What Kind of Goals Should You Set?
There are a lot of thoughts out there when it comes to what kind of goals you should be setting in your life. When it comes to my experiences, I have found a particular type of goal to be most effective in getting me where I want to be.
But before I could discover what kind of goal setting worked best for me, I had to start setting goals in the first place. I went he majority of my life growing up never setting goals for myself. I worked hard, but I rarely aimed towards a specific goal and as a result I tended to wander and waste time and effort on things that didn’t matter.
College was the first time I discovered the power of goal setting, but I didn’t take advantage of it to the degree that I could have. I set goals for grades and weightlifting, and while my goals weren’t easy to achieve, they were almost always within my ability and often times they were ambiguous.
It wasn’t until I graduated from college and began my journey of personal development that I realized the incredible power that goals can have in your life. By setting the right kinds of goals you can supercharge your results and achieve far more than you ever thought possible. In addition, the right kinds of goals will fill you with motivation so you’re able to work towards them with a greater intensity, but less mental effort. The right kind of goal will also give you a direction to work in that will focus your efforts so minimal effort is wasted.
God Sized Goals
When I set goals for myself I try to set God sized goals, but what does that mean? A God sized goal is a goal that you can’t achieve as you are now, it’s a goal that’s larger than you think you can achieve alone, but it also has to be specific.
A good God sized goal should be something that you can’t achieve as you are now. Meaning, your goals should be so big that they force you to change in order to achieve them. Whatever got you to where you are now won’t be enough to get you where you want to go. So, if you are setting goals that you can achieve with what you are doing now, then you’re doing yourself a disservice.
A good God sized goal should be larger than you think you can achieve alone. If you want God to do something amazing in your life then you need to give him room in your goals to work. God can’t do something amazing in your life if you never give him the opportunity to by reaching for something beyond your ability.
An added bonus of working towards such a large goal is that even if you miss it, you will still achieve far more than you would have with a safe and easy goal. When you set easy goals for yourself you have nothing to push you to get better.
If you find that you are always achieving every goal you set for yourself you aren’t setting big enough goals. Even if the goals you’re setting aren’t easy you still need to fail occasionally. If you are achieving every goal that you set then you’re leaving something in the tank that you could have used to propel you farther. When you set large goals that you don’t quite achieve, and you worked really hard towards that goal, you can rest easy at night knowing that you didn’t leave anything in the tank.
Your goals need to be specific so they can act as a north star for your efforts. When you have a clear and specific goal you can create a clear and actionable plan as to exactly how you can achieve that goal. You also benefit from knowing exactly when you’ve achieved the goal because there is no ambiguity about it.
By having a goal that acts as your north start you know as soon as you deviate from the path that will get you to that goal. This will allow you to quickly course correct and save precious time and effort.
One last thing I want to mention is that your goals don’t need to be completely ridged. If you find that you’re working towards a goal but you have no interest in that thing anymore, then you should consider modifying or getting rid of that goal completely. But before you do that, I want to point out that with big goals sometimes we try to talk ourselves out of it.
If you’re scared of your goal and that’s why you don’t want to work towards it anymore, then that’s no excuse to change it. Instead, that’s a great time to begin praying to God for strength and asking him to come into your life and do something amazing, and while you do this you continue to work towards you goal. If you do this you will achieve great things in life.
Now, go out and set God sized goals. Set goals that scare you and force you to grow. Work towards being the best man you can be and you will begin to see amazing results. Good luck.