part0010

Many people hate setting goals, because secretly they believe that they may fail to achieve them. Other people are perfectly happy never setting goals, because they believe that their life is just fine the way it is. To others, it may appear that setting goals only puts them under unnecessary pressure and stress.

However, people who consistently set and achieve goals understand that when they set a new goal, they are in fact creating a better life for themselves. They are making a powerful new cause — the effect of which can be more fulfilment and happiness in their life.

There is a big difference between people who set goals and those who never do. The lives of people who regularly set goals can often turn out very different to those who don’t set any goals for themselves.

John was frustrated with his life. Really, really frustrated. He was trapped in a dead-end job that he hated, with very low pay. Nobody appreciated him, and life just seemed to be passing him by.

On the third Thursday of every month, John and his old-school friends would always meet up at the local pub. Most of his friends seem to be doing really well, and appeared to be happy. They were all married, or at least in long-term relationships, and most of them had kids too. John had none of these things in his own life. John was cynical, and believed that other people had all the luck and that he had none. Meeting his friends was always embarrassing, and often it was something he dreaded, even though he wanted to spend time with them. His friends would often share all the wonderful things happening in their lives. One of them had travelled the world, three of them had successful businesses, and one had even retired when he was only 35 years old.

John secretly believed there was something wrong with him, something very wrong, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on exactly what was. He was lonely, frustrated, and disillusioned. John expected nothing to change, and nothing did change for him. On top of all this, he constantly experienced disappointment after disappointment. Relationships that went wrong after only a short time, a career that never really started, and he seemed to experience constant limitations in everything that he did.

John didn’t understand that he too could have experienced all sorts of wonderful things in his life, if only he had done one thing – set clear goals. But John never made any goals. Or more accurately, he hadn’t made a concrete goal since he was 11 years old. You see, when he was still just a young boy he had a passion for football. He lived and breathed football every waking moment of his day. He was a good player, but not exceptional because he didn’t practice quite as much as some of his teammates.

Around this time, his dad gave him a book about the world’s greatest football heroes and it was his prized possession. In this book, he read the experiences of his heroes, and how many of them went from failure after failure to gradually becoming the world’s greatest players. All fired up, John made a big decision. He was going to be just like them. He was going to become a football superhero! John started to train more than ever – a lot more. In fact, he trained so much that even his friends began to believe he was going to become the best footballer the school had ever had.

Then John became ill. And what started out as a minor illness quickly developed into something that meant he had to spend 3 months in hospital. John eventually overcame his illness and returned to school. However, he was deeply shocked when he discovered that his team had won the championships without him.

When John was strong enough, he returned to the playing field only to discover that he was no longer on the team! His replacement was getting all the praise for the championships win. John was very unhappy and he grew resentful and bitter. This was the first great setback in his life. Unfortunately, he allowed this first mishap to dictate how his life would eventually turn out.

John never made another clear goal from that day on. His belief was that should he fail again, it would be far too painful for him to bear. He built up a skin of protection around himself, but this also prevented good things from happening to him. Eventually, John became a drifter, because he never set any concrete goals, and he only reacted to circumstances as they happened. He never looked forward into the future, and always settled for second best.

On the other hand, his old school mates who were successful, and who seemed to be happy, had not allowed temporary setbacks to prevent them from achieving their life goals. As a result, all of them were able to create some degree of success, happiness, and wealth.

Sadly, the world is filled with people just like John. They allow fear, lack of understanding, and temporary setbacks to stop them achieving their life’s biggest dreams.

For example, many people set big a goal, but are scared of failing, or of the challenges they might have to face to reach that goal. Others don't take any of the right actions to bring their goals to fruition. When this happens, they can end up disillusioned because their goal seems as far away as it did before they even started.

On the other hand, many set a goal, create action steps to achieve that goal, but then give up at the first real setback, justifying to themselves that it probably "wasn't meant to be" anyway.

What all these people fail to realise is that achieving their goals is a lot easier than they might imagine. In order to achieve any worthwhile goal, you just need to follow a simple time-tested formula that works, and follow it to the letter.

The fact is, unless you set specific goals and work towards the achievement of those goals, your life can start to drift. You can end up drifting from one event to another, just reacting to external circumstances, instead of carving out a great future for yourself – a future that you really want.

Unless you set goals, and take the right actions to achieve those goals, you could even grow disempowered. This is because life without goals can become monotonous and unfulfilling, and if you don’t set goals, it could even mean that you never discover what you are truly capable of, always settling for second best.

An empowered person is a person who creates real change in their world, whereas a person who is disempowered can achieve very little and constantly faces feelings of dissatisfaction and disappointment.

In one sense, a goal is just a goal, unless you do something about it. On the other hand, when you create a clear, concise goal, and start taking the right actions, it creates forward momentum in your life. Simply put, goals will stretch your life — they will cause you to grow in ways that wouldn’t have been available to you before.

Therefore, when you set a goal, it will cause you to make changes in your life – changes that you would not have made otherwise. When you set a goal, you push yourself to develop new skills, seek new experiences, challenge yourself, change your beliefs, and meet new people.

So, imagine if John had set himself the goal of improving in football, so that he could achieve his dream of becoming a professional footballer. To achieve his goal, he could have developed new footwork skills, sought new types of fitness training, challenged himself to beat his previous records, and found people who are at the top of their game.

Goals cause you to stretch your life beyond its current limitations. The fact is, when you change, your circumstances will also change. If you do not change inside, then your external reality cannot change either.

Setting goals means you are taking control of your life, your destiny, your journey, and also your happiness. Even the act of setting a goal means you are taking control of your own future rather than leaving it up to fate, luck, or the will of others.

Setting goals is your one true guarantee of achieving a far better life for yourself. A life that is exciting, enriching, and rewarding in every way imaginable.

My own experience of setting goals is that my goals have caused me to do all sorts of things that I would never have considered doing otherwise. My biggest goals have made it necessary for me to learn new skills, try new things, and take steps to overcome my own self-limiting beliefs — and it’s exactly the same for you too.

Setting goals will cause you to gain new skills, experiences, and positive empowering beliefs. By doing each of these things, you can start to achieve your goals. You can only achieve your goals when you change your life, both internally and externally, and it’s not nearly as difficult as you may have believed!