Goals in life, why are they needed, what do they influence, how to achieve them? It seems that the answers to these questions are not so complicated, and it seems that everything is obvious here. Goals are needed to structure and manage your life, develop, fulfill your purpose, implement your plans, realize desires and dreams.
But why then do about 92% of people fail to achieve their goals, stop halfway or retreat when it seems that a little more and the goal will be achieved? Maybe they choose and plan their goals incorrectly? Or they make mistakes during implementation from the very beginning. Or maybe they set and try to solve goals and objectives that are not their own? Let's figure it all out!
Man's stupid goals
Striving for a goal in life in itself is meaningless. It is important what the goal leads to, what values are brought to life. There are goals - dreams that everyone wants, but there is little benefit from achieving them. And it’s even more useless to put them on – they don’t motivate.
Look at this list of goals on the MYTH blog [1]:
- Achieve enlightenment. For this purpose, the road to the psychiatric hospital has been trodden. Get in line, there won't be enough beds for everyone.
- Surround yourself with friends.
- Read 1000 books. 50 books a year. 20 years of active reading – for what? Fiction novels are rarely written by mentally adequate people, and even more rarely do they have healthy characters - they are boring on the pages.
- Become an astronaut. You spend your whole life training with ten other astronauts, but only one will fly.
- Achieve ideal physical shape. Finish yourself with a barbell before old age comes.
Such goals give rise to flawed motivation . You can’t set goals like that. You can get crazy when you reach them. Or it’s generally unclear why someone needs them in the present tense.
There is a typical list of goals that is presented to blog readers. The authors, trying to give examples of long-term goals, give a set of loops. To strive for such goals without having anything behind them is an inquisition of the remnants of a healthy psyche.
Sample list of 50 goals
Spiritual self-improvement:
- Read the collected works of J. London.
- Complete English courses.
- Forgive grievances against parents and friends.
- Stop being jealous.
- Increase personal efficiency by 1.5 times.
- Get rid of laziness and procrastination.
- Write at least 1000 characters daily for your unfinished novel (personal blog).
- Make peace with your sister (husband, mother, father).
- Start writing a personal diary every day.
- Attend church at least once a month.
Physical self-improvement:
- Go to the gym 3 times a week.
- Go to the sauna and pool weekly.
- Do a set of exercises every morning;
- Every evening, take a walk for at least half an hour at a brisk pace.
- Completely abandon the list of harmful products.
- Once a quarter, go on a three-day cleansing fast.
- In three months I will learn to do the splits.
- In winter, go on a ski trip to the forest with your grandson (son, daughter, nephew).
- Lose 4 kilograms.
- Douse yourself with cold water in the morning.
Financial goals:
- Increase your monthly income to 100,000 rubles.
- Raise the TIC of your website (blog) to 30 by the end of this year.
- Go to the level of receiving passive income.
- Learn to play on the stock exchange.
- Learn to make custom websites yourself.
- Repay your bank loan early.
- Entrust all housework to automatic machines in order to save time for earning money.
- Save on pointless and harmful things: cigarettes, alcohol, sweets, chips, crackers.
- Purchase all products from wholesale stores, except perishable ones.
- Buy a summer house for growing fresh organic products.
Comfort and pleasure:
- Buy a four-room apartment with all amenities.
- Buy a Mazda RX-8 car.
- Visit Italy and Spain.
- Take a massage course.
- Go on vacation at least 2 times a year.
- Buy a fur coat made of ermine to the very toes.
- Ride a live Indian elephant.
- Jump with a parachute.
- Go to a live concert of your favorite artist.
- Meet with friends at least once a week.
Charity:
- Contribute 10% of profits to the orphanage every month for gifts for children.
- Organize a New Year's performance with gifts for orphans using the efforts of a local theater - finance it.
- Do not pass by those asking for alms - be sure to give alms.
- Help a homeless animal shelter by donating money to feed the dogs.
- For the New Year, give all the kids at the entrance a small present.
- On Elderly Day, give all pensioners a set of groceries.
- Buy a computer for a large family.
- Give unnecessary things to those in need.
- Build a children's playground in the yard.
- Help the financially talented girl Tanya go to the “Light Up Your Star” competition in Moscow.
