Goals Move You Forward: Here’s How to Set More

Goals are powerful motivational tools that are accessible to everyone and applicable to almost anything. Unfortunately, most of us only set loose goals, and only set them temporarily, such that we deprive ourselves of progress to our true potential.

Goals move us forward, so how do we set more and set them more effectively?

The Benefits of Setting Goals

Goals exist in many forms. There are individual goals you pursue in your personal life and benchmarks you strive to exceed in professional settings. There are formal goals and informal goals. There are large, high-level, long-term goals and shorter-term, smaller goals that incrementally lead you to them.

In all cases, goals serve several benefits, including:

• Motivation. Having a goal gives you direction and a hypothetical endpoint. This serves as a powerful motivator, giving you a reason to continue practicing, working, or striving for this achievement.
• Evaluation. Goals also serve as a means of objective evaluation. Many people strive for something abstract, like becoming a faster runner or a better guitar player, but what does that really mean? Goals are more concrete, giving you a measuring stick to evaluate your progress.
• Confidence. Having goals makes you more confident, since you have something realistic to work for. Achieving those goals makes you even more confident, helping you boost your self-image over time.
• Visualization and optimism. When you have a goal in place, you have a vision for the future. If you can visualize yourself achieving your biggest dreams, you’ll be more optimistic that you can actually achieve them.
• Support for better decision making. Goals also function as considering factors for decision making, eventually allowing you to make better decisions. Every time you come to a fork in the road, you can ask yourself, which decision will get me closer to achieving this goal?

How to Set Better Goals

Of course, some goals are better than others. So how do you set better goals?

SMART criteria are still a good starting point:

• Specific. Good goals are specific, rather than vague or broad. You need to concretely define what you want to achieve.
• Measurable. Excellent goals are also measurable, and preferably measurable in some objective way. Otherwise, you won’t know whether you’ve achieved it.
• Achievable. Goals should be challenging enough to motivate you, but also realistic and achievable. Sometimes, it’s hard to strike this balance.
• Relevant. Every goal you set should be relevant to your ultimate vision for personal development.
• Time-bound. You should also have deadlines in place for your goals. Otherwise, you may indefinitely put them off.

However, it’s also important to recognize that every individual is different. The goals that best motivate you aren’t necessarily the goals that best motivate someone with a different life philosophy or perspective. Practice setting and achieving goals to develop your own style.

How to Set More Goals

Some people struggle with setting goals frequently enough. So how can you set more goals in your life?

• Clarify your objectives and desires. You can’t set goals if you feel aimless or directionless. Accordingly, your first step is to clarify your objectives and desires. What exactly are you trying to achieve and why? For example, are you trying to make more money? Are you trying to earn more prestige in your industry? Are you trying to be more physically fit? Do you want to be smarter or more knowledgeable? These big-picture ideas can help you determine specific areas of development that benefit from materialization in the form of goals.
• Find ways to measure progress. Sometimes, it’s hard to find objective standards that you can use to measure your progress. In these situations, you may need to get creative. Instead of seeking a certain performance standard, consider setting goals related to how much time you spend practicing, studying, or working on improving your performance.
• Track everything consistently. It’s important to have a consistent tracking system where you can keep tabs on all your goals, speculate about new goals, and even measure your progress. There are many goal-setting and tracking apps available, but you can also use something more old-fashioned, like a notebook and a pen. Find something that’s easily convenient and personally appealing to you.
• Share your aspirations and progress. Generally, sharing your goals with other people is a good thing. It helps the goal feel more real and encourages the people around you to motivate and support you in pursuit of those goals. However, you should avoid making your goals too public or visible to the wrong people, as it could cause complications that hinder your progress.

With more goals and better goals, you can develop more confidence, make better decisions, motivate yourself, and eventually achieve much more. In pursuit of these multifaceted benefits, consider making your first goal to set more goals in general.