Our founder, Dr. John Edmund Haggai went to be with his Lord on November 18, 2020. We will all miss him dearly but will hold tightly to the wisdom he left with us. We are launching a new feature as we draw from his ever popular, “Notes from My Diary.”

Entry November 6, 2017:  You Will Find It Beneficial to Set Daily Goals

The late Paul J. Meyer correctly stated, “If you are not making the progress you would like to make and are capable of making, it is simply because your goals are not clearly defined.”

Another of his well-known quotes: “Success is the progressive realization of worthwhile pre-determined personal goals.”

I add, “Daily.”  You must make goal setting a daily ritual.

1. Goal setting helps you stay focused to achieve what you seek. It acts like a steering wheel that maneuvers you along the right direction.  Focus is the key.  In no way can you afford to take your eyes off the goal even for a moment.  Goal setting helps you stay focused on your goals in life.  By dint of effective goal setting, you can also make sure that your efforts are properly channeled, and your faculties are not squandered dealing with mere trifles.
2. Goal setting also helps you overcome procrastination. The habit of procrastination is one of the biggest frailties of human nature.  It severely jeopardizes your chances of advancement.  However, if you have a set goal for yourself, you will always be on the ball and do as required to achieve it.  You will waste less time on insignificant or unproductive actions and take a more direct route to the accomplishment of the goal.
3. Goal setting works as a measuring gauge of your progress that enables you to evaluate your advancements from time to time. You will have a clear idea on what you have been able to achieve so far, what you lack or how can you improve yourself.  Once you discern all your shortcomings, you can devise ways to eradicate them and facilitate your advancements to attain the ultimate goal that you have set for yourself.
4. Goal setting helps you set barriers. Setting clear, solid goals for yourself gives you a firm fence line.  It creates an invisible barrier, whereby you decide what you want, what liberties do you have and what distractions you need to get rid of, in order to expedite your progress towards achieving your goal.  It also induces some sense of accountability towards yourself.  Instead of just talking about what you want all the time without doing what you must in order to achieve them, you will be obligated to take actions.  Setting a specific goal gives you clarity on whether you are living up against what you committed yourself to do when you first set your goal.
5. Goal setting enables you to manage your time to your maximum benefit. You will have a clear idea of what you have to achieve in a particular frame of time.  Thus, you can channel all your energy and concentration towards achieving it. You can split one major goal into a number of short-term goals bound by certain limits of time, which will make the task easier.  It increases your productivity and efficiency.

Goal setting is an important ingredient that steps up the prospect of achieving your personal milestones. Assigning yourself some short-term goals will help you accomplish them in less time and will give you an added sense of achievement that can motivate you to perform better.