The Importance of Setting Goals
By Julia A. Keirns
According to Dave Ramsey making SMART goals gives us direction and helps us stick to the goals we set for ourselves. In his blog article “How to Set SMART Goals in 2020” at his website www.daveramsey.com/blog/smart-goal-setting he explains that SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Sensitive. We can make all the resolutions and goals we want, but unless we write them down and form a plan to accomplish them, it is all just wishful thinking.
We should be Specific about the goals we have and not generalize them. We need to make our goals Measurable and focus on one chunk at a time on a daily basis. We need to make sure our goals are Achievable and not totally out of our reach. Stretching a little is good, but we should not make them unachievable, or we may give up. Choosing goals that are Relevant to our own lives is key. We need to be passionate about what we want to achieve, or we will not stick with it when the going gets tough. And finally, setting a deadline and writing down how we can do something every single day to move us toward our goals is most important.
The seven main areas where people set the most life goals include financial, spiritual, fitness, education, family, career and social. Reading this article made me realize that there are many benefits to setting goals and I do have goals in each of these areas I would like to achieve.
MY PERSONAL GOALS
My financial goal is to save enough money to survive after I retire. But that goal has a lot to do with me improving my writing and making more money with my chosen craft. I don’t really want to just survive in my elder years, though. I would love to travel and live in luxury. Who wouldn’t? So I work on this goal weekly by putting back money into savings out of every paycheck.
My spiritual goal is to maintain my relationship with God on a personal level by touching base with Him each day. I work at keeping Him informed of what is going on. I’m sure He already knows, but I tell Him about it anyway.
My fitness goal gets pushed to the sidelines quite often. I would love to lose weight and get back in physical shape for my senior years. It is just a matter of mustering up enough will power and making my mind up to do it. Physical fitness is never an easy goal to achieve for any of us.
I have two education goals. First, I have set a goal to read 100 classic books before I die. I have created a list of the top 100 books I want to read and am marking them off as I go. Believe it or not, I am up to 30 already done. The second education goal I have is to get my Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing and English. I have already taken many steps toward this goal by applying and starting college and getting my Associate Degree in General Studies which was completed in May. I work on this goal every day as I do my work in my college classes. Every completed assignment is one step closer to the goal.
My elderly mother wishes I would call her more often, so I will set a family goal to call her twice a week and actually set aside enough time to let her talk as much as she wants to talk, because someday soon she will be gone and I will wish I could call and talk to her. I also have two adult sons in the military, and we make an effort to stay in touch by Skype each week.
My career goal would be to earn enough money writing that I can quit my day job. Don’t get me wrong. I do like my day job managing a durable medical equipment company and billing insurance for them. I have been with this company a long time and will stay with them until my writing provides a suitable income that I don’t need the income from that job anymore.
Finally, my social goal is just to see the world. I want to travel and see as much of it as I can before I die. A few years back my husband and I got our passports for the first time. The first thing we did the following weekend was to take a trip to Canada. No reason. I just wanted a stamp in my passport. We have also been to Mexico since getting our passports. My goal would be to fill it with as many stamps as I can.
I found a goal setting worksheet in this article that I have printed off and am using to plan out my goals. I write down goals in each of the seven areas of my life as I think of them and try work on as many of them as I can each day. Some goals get crossed out, but I write them down when I think of them anyway.
SETTING GOALS MATTERS
The most important nugget of information I took away from this article that I would like to share with you is to not forget my “why.” I like the idea of having a reason “why” I want to accomplish a certain goal. I absolutely love to write and wish I could just write from the time I get up to the time I go to bed. I will continue to take tiny baby steps toward each of my goals with my “why” in mind.
What are your goals and what is your “why?”