Goals - What's In It For Me?
By Catherine Pulsifer

Setting goals has many benefits.

You are focused on what YOU want to achieve.
By setting goals, you have clearly stated what you want, not what someone else desires.

Your self-confidence increases as you reach milestones along the way.
As you complete each action step towards your goal, your self-confidence grows because you can see the concrete results of your efforts.

You are no longer confused about what action to take.
Rather than starting many different projects and failing to accomplish any of them, goals direct you to take action in specific areas that will move you closer to achieving your desired result.

You are able to prioritize your time.
Your action plan, with its associated time frames, is a commitment you make to yourself. With this commitment, you will be able to more easily prioritize your available time because you know to do otherwise is only cheating yourself. Goals help prevent you from using available time for unproductive purposes.

You can see hope for better things.
Goals let you design your future. You may not be where you want to be today, but you are able to see what tomorrow can bring.

You can see possibilities you never saw before.
The results of taking action is a lot like buying a new car. Before you bought your car, you may not have noticed that particular model. All of a sudden, you start to see a lot of cars just like yours. The same applies to your goals. Once you start to take action, you are able to see possibilities and opportunities that were probably there all along, but because you were not focused, you could not see them.

You are able to accomplish more in a few short years than most people do in lifetime.
You will find that once you accomplish your first goal, you will be motivated to set new ones. You now know how, and what to do to reach a goal. You will be able to move forward with a clearer purpose where each new accomplishment provides a greater incentive to achieve even more.

You have a clear vision for your future.
Once you have defined a vividly clear picture of what you want, how you will get it, and when you will achieve it, your goal will help keep you on track.

You are able to focus your energy.
Rather than wasting your energy on areas that are unproductive, or unmeaningful, you are able to focus your energy by taking action towards a specific, and worthwhile result.

You are able to eliminate the feeling of having no control, or being subject to someone else's control.
Remember that goals are your goals! As you work towards their achievement, you are in fact controlling what you want to do, not dancing to someone else’s fiddle.

You can defeat procrastination.
You are actually procrastinating when you dream or wish for something without ever having set a goal and developing an action plan. Once you have determined what you want to achieve and outlined a detailed action plan, you have no excuse left to delay taking action. You know exactly what steps to take to realize your dream.

You are enthusiastic about life.
Imagine being able to work on what you want to achieve. As you work towards what can become an attainable reality, you can’t help but be enthusiastic about life.

Your outlook changes.
You will find your outlook on life will change significantly. I find that people without goals expend the majority of their energy whining and wishing. Whereas, when you have a specific purpose, your outlook becomes positive and expectant. If you expect great things, you will achieve great things.

You experience a new level of success, and accomplishment.
What was once only a dream has become a reality. It is not only pleasing and exciting when your goal is achieved, but it also generates renewed self-worth and personal growth.