Goals and The Why
The Goals
One thing that I have learned on my Time Management journey, one thing that stands out above everything else, is the importance of great goals. Setting goals for your life takes a lot of thinking about. You should take your time over this activity, as I did. Initially, I wrote down lots of goals, more than 50. Then I picked out the ones that seemed most important to me. And then I began to pick them apart, to discover why they stood out as so important.
The Wheel
I use the Wheel of Life as a tool for this as it covers 6 or 8 areas of life that all need some attention in order for us to feel complete, to feel whole.
The 8 areas I focus on are:
Finance
Self-development
Career/Business
Friendships
Love/Significant other
Health and Fitness
Family
Home Environment
Now, everyone has their strong areas, and their weaker ones. And everyone has some areas that are more important to them than others. When I was working on my goals, I decided I had four areas that I particularly wanted to focus on. These were my business, my significant other, my health and fitness and my family. For you, your priority areas may be different. You decide. Your priorities will center around your values and what you value most in life will be at the forefront. Having areas of priority will mean you can relax more, you know at the beginning of each day what you want to focus on and what are the important tasks you need to complete. You know which actions to choose that will take you closer to your goals.
The Pen and Paper
A point I want to make now is the importance of writing down these goals. And I think that pen and paper is best, although you can of course choose to create only a digital copy if that is how you work best. But, somehow, putting pen to paper makes these goals more concrete, more permanent and you take them more seriously.
Setting your goals for the next year, 5 years, 10 years, takes some time and you may come back to your goals and rephrase, rewrite or move deadlines several times. Do this until you feel you have got it right.
The most important bit…The Why
Now here comes what I think is the most important part. And that is the why. This is crucial. If you don’t understand the why behind your goal, you are far less likely to achieve it. The motivation is what will keep you going and keep you on track, and if the motivation is not high then you are really going to struggle. So be clear on the why. Asking yourself “why” several times can really dig down deep into your true motivation. Example:
“I want to write a book about …..”
“Why?”
“Because I want to be seen as successful in my field”
“Why?”
“Because I want to prove to myself and my family that I can do it”
“Why?”
“Because the respect of my family, and my own self-respect, are very important to me”
And so we are getting to the bottom of why you want to write a book. There is the basis of your motivation. You could carry on digging even further if you think you haven’t quite hit the nail on the head yet.
So what I am suggesting is that, when writing down your goals within the different areas of the Wheel of Life, take some time to think about what is behind each goal. What is the real motivation behind you wanting to write that book, climb that mountain, get that promotion, lose that weight?
Having clarity of goals is going to make management of your time so much easier. You will know which tasks are taking you closer to your goals, and which are not. Which tasks you want to spend time and effort on and which you do not. If you do not have clear, measurable goals you are setting off on a journey without a destination, and who knows where you may end up or how long it will take you. You could end up feeling frustrated, directionless and without purpose. To achieve fulfillment, to have purpose and to leave behind a legacy, goals are an absolute necessity.
Here is a link to a great YouTube video by Dave Ramsey all about the Wheel of Life, goals and achieving balance. Take a look and have a go at creating your own wheel and take some time to think about your own life goals.
https://youtu.be/8BtrZcNjBqk?si=DcqPnfqXrM0Rlyhq