Vital Goals
The goals that we set for ourselves should develop us, bring us experience, increased awareness and personal responsibility. And don’t send him to a mental hospital, intensive care unit or a cemetery.
Vital goals are those the pursuit of which will develop us,
expand our capabilities, increase our sense of happiness, improve our psyche and relationships with others.
The world needs a hundred space explorers. If someone truly aspires to be an astronaut, go ahead! A happy, wise, responsible person, and at the same time also a messenger from the Earth, is better than an astronaut - unhappy, scared, training and tormenting himself, only because he is not ready to love himself and understand his desires.
I am not against struggle and “achievement”, but struggle especially with oneself should not be meaningless. There's no need for a dummy in a spacesuit taking a selfie with the Earth in the background.
The main vital goal of a person is to be healthy physically and psychologically .
There are not so many confident people with positive self-esteem, who know their worth and are able to make their desires come true. They are able to set a goal in life, to take on the solution of a vital problem for all humanity. They have the courage and strength to solve it and live happily.
Types of goals
Goals can be divided according to the resources spent on them and the semantic content for a person.
1. By resources expended:
- Short-term goals are a short time interval (day, week, month) and a smaller amount of resources spent (money, specialists, tools);
- Long-term goals - the time interval is longer (six months, a year, five, ten years...) and several times more resources.
2. According to the semantic content for a person:
- Higher goals are focused on a person and his environment. They are responsible for society as a whole, the individual individually;
- The main goals are aimed at the realization of the individual, his relationships with other people;
- The goals of the material plan are responsible for everything related to the realization of material needs.
Of course, this division is somewhat arbitrary, because several types can be combined for one purpose, but it is very convenient for a general understanding.
Human development goals
To realize the goal of life, a person needs only average abilities, but not enough average courage. Strength of mind is needed less than courage to resist the circumstances and prejudices of others.
A person is not effective at achieving a goal that does not lead him to something greater than the goal itself . Therefore, it is so important to practice understanding your desires, needs, values, know your strengths and be able to work for pleasure.
A goal without meaning is a dead end
Set short-term goals for self-exploration, searching for your untapped talents. Learn to overcome preconceptions about yourself and what you already “know.” Develop self-confidence, form an opinion based on personal experience. Develop courage and ability to work. You will need all this when you are ready to solve an important problem or implement a complex project.
Demand as the main component of happiness
In addition, for complete happiness of an individual, something else is necessary. And this “something” is called recognition. Only when in demand does a person feel his importance, pleasure, and happiness. Each person has their own criteria for recognition. For some, a simple “thank you” for preparing dinner is enough. Others feel a feeling of complete happiness from the manifestations of tenderness of a sexual partner - this is recognition, the identification of an individual among all others.
For some, it is enough to bring sterile cleanliness to the house and hear words of admiration from their neighbors, while others need to see delight in the eyes of those they meet when they see their appearance, figure, outfit, hairstyle. For others, it is important to recognize them as excellent parents. For the fourth, recognition on a broader level is necessary. These fourth people do not limit the circle of people with whom they want to be recognized: relatives, loved ones, neighbors, fellow travelers, passers-by.
These are scientists, pioneers, major businessmen, creative people and a number of other professions. The most successful are people who receive recognition both from their loved ones, friends, children, neighbors, and from colleagues, fans, viewers, readers - a wider range of people. It is important to add the appropriate items to the list of “50 goals in my life.” Examples of such goals could be:
- find your soul mate to create a family, who (who) will be such and such, for whom I will feel respect, love (passion), feelings must be reciprocated;
- help my son successfully finish school;
- give children higher education;
- defend a thesis;
- release your own collection of stories (disc of songs) or organize an exhibition of paintings.
A man's life goals
Business is the main goal to which a man devotes his time [2]. Without work, he is incompetent. Ideally, this is some kind of enterprise with a humanistic idea, aimed at helping and developing other people.
It is vital for masculine nature to explore the world, seize territories (markets), compete with others, promote new goods and services. By realizing his undertaking, a man realizes himself in this world. Business is the second face of a real man.
A man is a researcher by nature.
One of the most important goals in a man’s life is his BUSINESS.
