Why have goals?
At first glance, you might wonder:
Why would anyone want to set goals and put this kind of extra pressure on themselves to succeed?
Or…
Aren’t goals kind of stressful?
Isn’t it possible that you can still achieve success without going to all the extra trouble to set and write down goals for yourself?
Also—isn’t it true that you should be open to all opportunities in life?
Won’t goals keep you from being open to different, spontaneous opportunities?
These are very common questions that people ask when they’re trying to determine whether or not they should put time, effort, and energy into a goal-setting habit.
And they’re very reasonable questions.
With that being said, the verdict is in.
When you study the lives of highly successful people all throughout history, you’ll find that many of them utilized goal setting, in some form or fashion, as a technique to help them dream big dreams, turn those dreams into goals, and then write down those goals to create a roadmap to success.
As it turns out, there truly is a ‘method to the madness’ when it comes to putting time and effort into goal setting.
And in this post, I’m going to share the 13 most important answers to the question of why have goals?
Let’s dive into it.
13 Answers To The ‘Why Have Goals’ Question
1. Goals Make You More Likely To Succeed
This is actually a scientific fact.
People who have goals of some kind are more likely to succeed than people who don’t.
It’s also true that people who write down their goals are more likely to succeed than people who don’t.
You can check out a cool study on the topic here.
But it’s true—setting goals makes you more likely to succeed.
This is a powerful and compelling answer to the question: why have goals?
2. Goals Help You To Focus On The Objective
Getting laser-focused on your objective is one of the best ways to achieve it.
When you don’t have goals or write them down, you can seriously struggle with the concept of focusing on your target—and this will diminish your likelihood of achieving success in life.
3. Goals Make You More Efficient
Along with that laser-like sense of focus, setting goals also comes with a heightened level of efficiency.
We all know that machines run better and get where they’re going faster when they operate with higher efficiency.
And guess what?
Humans are the same way.
4. Goals Help You To Eliminate Waste
Without a proper goal setting habit, you may put yourself at risk for drifting aimlessly through life.
This can equate to a lot of wasted time, effort, energy, and resources that could have been spent pursuing a meaningful, purpose-driven life and achieving success on terms that actually matter to you.
5. Goals Empower You To Dream Big
If you want to succeed at a big dream in life, it’s in your best interest to plot a course and make a plan to achieve it.
And this is exactly what goal setting empowers you to do.
It empowers you to create a roadmap to success by writing down your plan, and then focusing on those goals to achieve success on your terms.
This is how you dream big dreams and actually achieve them.
6. Goals Give You A Roadmap To Success
Sometimes, big goals are difficult to conceive of all at once.
The path forward can become very murky and confusing when you’re dealing with big dreams and long-term plans.
But when you set proper long, medium, and short term goals, you go through the process of figuring out each individual step so that you’ll know exactly what to do every day.
This habit will make you much more likely to achieve the successful outcomes you desire.
7. Goals Provide You With A Plan Of Action
When you break down your long-term goals into medium-term goals and short-term goals, you’ll generally end up with a list of daily tasks that you can do every day to help you move your plan forward and achieve your goals in the long term.
This is powerful because it gives you a daily action plan that you can use to start accomplishing your goals today.
Without this plan, you may continue to feel overwhelmed by the goal—and then end up just drifting listlessly as a result.
8. Goals Help You To Get Specific About Your Path In Life
We all know that there are many potential paths that we can take in life.
But goal setting forces us to make a concrete decision about what we actually want.
This can save you a ton of time, frustration, energy, and confusion.
Choose a path and blaze full steam ahead.
This is how success is created.
9. Goals Give You The Power To Measure Progress
When you set SMART goals, you give yourself the power to measure your progress.
This is highly motivating.
However, it also gives you valuable data that you can use to see if you need to review and adjust your methods.
Once again, this just increases your likelihood of success.
Without setting measurable goals, you wouldn’t be able to collect this data. And then, you wouldn’t be capable of knowing whether you were making progress or not.
10. Setting Goals Puts You In The ‘Driver’s Seat’ In Life
We all want to be the masters of our own destiny.
We all want to create an amazing life for ourselves.
However, unless you make a plan and write down those goals, you’re going to be much less likely to achieve the life you actually want for yourself.
Goals give you the power to take control of your life and to live with intentionality.
This is so powerful!
11. Goals Create Accountability
When you set SMART goals for yourself, each one of those goals is going to have a deadline.
And guess what?
This holds you accountable to the goal.
When you set goals that have a deadline, your brain will interpret this as a sense of urgency.
You’ll tend to prioritize that goal higher than you would prioritize other activities that don’t.
This is just another reason for why goal setting is so powerful.
It makes you accountable to yourself to prioritize the goals that you want to achieve.
12. Setting Goals Will Motivate You
Without a plan of action, big dreams can seem overwhelming and out of reach. And this can be discouraging.
However, when you make a plan and you write down your goals to create a roadmap to success—this will highly motivate you, because you’ll finally see a path forward that ends in you accomplishing your big dream.
This will inspire and encourage you instead of leaving you feeling discouraged.
13. Goals Help You To Reach Your Maximum Potential
Whenever you’re setting a goal, you want to walk a careful tightrope between making the goal achievable and making it ambitious and challenging.
And here’s why.
When you set challenging goals, you set yourself up to become the best that you can be.
When you perform this function correctly as part of your goal-setting method, you will make a lot more progress than you probably ever thought you were capable of.
And this is just another reason for why goal setting is so powerful.
It can truly help you to achieve more than you ever believed that you could.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this post has given you some useful information that’ll help you with understanding not only how to answer the question ‘why have goals,’ but also how this practice can help you in your goal-setting and life-success journey.
Of course, at the end of the day, this is just another part of the larger, overarching process of turning your dreams into goals, and writing those goals down to create a roadmap for success in your life.
This is how you begin your journey to success and crush it.
Need some help? Download my weekly goal-setting sheet, print out a few, and give it a try.
You can also sign up for my email list to get a free copy of my Goal Setting Essentials Starter Kit.
You’ve got this. I believe in you.
Now it’s time to get to work.
Best wishes…
Jay O’Donnell