Goal Setting & Life Purpose

If you want to have a successful personal life and career, you need to think about what goals you want to achieve and then work towards those goals through the process of goal setting.

Success doesn’t just happen automatically. You have to work hard towards achieving success and you do this by setting short and long term goals.

Since most people tend not to set goals for themselves, even doing a little bit of extra planning can cause you to stand out from the crowd and achieve success others only dream of.

However in order to begin the goal setting process, you first need to think about what you want out of life. What does your future look like?

Your Goal Setting Vision Statement

The foundations of goal setting are built upon a vision you have of where you will be in the future and what you will have.

This picture should be as detailed as possible, and you should literally be able to see in your minds eye your future self.

The purpose of picturing your future self is to give your life a sense of purpose and direction, so that you become motivated to make it a reality through the process of goal setting.

If your vision is weak and not very clear, you are unlikely to become motivated and so will not set goals to achieve it.

A well known example of a goal setting vision statement can be found with the Microsoft founder Bill Gates. He said:

“Someday we’ll see a computer on every desk and in every home.”

This is a very clear statement which describes exactly what the young Bill Gates wanted to achieve. As a result, he was then able to make it a reality by setting goals for himself.

Goal Setting Gives Life Purpose

The famous author Napoleon Hill once stated that the reason most people are still in their current job is not because they want to be there, but because of indecision.

They never decided what they wanted to do in life, never set goals for themselves and so never ended up doing what they most enjoyed or were passionate about.

This failure to form a clear image of what your future will be like is one of the main reasons why so many people feel that their life lacks purpose. They don’t know what they want to do, and so never really end up going anywhere.

This is why it is extremely important to take some time to think about what you want to achieve in the coming months and years.

Because unless you can picture this in your mind, you will find it extremely difficult to motivate yourself to set goals.

However once you have this picture in your mind, you will find goal setting a lot easier because your life will be driven by purpose rather than being hindered by indecision.

So if you have been interested in goal setting in the past, but never found the motivation to keep it up, take some time to think about exactly what you want out of life and then use that to motivate you to set goals.