List of examples of goals for a man and a guy for 5–10 years:
- Explore business management methods from your own experience.
- Set 50 intermediate or medium-term goals and achieve them.
- Develop the company to a turnover of $1 million.
- Create a service that makes life easier for other men.
- Become an expert in your specialty.
Examples of personal goals in a resume
Profession | Sample life, personal, professional goals |
Manager | Attract new clients, develop a new direction, increase your own income. Take a sales course and apply your knowledge in practice. |
Commercial Director | Develop a strategy for increasing income from commercial transactions, expand the dealer network, open representative offices in other cities and countries, and organize training courses for distributors. Increase the variable part of personal income by exceeding the plan. |
Beauty salon administrator | Coordinate the work of the salon, grow to manager, minimize customer waiting time. Increase income by developing new directions and clients. |
The most important goals of a woman
A woman is not obliged to earn money for her family. This is a man's concern. A woman can also do business. The main thing is that this does not become her main job. She can do her own thing for the soul, but remain true to her feminine nature.
Women's goals in life. A woman is a keeper.
A woman’s vital goals are in the following areas: relationships, beauty, home comfort, giving love to the world, spiritual practices. Family and caring for children are the most important thing for a woman. This makes her happier [2].
Examples of girls’ long-term life goals:
- Become a spiritual midwife. To popularize “Natural Childbirth”.
- Open a psychological assistance center.
- Help other women build harmonious relationships.
- Inspire a man to achieve feats in his business.
- Become a teacher by vocation.
- Be an example for girls - what an older woman can be.
- Explore alternative perspectives on the question “What does it mean to be a woman.”
Women's goals are aimed at harmony and balance in life.
List of women's goals for the year:
- Gain the experience of lotus birth.
- Engage in creative development: dancing, music, painting.
- Create a blog. Debunking myths about child development.
- Go on a trip and write an adventure novel.
- Learn interior design.
- Learn to sew. Create a design for your collection.
- Become happy. Clear your emotional blocks.
Human needs
Before making a list, you should understand what is priority and vital for a person. Air, drink, food, sleep - the 4 most important needs of organic life. The second row comes health, housing, clothing, sex, recreation - necessary attributes of life, but secondary. Unlike animals, humans tend not only to satisfy the basic needs of life; they want to do this while receiving aesthetic pleasure.
It is impossible for a person to live without satisfying primary needs, and without satisfying secondary needs it is difficult. Therefore, if at least one link in this chain is destroyed, the person suffers physically, firstly, morally, secondly. He's unhappy. But even if all the vital needs of an individual are satisfied, his life cannot be called happy. This is such a paradox.
Therefore, the 50 vitally important, priority goals of a person must necessarily include points, through the implementation of which the primary and secondary needs of a person would be satisfied.
Adding to the list such goals as “buying your own house” or “relaxing at sea”, “doing the necessary medical operation” or “getting your teeth treated and inserted”, “buying a fur coat” and “buying a car” may not be so important for complete happiness ( why - will be discussed below), but achieving them makes living on earth more comfortable for people. To satisfy these needs and achieve the goals listed above, an individual needs money. And, when selecting the 50 most important goals of a person, the list must include an item regarding the financial condition of the individual. Examples of such goals:
- find a high-paying job;
- open your own business;
- ensure that the business generates a net income of more than $10,000 per month, and the like.
