Why set goals for yourself? 7 compelling reasons

Why do we need a goal?

Movement is a fundamental principle of the universe.
Everything moves [1] [2]. Chaos differs from order in that the movement of system elements has a target state to which they strive. Order in space is maintained by the laws of the universe. People realized some of the laws and described their special cases in their sciences. I don’t know what the universe is striving for and for what purpose it is expanding, but the constellations and planets know where to go.

The Universe is a highly organized system. Elements that have lost their place in it are quickly destroyed or absorbed by another organized system.

Most people live in a state of decay , so they need an external force to organize their lives. Rules of decency, moral standards, legal laws are created to tame the lowly organized.

The target made a man out of a worm.
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If a person is not self-organized, he is quickly absorbed by the organizing system. He does not control his life, which means that this function is taken over by religion, the state, a corporation or an oppressive wife. His freedom of action is limited by the framework of the system in which he is located or in which he believes that he is located.

Goals are needed to increase the level of self-organization . To help a person move to a higher layer, so that his life is limited only by physical laws and his conscience, and not by an artificially created ideology to control and subjugate humanity.

Hierarchy of goals

Goals can be global or local. There is a common big goal for which you started the business. All other tasks must be subordinated to its achievement. Let's take a closer look at what goals are:

The main objective. This is what everything was created for. Let's not lie: you opened a business in order to earn money, increase your status and improve the well-being of your family. This is the global goal. But we remember that goals must be measurable, so this will not work. Come up with something more specific and tangible. For example, build a two-story house on the Black Sea coast, buy a premium car and send your children to study at Harvard. And all this - in 5 years.
Long term goals. These are the things that determine your business development strategy. They are set for a long time in advance: a year, three or even more. For example, this year to enter the TOP 10 stores in terms of sales of household appliances. Or earn so many millions of rubles in six months. This is where you can give free rein to your ambitions and set the most daring goals.
Short term goals. This may include a monthly sales plan, the implementation of small-scale and significant projects.
Goals for the day. These are ordinary routine tasks that you do yourself and delegate to your subordinates. However, their importance should not be underestimated. It is from solving daily issues and tasks that a big whole ultimately emerges. Everyone should understand this. Even a simple call to a client ultimately works for the common good. This is not just a routine conversation with the buyer, but another step that brings the company closer to a great goal. Communicate this message to all employees and make it part of the overall business philosophy. There are no unimportant tasks.
Goals are divided into general and specific. What you entrust to an entire department is a common goal. The entire team is working to achieve it. Specific tasks are assigned to specific employees. You need to do this and that. A common task unites the team. Mutual assistance and mutual assistance appear. Every employee knows that his interests depend not only on himself, but also on that guy. And vice versa: his personal effectiveness affects the performance of the entire department.

Why does a person need a goal?

From birth, the main organizing goal of a person is the preservation of vitality and knowledge of the world [3]. The child is not aware of his leading goals, but it is clear how he is driven by them. As soon as he stops showing interest in the world and does not strive to save his life, the movement inside him stops.

With the growth of consciousness, the teenager develops the goal that organizes his life: “Become an adult” [4].

The more complex a person is, the more complex his goals and the more he needs to direct his processes (manually, consciously or unconsciously). It develops when its processes become more conscious and targeted.

When a teenager achieves his goal in life, society offers him new goals: “Build a career,” “Buy a house,” “Start a family.” Now these long-term goals organize his life.

A person evolves when he moves from a simple structure of the psyche to a complex one and degrades in the opposite direction [5]. When he becomes unable to stay in a complex organization, he moves on to a simpler one.

A person needs a goal to maintain and develop internal organization..

Self-organization means that a person sets his own goals in life and builds himself. Organizes his psyche, habits, daily routine in order to achieve his goals. Builds harmonious relationships with others.

Aimless life. What could be worse?

People without a goal have no motivation to live. They are accompanied by despondency and apathy. A man without a goal is like a drifting ship without a captain. Aimless travel on the water runs the risk of colliding with an iceberg or hitting reefs.

A purposeless life literally kills. A person who does not see a clear direction in which he should move is doomed and will disappear as a person. A person without goals is prone to alcohol and drugs and degrades both physically and spiritually.

Reward for Determination

Having taken an active life position and defined a goal for ourselves, we make conscious and organized efforts to achieve it. We develop, posing and solving increasingly complex problems. We learn to manage ourselves and improve the quality of our experiences.

The reward for efforts towards a new goal is the experience of a “state of flow” or “optimal experience”, described in the book “Flow” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

The goal leads into the flow.
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Mihai calls the state of flow “the leading edge of evolution,” a powerful incentive that forces you to move forward, grow intellectually and spiritually, and improve your already acquired knowledge and skills.

This is a great opportunity to feel and express our essence in the work we do - in communication, play or work.

