I was shocked to hear the statistics. Less than 5% of all people have goals. Less than 1% write them down. With so many of us being frustrated with where we are in life work, partners, friends, home, money, etc. I ask you, could it be because we don’t have effective goals? We are going to take a look at what goal setting is all about the process behind it how to set goals and the steps necessary to actually achieve them.
Why Don’t People Have Goals?
Of course, there are many reasons why people don’t have goals, but there are 5 that seem to dominate. They don’t think it is important to set goals. For all I know, to be successful you absolutely need to have deliberate, detailed goals. Period. A purposeful life demands goals and specific plans for how to achieve them. Success doesn’t knock on your door by chance.
They think it’s difficult or they think the time it takes is not worth the effort. Here is the truth: Performance is directly related to the time invested in designing strategies before engaging in any one activity. Every hour of planning normally saves Five Hours in the action stage. In theory, this could make you 500% more effective!
They think hard work is all that it takes. Hard work is a myth and the cause of countless shattered dreams for success-oriented people. Yes, working hard is oftentimes necessary to get where you want to go. But to work SMART is even more important. You can achieve much more with a lot less effort by looking for new solutions instead of working hard the same way you’ve always done.
If we do what we’ve always done, we’re going to get what we’ve always gotten. Someone once defined the word insanity. “Doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.” I tend to agree (although I am sometimes guilty as charged).
They don’t think it is necessary to write goals down. It’s true this simple activity may seem like a waste of time, but it is more important than you can ever imagine. Written-down goals generate more definite thoughts create clearer pictures of necessary activities, and bring motivation up where it needs to be. Until the goal with specific actionable plans is captured on paper, it is nothing more than a wish or a distant dream that probably won’t come true until we are old and grey. Sure, wishes and dreams do sometimes come true by “chance.” But in most cases, they do not. You need to write things down, plan, and take action.
They are afraid of failure. The fear of failure is holding more people back from success than anything else. Dreams die because of fear. Incomes suffer because of fear. Loneliness, lack of friendships, and love are manifested because of fear. Fears materialize because of a lack of information; the more we know about something the less afraid we are. The path away from fear is to replace it with knowledge.
