more willing to preserver in the face of adversary, and be more willing to adapt when things change the trajectory of your goal.
In short, resilience is a key factor in achieving success because it allows individuals to navigate challenges and setbacks with grace, maintain a positive outlook, and keep moving forward towards their goals.
This is not only important when it comes to achieving success, it’s important in life in general.
Setting Goals Gives You The Opportunity To Do What You Said You We’re Going To Do
Being all talk no action is detrimental to your success. This is because when you put something out into the universe but don’t act upon it, whether you realize it or not, you will question your own ability to achieve things.
Setting goals gives you an outline in order to take action and follow through with what you said you were going to do. But how do you set realistic goals that you can actually achieve? Check out this article on setting realistic goals and achieving them for some tips and tricks to help you get started.
If you set the amazing goal of losing 50 pounds and do it, chances are when you set another goal, even if it’s in another realm of life, you’ll believe in yourself more to the point where you can accomplish anything.
Conclusion
The next time you want to do something, make sure you set goals around it. By doing it, you will wreap the benefits of increased motivation, self-awareness, resilience and confidence in yourself to get the job done.
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[…] It’s often hard for people to set goals because they don’t necessarily know what it is that they want to achieve in life (along with these other reasons). […]