Even if we think we are not settings goals, we still have goals. These goals are part of our day without us even knowing about them. How to take control of goal setting?

Remember

Expanded perspective

Goals! You know how important those goals were in shaping you up to be what you are today. Those small goals and those big ones, the overambitious ones and the accomplished ones. Whether you realize it or not, you have set goals in different passages of your life and nowadays you are also reading about goals, just to understand them better.

The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.

-Bill Copeland

Goals are more powerful when you consciously set them, even if you don’t set goals consciously your brain is tuned to setting them up for you. Goals are what makes achieving something delightful and meaningful. If you have been in that situation where you wanted to achieve something but you were not able to, you might also be having some excuses for why you were not able to. Don’t worry much about it, the only reason was the clarity of the goal and the little steps towards it.

Dream big, but aim small

One of the most common goal setting mistakes people make is taking long strides from the start. While it is good that you are motivated towards your goal and starting with bigger steps to reach the goal faster, it is not practical. Motivation doesn’t last long, so if the steps are bigger it complicates things for you, you will feel the change tougher to get into. Instead, plan small by following these steps:

1. If the goal is big, break it down into milestones
2. Define small and easy tasks to achieve that milestone
3. Forget about the next milestone
4. Keep repeating the task till you get bored and need more challenge
5. Set the next milestone
6. Repeat steps 2–5 and stay in this finite loop until you reach your goal

Turn your tasks into habits

As you keep repeating the tasks they will form habits and will fit naturally into your day. Being in that loop will be easy as you will keep replacing habits with new ones or at times improving those habits in your pursuit to meet that end goal. It’s these good habits you create that will make you feel more proud of yourself and make the journey towards that goal more wonderful.

Goals give purpose to your future

Goals are not only powerful to achieve something in life, but they also give you a tomorrow to look forward to. If you don’t know what you want to do when you wake up tomorrow; by having a goal for the future you at least know what you can do tomorrow.

It’s not the impact of the goal, but it’s the goal that matters. What’s the goal that you want to achieve?