I always enjoy the start of a new year. It is like starting a new chapter of a book. I also like setting resolutions or goals for the new year. A lot of people struggle with both making and keeping resolutions for a new year. As everyone knows, it is easy to make resolutions, but very difficult to keep them. I am confident all the fitness clubs across the country would agree with my comments since January is the month most people join a fitness club only to drop out by February or March. Why do we struggle with making and keeping goals? Does goal setting make a difference? Here are five reason everyone should set goals.
1. Goals Give Us Something To Aim For
2. Goals Stretch Us and Help Us Grow
3. Goals Help Keep Us Focused
4. Goals Can Help Motivate Us
5. Goals Move Us To Action
One person I know once told me he did not like setting goals because it was frustrating to make a list of goals and only achieve a few of them. Sure, it would have been great had he achieved all of his goals. But it seems to me he was better off achieving a few goals than none at all. If we are honest, all of us have dreams that we would like to achieve. Our dreams may be about things we would like to achieve, places we would like to visit, and people we would like to meet. They can also include improving relationships, helping other people, growing spiritually, and learning new things. Diana Hunt said, "Dreams are goals with deadlines." What a great quote.
People often question whether setting goals really make a difference in a person's life. Mark McCormack in his book What They Don't Teach You in the Harvard Business School, tells about a study conducted in the 1979 Harvard MBA program. Students in that class were asked if they had set clear, written goals for their future and made plans to accomplish them? Only three percent of the graduates had written goals and plans; 13 percent had goals, but they were not in writing; and 84 percent had no specific goals at all.
Ten years later, the members of the class were interviewed again, and the findings were quite amazing. The 13 percent of the class who had goals were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent who had no goals. How did the three percent who had written goals and plans do? They were earning, on average, ten times as such as the the 97 percent of the class combined.
Take a few minutes to write down a few goals for 2009 and don't be surprised if they pay off!