Examples of SMART goals
Task direction | Example of a SMART goal | Author's comment |
Learning the C# language | In 3 months, learn how to make a program with five subroutines, programming daily from 20:00 to 21:00 using video tutorials | There is a specific measurable goal - to learn how to make a program that operates with five subroutines. There are deadlines - 3 months. The goal is relevant, since you allocate evening time, free from work, for it. The goal seems achievable - since you learn from examples in video lessons. |
Salary increase | Achieve a 20% increase in salary over the next six months by performing additional functions outside of job duties | There is a specific measurable goal - to achieve a salary increase of 20% from the current one. There are deadlines - six months. Is the goal relevant? If performing additional duties does not affect the performance of the main ones, yes. The achievement of the goal depends on the conscientiousness of the employee and the attitude of the company management towards the employee’s initiative. |
Weight loss | Lose 7 kilograms in 4 months through jogging and dieting | This example has already been discussed in the text describing the SMART system. There is a specific measurable goal - to lose 7 kilograms. There are deadlines - 4 months. If dieting and running don't interfere with your ability to perform other tasks, the goal is relevant. The goal is achievable if the loads are correctly determined. |
Summer holidays in Egypt | Spend a week of summer vacation from 07/10/17 to 07/17/17 in a five-star hotel in Egypt | There is a specific measurable goal - to spend a week of summer vacation in a five-star hotel in Egypt. There are specific deadlines - from 07/10/17 to 07/17/17. If vacation in these numbers does not disrupt any deadlines at work, the goal is relevant. If finances are available and management signs off on leave, the goal is achievable. |
Get rights | Obtain a category B license no later than June of this year by completing training at a local driving school | There is a specific measurable goal - to obtain a category B license. There are deadlines - to do this no later than June of this year. If attending driving school does not interfere with your ability to complete other tasks, the goal is relevant. If you have money, time and desire to study, the goal is achievable. |
Distribution of goals by area of life
How to develop the main directions? It is necessary to determine the stages required for the development of a particular area of being. Specific achievement of goals - a step-by-step system. Next, we will briefly describe the process in important life areas.
Physical development
Without proper treatment of your body, personal self-development is impossible. Ensuring normal physiology is discussed in this section and includes the following mandatory areas.
- Mode.
- Nutrition.
- Physical activity.
- Maintaining hygiene and cleanliness, including in relation to the environment.
- Harmonious relationships.
- Elimination of factors and habits harmful to life.
Social development
This area is responsible for proper relationships between people. You especially need to make an effort to be able to communicate with all categories: elders, peers and juniors. The duty of everyone is the following.
- Respect for elders in age or position.
- Peers are more suitable for friendship.
- We need to take care of the younger ones by supporting them.
But there are a number of actions that should definitely be excluded.
- Envy of elders.
- Quarrels with equals.
- Humiliation of juniors.
Intellectual sphere, how to develop it
The development of intelligence occurs in the course of professional activity. The best option is the choice that a person likes and suits him in every way. It is important to find your purpose. Related areas also require development, especially if they are part of the process of achieving results in the main area. Reading smart books, getting acquainted with lectures on development, relationships between people are very useful for the mind. And if you want to succeed in any field, you need to find a person who will serve as an example.
Spiritual development
Religions teach us to perceive ourselves as individuals with an eternal nature. Obtaining information about the soul, the spiritual world and development helps to improve. Several methods can be specified that lead to the correct implementation of such a process.
- Listening to thematic lectures.
- Introduction to religious scriptures.
- Communication with spiritually developed people.
- Appropriate practice.
- Search for a spiritual teacher.
The spiritual sphere, as one of the four main ones, needs constant attention. It especially stands out as giving meaning to efforts in other directions. The effectiveness and benefit of setting and solving problems in all these areas depends on its development.
Pitfalls when setting goals
While we have no doubt that your resume is nearly perfect, check to make sure you haven't made three embarrassing mistakes:
- One application for all vacancies is a road to nowhere. Don’t be lazy, create targeted resumes “tailored” for a specific vacancy and employer.
- Statements like: “I want to work in a bank to receive a salary and pay off a car loan
,
“I’m happy with the company’s work schedule because I like to travel”
will amuse the recruiter, but will not help you get the position. Quite the contrary. - Personal goals without professional ones are a guarantee of failure. Who needs an egoist focused on his own interests? But the reverse situation is no better: no one believes in altruism, do not always put the public above the personal. The main thing is balance
.
Achievements of goals
Achieving a goal is a process that is located in the time interval between two events - the moment of setting the goal and the moment of obtaining the final result. To achieve any goal, you must think through your steps to achieve it, take into account any nuances and provide for all the pitfalls that may hinder you along the way.
In other words, you must have a clear idea of how to set a goal and motivate yourself to achieve it . Therefore, you need to approach planning your actions wisely, with a cool head. This is the only way you can develop the most adequate algorithm to achieve your goal on time.
Watch the video - Why 99% of people don't achieve their goals:
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