People need to have goals in their life. According to Aristotle, “Man is a goal-seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals”. Achieving our goals makes us happy. As the result, our happiness depends on us. Nobody is guilty if we fail to do something in our life. We are responsible for our life and happiness.
I have a lot of goals in my life and do all my best to realize them in my life. Sometimes, these goals are changed or if I achieve some goals I define new ones for making my life better. I think there is no man in the world who doesn’t have any goal in his life. When a man doesn’t have any goal, life becomes senseless.
I am a happy person because I have a sense in my life and I realize my goals. I follow certain rules or steps in achieving good results. Firstly, I define for myself what is really important for me and what I want to achieve in my life. It is very important to establish a priority in your values. My family, health, career and friends are very important in my life. The goals should be formulated precisely and clearly. If you want to have a successful career, you should realize what it means for you. For one person it may mean to run the own company, for the other one it may be work which gives pleasure. Pay attention to the relationship between your career goals with private ones. Your goals should not contradict one another. Otherwise, achieving one goal you fail to achieve another one which makes you upset.
Napoleon Hill in his book Think and Grow Rich provides the following advice: “The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small amount of fire makes a small amount of heat.” There are some ways which help to keep your goals in mind. You may visualize your goals. I usually write down all my goals for a certain period of time on a separate sheet of paper pointing out a particular date when I must achieve these results. The best way to achieve your goal is to make a plan of steps to follow and check all steps which you have done already. I usually use my day planner or a handwritten list where I write the list of steps that help me to realize my goal. There are deadlines for every step which stimulate me to make efforts. This list helps me to analyze the situation and assess my results. If I fail to do the necessary point by the deadline, I don’t change the whole list; I just mark my delay and try to make up leeway. I review my overall progress regularly making certain conclusions about what I must do and what slows down my progress. Don’t give up if you fail to do something, don’t let your goals fade away.
The author of the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey points out: “All things are created twice. There’s a mental or first creation, and physical or second creation of all things. You have to make sure that the blueprint, the first creation, is really what you want, that you’ve thought everything through. Then you put it into bricks and mortar. Each day you go to the construction shed and pull out the blueprint to get marching orders for the day. You begin with the end in mind.”
I usually visualize my dreams and goals printing out them on separate sheets of paper and hanging it on the wall. A picture on the wall reminds me about my goals every day and makes me work to realize these goals. For example, if you want to travel to many countries, you may find the most beautiful pictures of all places you want to visit and hang them in a plan view. You may cut your photo and stick it on those pictures which help you to imagine yourself in those places of interest. Whatever you want to achieve, visualize your goals. If you want to buy a house or a car, you may also find the pictures of the particular model of a car you wish or a house of your dream and hang them on the wall over your worktable. Other people create a special stand or box of goals and dreams. We should keep in mind all our goals every day which helps us to become closer to their realization.
Nevertheless, everything is changing in our lives and we also change our dreams and goals. Make sure that the goals that you are aiming at are really yours and they are really what you want. Set realistic and attainable goals otherwise, your results will be a disappointment for you. Those people who dream are more likely to experience them in their life. But wishes and dreams are not goals till they are written as a certain plan on paper. One of the most successful businessmen in the world, Lido Iacocca says: “The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.” Everything that happens with us has already happened in our life.
I have a special plan list that helps me to achieve the desired results. Of course, I changed my goals and perhaps I will change them in the future. Nevertheless, these steps always help me to realize my goals and make me happy. As an American writer Elbert Hubbard says: “Many people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains or even courage but simply because they have never organized their energies around a goal”. If you want to make your life better, write your goals on paper and do all possible to achieve them. This method really works.