Selecting the Right Goals for You

Proper Goal Setting Is Essential touched upon the need to prioritize which of your goals you feel are most important, such that you will not risk diluting your efforts among multiple goals so much that you fail in them all.

Prioritizing Goals Is Not Your Only Necessity

Goal selection must balance both priority and viability with your personal desire. Anyone can learn to speak Spanish, but unless you possess the desire or motivation to use it your efforts will be for naught in the end. How many of us took foreign language classes in high school or college and left the institutions fairly proficient in the languages? Quite a few, right? Now how many of us have almost forgotten all that we once learned since we didn't continue to speak the language regularly after schooling? Yep… that strikes a chord with most of us.

Goals Require Motivation!

If you are not enthusiastic about your goal, you will probably not be motivated enough to see it through to the end. A lack of enthusiasm is indicative of one of the below problems:

  • You really want the goal, but you believe it will be too difficult or stressful to obtain it. For example, we all want to be thin, but giving up rich foods or starting an exercise program is no fun!
  • You have convinced yourself that it would be in your best interest to meet a goal, but deep down you really don't want it.

The first example above is entirely understandable, and is actually pretty normal for those who have just started laying down some lifetime goals. By laying down a solid goals worksheet, you will be able to break the seemingly unbearable aspects into inconveniences that can easily be conquered.

On the other hand there are times when we set out to pursue goals that we never truly wanted for ourselves. Perhaps your father was a doctor and pressured you into following the medical profession. Perhaps your spouse would like you to follow a particular career path. Whatever the reason, we deal with influences nearly every day of our lives, whether they are from those close to us or public perception and media.

Although it's honorable to try and appease those who are close to us by pursuing goals that they approve of, ultimately for your goals to succeed they must be your own. If you do not believe in a goal, or you do not want it with every essence of your being, then you will have a far more difficult time remaining motivated.

Make sure the goals you select are your own!

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