IN BRIEF: If you don’t have a clear idea of what you want in life and how you’re going to achieve it, you’ll never know when you do. Goals give us direction and help us to focus on what’s important. When we achieve them, we feel competent and confident that we can deal with just about anything.

Goals give you direction. After all, if you don’t know where you are going, how will you know when you get there?

Coming up with goals and writing them down may seem like a complete waste of time to you. But apart from gaining a sense of direction, setting goals has many other benefits. Goals enable us to:

• Identify our strengths
• Identify our weaknesses so that we can work on them
• Have a sense of victory or accomplishment of past goals, thereby making us feel confident and competent (even when dealing with unexpected or difficult situations)
• Improve our self-esteem
• Measure progress. If we are not sure what our results should be, we have no way of monitoring our progress
• Grow. Goals challenge our comfort zones and motivate us to develop
• Prioritize. If we have goals, we focus on the things we want to achieve and avoid getting distracted by “less important” things
• Be responsible. We feel responsible for our own successes and failures if we have clear goals

But to feel the benefits, you should know what goals are and how to formulate them effectively.

Setting goals

Remember that goals are not just for your career. They can be applied in many areas of your life. Having goals in more than one area of your life will help you move towards a more fulfilling life in general. So, when you sit down to come up with your goals, consider all the following categories:

• Family
• Friends
• Community
• Financial
• Career
• Household
• Education
• Health
• Spiritual and/or religious
• Recreation

Start by looking at the “big picture.” In all these categories, what is it that you want to achieve in your lifetime? (Keep in mind that these should be your goals, not those of your parents, spouse, or boss). Write them down and rank them in priority.

As you write them down, make sure they are SMART:

• Specific – Specific goals are more likely to be accomplished because you know exactly what you are trying to achieve.
• Measurable – By making a goal measurable, you have proof of the accomplishment.
• Attainable – Goals you set that are too far out of your reach you probably won’t commit to doing.
• Realistic – A goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work.
• Time-appropriate – Putting an end point on your goal gives you a clear target to work towards.

Then break your lifetime goals up into progressively smaller goals you can achieve in 10 years, 5 years, 1 year, 6 months, and 1 month. Each of these should be based on the previous plan.

Create a daily to-do list of things that you should do today to work towards your lifetime goals. This will make your goals more real and help you to feel that you are working towards them.

Goal setting and achievement are lifelong processes. Remember that your goals will change as you mature and as your needs change. Also, no one achieves all their goals, so don’t lose heart or feel like a failure if you don’t achieve all of them.

Most importantly, take the time to enjoy and celebrate the goals that you do achieve. After all, they are supposed to give you a sense of achievement and pleasure.