I can tell you for sure that in the light of history, it’s more intelligent to hope rather than to fear and to try rather than not to. For one thing we know beyond all doubt that nothing has ever been achieved by the person who said – IT CAN’T BE DONE. Your ability to discipline yourself to set clear goals and then to work towards them every day, will do more to guarantee your success than any other single factor. Goal setting is an intense formula deployed to structure your future and to spur yourself to transform your vision of future into reality. A lot of us strive harder, similar to successful people but are often unable to achieve when it comes to end result. A key reason for this inconsistency is that we haven’t invested enough energy considering what we need from life and failed to define personal goals. All things considered, would you set out to travel with no idea of your destination – most likely not. So instead of brooding as to what you could have done step up and start looking out for ways that you realign your life. The process of setting goals helps you to scrutinize your life for a better future. By knowing absolutely what you need to accomplish, you know where you need to focus your endeavors. You’ll additionally get on to detect the diversions that can lead you off track. In simpler terms, consider what you need to accomplish and later start focusing on it. You need to set specific, measureable, attainable, relevant and time-bound goals that inspire you.
Most people ideally start off with great enthusiasm and then lose steam and excitement. You just don’t want to continue because you don’t really remember where you’re going. Your vision allows you to again see where you’re going and can put the pep back in your step when we feel like you’re far off. The objective must be clear and specific. Ambiguous or summed up goals are unhelpful as you will no way get to your target. Ensure that your goals help you climb the success ladder at the same time and you ought to keep it simple and attainable. While framing goals you also need to mention the appropriate amounts or dates, as you will be able to measure the degree of your success. Incase you are looking at shedding your weight, you need to mention how many kgs you are looking at reducing and within what timeframe. Without measuring your goals you can never seek results. And when you succeed in your goals and get to compare with what you were and what you have achieved you will further stay more focused and get the rest down too. If you set a goal that you have no hope of achieving, you will only demoralize yourself and erode your confidence. Your goals should guide you to reach where you want to, within a time frame, in terms of your finances and life. When you align your goals this way, you’ll develop sharper focus and easily get where you want to. Your goals must have a deadline which means that you know when you can celebrate success. When you are working on a deadline, your sense of urgency increases and achievement will come that much quicker. The initial phase in defining individual goals is to consider what you need to accomplish in your life. Setting lifetime goals gives you the overall perspective that shapes all other aspects of your decision making.
Life’s a balancing act. Remember, you’ve multiple roles and goals and you can do it all, obviously not all at once. In order to strike a balance, all significant areas of your life are to be considered. Try and set goals in key areas like how much money would you like to earn to fulfill self and family’s dreams and within what timeframe and how synchronized is it with your career goal and so on. Don’t forget to keep filtering and trimming your goals that you have achieved and keep working on the ones you need to. Make sure to update the list while removing the accomplished ones. As you do this, ensure the goals that you have set are ones that you truly need to accomplish, not ones that your friends or colleagues may need. It’s a proven fact that hard work pays off as such you need to channelize your energy into action. We know that Rome was not built in a day but we also need to remember there was a brick laid every hour.
(Ifthikar Bashir is a freelance Financial Advisor)