Why Are Goals Important?

Establishing & Setting Goals

Setting goals is what helps us know we are successful. It's that little gold star in life. Even as an adult, we may not physically get a gold start but that "reward" is what helps to keep us on track, motivated, and feeling good about ourselves. One thing we learned to really know we were successful was that we had to create structure and define a few goals. We didn't want something completely structured or regimented, that isn't who we are. We needed something adaptable but still had to have the basic "gold star" reward system. Yeah, everyone needs a pat on the back once in a while for a job well done! So, we applied flexible easy goal-setting principals to our weight loss journey.

Goals are just part of life.

Don't we always work towards achieving goals in everything we do? It helps us feel successful and really can make us happy. At work, we have goals that assist us in knowing what we need to focus on to help our company or department be successful. In many cases, we will review the goals in a weekly, monthly, or quarterly time frame. It all depends on how important or how much impact the goal has on the department. Boy, do we feel good when we meet our objectives at work? Success feels good!!! I always wondered why we don't write down goals in our personal life. I mean, if it works for a business to have goals why wouldn't it work in our daily lives?

Small Goals

Every day there are things you do that are small objectives and you don't even realize they are actually a goal. For example, something as easy as walking the dog before work. Here you might think the goal is to walk the dog but actually, your subconscious aim is to walk the dog to tire them out so they don't destroy your house while you're at work. Yes, we have had our house destroyed by our little man Elvis. But that story is for another time!!

Write it Down!

For us, one of the key tools for success was to define our goals. So when we decided we were going to lose weight, we needed to identify what we wanted to do and write it down. Something as simple as jotting it down is a way to feel accountable, know when targets were achieved, and help to keep you focused. Writing it down may sound cheesy but it works!! This doesn't have to be complicated. Wherever you fall, whether it's writing your goal on the back of a napkin or on a 5-foot poster board. It's up to you. The important thing is that you capture your goal. It's personal. . . You Be You!

This doesn't have to be hard and the best part grammar doesn't matter . . unless your desire is to work towards better grammar. Writing down what we want to make happen helps give us direction and something to push for or look forward to.

Conclusion

Not defining goals can set up chaos in life and sets us up to lose control of what we want to accomplish. The point is, it's important to focus on your successes in life. Goals help you do that. It feels good just to be proud of yourself.

Also, goals keep you on the ball, they help you know if you succeed or failed. Both are important lessons. In future posts, we will share how you can learn from and adjust based on the outcome.