Why Setting Goals Is Important & How to Do It

• Goals help motivate you to follow your dreams while encouraging you to be the best person you could possibly be.
• When you achieve something, you boost your self-esteem and self-confidence, which are just a few of the reasons why goal setting is important.
• To set a goal, identify what you want in life by asking yourself what you value most. Then, make a goal that's specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.

Why is goal setting important?

Setting goals helps you stay motivated to accomplish your dreams. We all have goals in life. These goals can be small, like making your bed in the morning or cooking dinner every night of the week, or they can be as big as winning a half marathon or getting a college degree. No matter what your goals are, identifying and working to achieve them can help you become the person you want to be. Overall, goals help you improve your life. Let’s say you're a student. Setting goals is important because they help define what you need to do to succeed. Maybe success is passing a test or graduating. Either way, goals serve as stepping stones to your future. Or we can imagine you’re a business owner. Long-term goals are important for you in this context because they help you envision your business’s future. If you want to expand your company, specific goals on budget, customer traffic, and sales can help you measure success.

5 Benefits of Goal Setting

Increases your motivation Setting goals gives you something to work toward. Think of it as a video game. To get to the next level, you have to complete the task at hand. Achieving your goals helps you level up, and knowing that they’re just in reach gives you an extra boost of positive motivation.

Improves your self-worth Making goals for yourself can help raise low self-esteem. Achieving even the smallest of things can remind you that you’re strong and capable. So, the more small goals you set and achieve, the more highly you’ll think of yourself.

Helps you set priorities When you set goals, you’re your own boss, and you have to motivate yourself to get the job done. Life is full of distractions, and setting a goal can help you focus on what’s most important.

Gives you a sense of responsibility No one is responsible for your goals but you, and this can be an extremely powerful feeling. You’re in control of your destiny. Setting goals not only helps you feel more confident, but it can also remind you that you’re in charge of your own choices—what you do matters, and you’re the only one who can be held accountable.

Allows you to measure progress Success not only looks good on paper, but it also helps you feel good. When you accomplish something, you get a rush of adrenaline and satisfaction. Seeing how close you are to success and watching yourself improve can be a huge confidence boost. After all, imagine what else you can do if you can accomplish one goal!

How to Set & Achieve SMART Goals

Make your goals as specific as possible. This way, you’ll know exactly what you’re aiming for. The more detail your goal has, the easier it’ll be to accomplish because you’ll know the end goal. When making your goal, think of these questions to help you picture the outcome: Who, if anyone, can help me reach my goal? What do I want to accomplish? When can I work toward accomplishing my goal? Where can I accomplish my goal? What obstacles may I encounter? Why is achieving my goal important? What limits are there to my success? Why do I want to accomplish my goal? Let’s say you want to improve your business’s digital space. Your specific goal statement may be something like, “People are accessing our website from their mobile devices. Because the website isn’t responsive to that means of traffic, we’re experiencing poor reviews. I want to launch a mobile app for the company website by the end of August. This will require involvement from the software development, design, and marketing teams.” Perhaps you’re writing a book. A specific goal could look like, “I want to write a novel by the end of November this year to work toward my dream of being a published author. With school, I may encounter scheduling conflicts due to other homework assignments and clubs. I’ll inform my friends and family of my endeavor, so they can support my goal.”

Plan a way to measure your progress. An achievable goal is something you can measure the success of. How will you know your goal is achieved at the end of the day? Make sure your long- or short-term goal can be defined and tracked in some way. For instance, if you’re creating a new website for your business, you can track how much traffic the site sees each day of the week, while noting where customers are finding your site (search engines, social media, etc.). Say your goal is to finish writing a book. You may track your progress with how many words or chapters you write using a bullet journal or spreadsheet.

Determine how you’ll achieve your goal. Arguably, one of the most important steps in setting a goal is to make it achievable. Don’t aim too high that your goal is too hard to reach, but also don’t aim too low so that it’s too easy. Think about your limitations and work around them. Then, continue setting bigger goals with each success. Let’s return to our corporate example. Setting milestones for the project can help you and your team measure the success of your app. For instance, perhaps you celebrate when there are 100 downloads or 100 new customers. For our book example, aim to write a certain amount of words or chapters a day. When you achieve that small milestone, try to write more words or chapters.

Make sure your goals are relevant and align with your values. If you’re struggling to set a goal, ask yourself, “What do I want most in life?” Then, work from there. Large and small goals should speak to you, your needs, and your purpose. Remember, at the end of the day, goals help you be the person you want to be. Try asking yourself these questions about your goal(s): Is this goal what I want? Does it make sense for me to do this? Are my daily goals relevant to my larger purpose? For instance, if you’re creating an app for your company, perhaps the company’s initiative this year is to improve overall customer experience, and implementing a new app will create a more pleasing experience for customers. Say you’re writing that book. Perhaps your goal is relevant to your values because you love reading and writing and have always seen yourself becoming a successful published author.

Set a timeframe for how long it’ll take you to complete your goal. Time-bound deadlines can give you a sense of urgency and push you to work harder. Your goal deadline doesn’t have to be super strict—be reasonable with yourself. Plan a day to start working toward your goal, and then set a time by which you hope to achieve it. For example, if you’re creating a company app, perhaps you aim to achieve 40,000 mobile app installs by the end of the fiscal year. If you’re working on writing a book, maybe you set out to start the draft in June and aim to finish it by the end of August. Keep in mind that goals don’t have to be achieved right away; change doesn’t happen overnight. Be patient with yourself.