The presence of a goal is a condition for entering the flow. [6]

Information coming from outside can cause anxiety and plunge us into a state of chaos, or vice versa, it can make it easier to solve problems by freeing up mental energy. Being in the flow, a person filters information, letting in only that useful thing that is consistent with the goal.

In what areas is it necessary?

The skill of correctly setting goals and achieving them is necessary for everyone, everywhere. Let's take a closer look at where this process is often used and whether you really can't live without it:

In pedagogy. Without this process, it is difficult to imagine educational activities in kindergartens and schools. Planning is a big part of government education. And this is the process of goal setting - when a pedagogical plan of “steps” towards greater skills is built from the small skills of schoolchildren.
In sports. This quality is very important in sports, without it there will be no famous athletes. When the running distance gradually lengthens, the weight of the weights increases, gymnastic tricks become more complicated, or the child learns from scratch to be a good swimmer. The coach helps to form new goals for athletes; it is he who sets the levels of development.
In business. Businessmen are people of action. In this area, it is important, when starting a business, to see its result - this is goal setting. And a successful businessman is one who knows what stages need to be completed in order to achieve his goal. There are people who already have the ability to set goals. They often occupy leadership positions in business.
In psychology. The path to changing yourself and understanding others also passes through goal setting. Personal growth occurs according to a certain strategy: for example, to go for a run, a person goes to bed earlier, prepares clothes in advance and drinks coffee. This is a simple example, but it shows that any endeavor consists of small steps.
In design. Any design is a prediction of a specific result and a program for achieving it. Projects are achieved in stages - that’s the goal setting of the one who draws up these projects.
In a relationship. Unconsciously we apply elements of this concept. A guy decides to pick up a girl - this is the end result. What does it do for this? Today is an invitation to a cafe, tomorrow a bouquet of roses with a note, the day after tomorrow - to meet you from work, in a week - to come for a visit, and so on in increasing order.
In social science. In society and the structure of the state, it is also important to use the structure of achieving goals. All large social groups must obey certain rules. If the president does not have a course to achieve a specific goal, if people do not obey the adopted laws, then the state is poor.

The role of goal setting is invaluable in any society and any group. This is a complex process. Its difficulty lies in turning unconscious desires into clear guidelines and creating a plan for implementation. A person without a goal simply goes with the flow and achieves nothing in particular.

Purpose is needed for effectiveness

When attention is concentrated and consciousness is ordered, mental energy is spent in a targeted and efficient manner. At the same time, the positive feedback that arises due to internal confidence in the correctness of one’s state develops and complicates the personality.

The flow state assumes [6]:

Concentration.
Experience a sensation comparable to ecstasy.
A clear idea of what needs to be done at a specific point in time and how to do it better.
Losing the sense of time.
The realization that the work you are doing is doable, although difficult.
Experiencing the loss of one's own body.
Merging with something that is bigger than you, that has no boundaries.

Concentrating attention is impossible without a clearly defined task, a specific goal . The absence of a goal and task immediately leads consciousness to a state of mental entropy, internal chaos, alien to the state of flow.

Without a goal, there is no concentration.

Mihai calls the orderliness of consciousness the main condition that maintains the state of flow. Orderliness is achieved when attention is completely concentrated on some specific aspect that is important to us.

Never give up

Even in bad times, it is important to have a purpose in life. After all, dreams and goals help us stay afloat, fill us with energy and motivation. If we truly believe in our dreams, we imagine that we will achieve them at some point. It brings us a sense of positivity and optimism that helps us when we face obstacles. And instead of looking at failure as a reason to give up on a goal, if we believe in our dreams, we pick ourselves up and keep working.

“Nothing can stop a person with a strong desire and the right approach from achieving his goals.”
— Thomas Jefferson

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Purpose is needed to reveal identity

When the mind is “ordered”, most of the attention is directed to solving the current task. There is no need to deal with internal disorder and external peace. A person floats in the flow and, at the same time, feels and demonstrates his inner confidence and integrity.

...Happiness cannot be achieved - it is always a side effect of a person’s focus on something greater than himself. © Viktor Frankl [7]

Why do you need a goal - to move to the highest level.

The state of flow helps to reveal the personality , due to the deep concentration of mental attention and orderliness of consciousness. In this state, a person’s feelings, thoughts and intentions are better focused on the goal.

By concentrating and directing mental energy to achieve new challenging goals, we develop the ability to organize our consciousness, “be in the flow” and experience a state of happiness. This is why you need to set short-term and strategic goals.

Experiencing a state of flow complicates the personality, allows it to outgrow itself, and act freely. By focusing mental energy on the task at hand, we can find satisfaction in everything we do.

Now comes the fun part. How to learn to achieve your goals?

