Do goals matter? OF COURSE goals matter! That's the easy answer, but you didn't come here for the easy answer. You came here for a detailed step-by-step working strategy for setting and achieving your goals. So, let's look at specific reasons why goals matter.
Imagine you've been hired by NASA to get an astronaut into space. Now, "space" is an awfully big place. It might be a little more helpful if you had a tad more information about where exactly this astronaut was headed. The moon? An orbit around the earth? The space station? Without this data, you could easily spend years and millions of dollars executing a plan that misses the mark by a lot - oh, say, a few million miles.
When it comes to our businesses and personal lives, the risks may not be on quite so grand a scale, but they're very real to us. How will you develop a marketing plan to promote your latest product if you don't know how many you need to sell? How will you know whether you need new software for your network if you're not sure what you're trying to accomplish? How can you evaluate two possible courses of action if you don't know what the end goal is?
As it's been said in math classes since the beginning of time (almost), the straightest distance between two points is a straight line. But before you can create that line, you need the two points - a beginning (where you are now) and an end (your goal). Put simply, goals give you an endpoint. And once you have an endpoint, you can figure out how to get there - and evaluate the different plans and options before you.
Specifically, the benefits of goals include the following:
*Greater focus: Knowing your goals allows you to concentrate on your biggest priorities. When you're aware of your top goals, you can move them to the front of the line and stop worrying about the little things.
*Efficient allocation of resources: When you know what you're aiming for, you are less likely to waste time, money, or effort.
*Ability to measure progress: Goals make it easy to know if you're on the right path or not. You can easily measure your progress and determine how far off - or on - track you are. That's invaluable for making changes and adjustments along the way.
*Lower stress: Stress and anxiety often result from not knowing what you're supposed to be doing or where you should be concentrating your efforts. Goals lead to clarity of purpose, which leads to lower stress.
*Feelings of accomplishment: If you don't know where you're headed, you never know when you get there, and if you never know if you've arrived, you can never celebrate your success! Setting goals first allows you to know when you've done what you intended to do.
Imagine you've been hired by NASA to get an astronaut into space. Now, "space" is an awfully big place. It might be a little more helpful if you had a tad more information about where exactly this astronaut was headed. The moon? An orbit around the earth? The space station? Without this data, you could easily spend years and millions of dollars executing a plan that misses the mark by a lot - oh, say, a few million miles.
When it comes to our businesses and personal lives, the risks may not be on quite so grand a scale, but they're very real to us. How will you develop a marketing plan to promote your latest product if you don't know how many you need to sell? How will you know whether you need new software for your network if you're not sure what you're trying to accomplish? How can you evaluate two possible courses of action if you don't know what the end goal is?
As it's been said in math classes since the beginning of time (almost), the straightest distance between two points is a straight line. But before you can create that line, you need the two points - a beginning (where you are now) and an end (your goal). Put simply, goals give you an endpoint. And once you have an endpoint, you can figure out how to get there - and evaluate the different plans and options before you.
Specifically, the benefits of goals include the following:
*Greater focus: Knowing your goals allows you to concentrate on your biggest priorities. When you're aware of your top goals, you can move them to the front of the line and stop worrying about the little things.
*Efficient allocation of resources: When you know what you're aiming for, you are less likely to waste time, money, or effort.
*Ability to measure progress: Goals make it easy to know if you're on the right path or not. You can easily measure your progress and determine how far off - or on - track you are. That's invaluable for making changes and adjustments along the way.
*Lower stress: Stress and anxiety often result from not knowing what you're supposed to be doing or where you should be concentrating your efforts. Goals lead to clarity of purpose, which leads to lower stress.
*Feelings of accomplishment: If you don't know where you're headed, you never know when you get there, and if you never know if you've arrived, you can never celebrate your success! Setting goals first allows you to know when you've done what you intended to do.
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