“The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals.”
Melody Beattie
It’s officially December! I don’t know about you, but time seems to go by faster and faster with every passing year. With the holidays in full swing, it got the planner inside of me thinking about the New Year. I get really excited about this time of year because I get to set new goals and refresh those that I am working on long-term. You see, I am so passionate about the purpose and success goals bring that it is one of my ten core values when it comes to my business and personal life.
“Create Real Results” is a cornerstone of goal setting. Success is created and earned. Luck has always favored the well prepared. This is an equation I created and utilize to create success. As you can see, there is no secret bullet, no shortcut, just preparation, a plan and a commitment to stick to that plan. Those who have achieved success will agree that success doesn’t happen overnight nor does it just appear, the journeys are never exactly the same but they travel in unison. That is why I encourage everyone I know and mentor to set goals. They not only give a direction, they give life purpose. Everyone deserves to feel purposeful, and I truly believe goals provide a path to a life more fulfilled.
Goals do 5 things:
Establishes purpose and direction
When you set goals, you start living life with intent. What a feeling! As you set goals and list the steps to get there, your life starts to take a direction that gives clarity, improves decision making, increases self-confidence, drives ambition, and reduces stress!
Structures your time
Idle time is wasted time. Not to be confused with leisure or quality time. When our life lacks focus, idle time can creep its way in and distract us from fully utilizing our potential. Goals give us a path and a life “schedule”. When regularly reviewed, the goal process can keep us from spending endless hours doing activities that don’t enrich our lives and provide personal growth. This includes everyday tasks! While certainly, daily life is not idle time, having goals can provide the activities that can fill the time in between areas that may otherwise fall into the idle time trash can.
Provides a long-term vision and short-term motivation
Goals are directly related to motivation. When you sit down and “design your life”, you not only give yourself a clear vision of what you want your life to look like in the future, you provide your brain with that rush of endorphins that gives you that feeling of being complete, having a plan, and the excitement of creating a better life for yourself. Over the next few weeks, I’ll talk about how to make “short-term” motivation a habit.
Creates results, even if your goal is not met!
What? Isn’t an unmet goal, a failed goal? No. Not at all! This is one of the amazing things about goals – making goals and working on them in itself improves your life. Some goals take longer than others and depending on what they are, may need to be reassessed and replanned. This is not a failure, this is the nature of the process. Any step you take to reach your goal is a step in the right direction. The action to take today is a step that wasn’t taken yesterday and therefore, creates results in itself.
Enriches quality of life
I can’t express this fact enough. The four benefits above all encapsulate this one major benefit. By setting goals you not only reduce stress and create your sense of purpose, your life becomes more balanced. The added benefit is that your new outlook and positive vibe is contagious! People will notice the change you’ve created by focusing on those things important in your life.
Wow! All these benefits! Just write a few things down and read them here and there? Seems so easy, right? But goal setting is a process and many people tend to fall off the wagon over time. In the next few weeks, I am going to share with you the process of goal setting, how to stick with it, and general thoughts on how it applies to homeownership. In the meantime, think about those goals you want to establish.The New Year is just around the corner – a perfect time to start on those things important to you!
I looking forward to chatting about this in the coming weeks! If you would like to grab a cup of coffee and talk a little more, let’s do it!
Joe
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