So, we figured out what the goals should be and why they are needed at all. But what is the use of this if tasks are constantly merging and everything is left to chance? That's right, no point. Therefore, you need to learn how to achieve tasks and accustom your team to this. Let's start with the team. Here is a list of methods for monitoring the completion of goals:

Everyone should know about the task at hand. Therefore, never work in the format of “well, everyone roughly knows what they need to do - so let them do it for themselves.” Goals must be communicated to the team officially. The best way is operational meetings, briefing meetings - call it what you want. You need to gather employees together and distribute tasks. But that's not all. Colleagues may misunderstand you, forget you, or simply ignore the task. Therefore, the results of the meeting need to be documented in writing and something like a protocol or content plan should be written. The document indicates the essence of the task, the deadline for its completion and the name of the person responsible. Print the protocol on paper and give it to your employees so they can hang it in their office and admire it. It will be impossible to get out later. Is the task worth it? Costs. Was it a week? A week. Are you responsible? You. I didn’t do it - sorry, nothing personal. You won't get a bonus this month. Or the entire department, so that next time you understand that you are letting your colleagues down. Tough, but effective.
Motivation. A reward for completing a task is a good incentive to complete it. Employees need to feel this connection. Exceeded the plan and received a salary increase. It is possible and necessary to introduce symbolic motivation and award, for example, the title of best sales manager of the month. It’s better to generally develop a reward system - let employees know that good work will not go unnoticed.
Punishment for poor results or lack thereof. This is also motivation, only negative. We have appointed people in charge; we have someone to ask. So ask. There are plenty of methods of punishment - from reprimand to dismissal. But the most effective thing is to punish with rubles. Develop a system of fines and bonuses. However, be careful not to make any exceptions. If something is possible, then it is possible for everyone and always; if it is impossible, then it is impossible for anyone and never. Otherwise, word will spread among the team that the boss has favorites who are not punished. This can lead to conflict situations.
Keep your finger on the pulse. You shouldn’t let your employees stew in their own juices. Given a task, come up after some time and ask how things are going and if there are any difficulties. Those who have worked as managers know: not all employees are so responsible. The deadline has passed, the task has not been completed, and he says: “My program has failed.” And it seems like it’s not his fault. He will also accuse you of saying a hundred times that the computer needs to be changed. Therefore, constantly monitor the situation to know at what stage all tasks are being completed. So that there are no surprises or surprises later.

We've dealt with the employees, now let's move on to our beloved. Forcing yourself to complete a task is sometimes much more difficult than forcing an outsider. But there are ways, and we will be happy to share them:

Self-discipline. Willpower is sometimes the only way to force yourself to do something. We can reassure you: you will only have to break and overcome your own laziness at the very beginning, and then it will become a habit.
Motivation. Who said that only employees need to be encouraged? Whoever it was, this person was wrong. You can and should reward yourself. If you did a good job this month, arrange a holiday for yourself in the form of a trip to an excursion to another city, a trip to the theater or a simple dinner at a restaurant to celebrate your success.
Connect your loved ones . Tell your family members about your Napoleonic plans. This will make you responsible for keeping your promise. It is not good for the head of a family to engage in idle talk and not carry out his plans. But when the result is achieved, you will have a reason to be proud and your loved ones will know that you are a man of your word.
Read motivational literature. You can use anything: biographies of successful people, stories and cases of entrepreneurs. Such things really charge you with energy and motivate you so much that you want to move mountains.
Write about your plans on the website and blog. It works in the same way as with family members, but only now strangers will also know about your projects. For example, inform the network that next month you plan to open several new points of delivery of goods in different cities. And then report on the implementation of the plan. There’s no getting around it: if you promised, you have to do it. The company's reputation is at stake.

Goal setting structure

We have already learned what goal setting is and how it is characterized. It turned out a little scientifically, but without it there is no way.

The structure of this process has implications for psychologists, coaches and managers. I’ll try to describe it for you in understandable language in the form of a list:

Awareness of the main goals in one’s life that a person strives for and which are based on the person’s values.
Determining your capabilities - all the resources a person has are important here.
Selection of motivation mechanisms - something that will stimulate you to achieve results, even when you don’t want anything and the meaning of life is difficult to find.
Conscious analysis, problematization, needs and opportunities - this is the “analysis” of goals into small steps.
Presentation of the ideal result - the practical achievement of the goal, how you will feel after achieving it, what “benefits” you will have.
Planning is the regulation of the small steps presented.
The search for resources is both material and moral sources of strength and finance for results.
Implementation. Here it's a matter of small things - activity with the help of found resources.
Control or self-control. I draw attention to this point because any effective implementation of a task requires accountability. Self-control is more difficult - if you are accountable to yourself, then considerable willpower is required to control yourself.
Achieving the goal. And here is the long-awaited reward - the result!

This is the model of goal setting, its backbone. Used in all consultations and trainings, training of business managers.