The Importance of Having Goals and How to Reach Them

by Shane Eric Mathias

Unlike animals, humans seek improvement in their lives. We are not content to just eat, sleep and procreate, we wish for things like a bigger home, greater comfort, more conveniences, travel, a bright future for our children and a secure retirement for ourselves. And while managing money can be one important part of reaching our goals there are other equally critical habits that enhance your chances for success. 

 

 

Planning - Hope and Goals go hand in hand. Hope is a unique feature of human consciousness that allows us to envision a better day and goals are the stepping stones we create to get us there.

But hope and goals are not enough in and of themselves to manifest a dream, they need to be integrated into a plan, which provides a scaffolding, holding everything in place and allowing us to visualize how each element is interrelated and what path we will need to take to ascend from one goal to the next .

Planning is like an art: a process which always demands improvement by way of practice. That's why it's useful to always have some kind of plan that you're working on, so that you can remain fluid in the dance and with little effort, accomplish what may seem impossible to others. 

Be willing to let your mind wander - Thomas Edison said "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration", but my experience has been somewhat different. I've noticed that when I have a goal, I spend a lot of time in my mind running through the steps necessary to accomplish it. This process involves several different types of thinking and they occur in no particular order. 

Visualizing the completion of the goal: What will it look like, feel like, how will it make my life better?

Imagining possible methods for accomplishing the goal: Are there economic or logistical limitations? How might you overcome those to arrive at the best result given the resources available? 

Support working concepts with some empirical data: Depending on the nature of your goal, you may need to get out a tape measure and or a calculator, do some internet research or make some phone calls to get information. And because the mind is so busy with other things, at some point, facts and figures will need to be committed to paper or some type of digital medium; something you can refer back to as you refine your plan. 

Don't be afraid to move ideas around: Shift the placement of ideas or eliminate them all together as new information becomes available. Allow your mind to be like a stage or laboratory, where different scenarios are considered and eliminated or tested and refined. Eventually, the right combination of solutions will emerge at which point, the task will come more clearly into view and seem suddenly more manageable. 

Organization and Commitment -  These are two essential qualities of character you must develop if you hope to create and execute plans in a timely manner. 

Organization: Because life pulls us in so many directions at once, it's necessary to prioritize what is most important at any given time, focus on it to completion and then put it out of our mind. Knowing that other personal or business responsibilities are currently under control allows you to set aside blocks of time to work on reaching your goals. Also, keeping your project  organized means you'll be less likely to lose essential tools, or be slowed down by having to correct a big problem that could have been handled much more easily early on. 

Commitment: Committing to your goal means you'll create the necessary energy and enthusiasm to continue working on it, even when you may not want to. Each moment seduces us in one direction or another, either to play or engage in some other kind of distraction. Commitment is a promise we make to ourselves to not procrastinate and remain focused on accomplishing our objectives. This is where maintaining a mental picture of your goal completed helps to inspire you to stay motivated and fight inertia. 

"The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good"

So admonished Voltaire. And it is a truth of the human condition that we often seek the perfect time, the perfect mindset, the perfect tools, the perfect knowledge and so on before we feel prepared to embark on a new goal or adventure.  Meaning ultimately, that nothing gets done, because perfection in anything is unattainable.

One way in which this counterproductive obsession with perfection takes shape is assuming one has to be an expert before he can start a project. This is a classic "Catch 22" situation, because how can you become an expert in anything if you haven't already done it?

That is not to say that you should leap, half-cocked into a project without preparation and forethought: that is an almost certain recipe for failure. But the happy medium emerges when you prepare yourself as best you can and then proceed cautiously, taking small risks, making mistakes, correcting them as quickly and effectively as possible and continuing.

Experts rarely innovate. Rather, they bask in their "expert-ness" and become irrelevant. Innovations are made by people who are either unaware of the excepted protocol or willing to experiment beyond it, as a child would.

Do you lack the perfect wisdom or the perfect amount of money to do something? Fine, then figure out a different way to do it. One that allows you to proceed with the resources you have.

Never assume that the accepted way is the best way. "The best" of anything is always subject to redefinition. 

-S.E. Mathias

I would love to know if you enjoyed this article, how it may have helped you, what country you are living in and what aspects of happiness and successful living you might like me to write about. 

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- Shane