Many people in the “self-help” industry use the analogy of the GPS. Although they are likely talking about goal-setting systems, they are usually reminding you that you have to take into consideration where you are now.
This is a valid point and can be helpful. However, I would like to make clear that it is not near as important as the “where you are going” part.
The presence of a clear and concise outcome will always be the most important part, because without it, there is nothing else.
If you wish, you can always figure out where you are now. This can only be one place- one situation- so it is easily identifiable.
However, where you want to go, what you want to do, and who you want to become could be infinitely many things, therefore making it all the more important to identify.
A variety of problems occur when you don’t have goals.
The first, and most basic is that you don’t know where to start. You can’t know where or how to begin something if you don’t know what you are starting on. No one else can help you either because they don’t know what you are trying to do. You may walk by the perfect person to accelerate your progress but you would never know.
The second thing that will inevitably happen is frustration or depression. Frustration because you have no purpose and then depression if it goes on for a long period of time. Goals are the foundation for any hope of improvement. No goals equals no hope, which is one of the symptoms always associated with depression.
I would venture to guess that people with depression do not have goals.
Something the depressed and goalless have in common is that they don’t feel like doing anything. When you don’t feel like doing anything, you are either bored or become bored and will inevitably waste time.
If people see you wasting a lot of time, they will probably decide your goals for you, or just use you for their goals. “Why not, you're not doing anything?” This will lead to a life of relative safety (you have nothing to risk anything for) but also mediocrity.
It’s basically death. Goals force you to grow or change in some way. A man void of goals is not growing and anything that isn’t growing or changing is dead. Most "die" by the age of 25 because by then they are done growing physically and out of college so no longer being forced to “grow” by the education system.
A man without a mission is aimless and lost. The absence of a goal is the absence of all hope to improve one’s self or their quality of life. Without them, you can’t even accidentally happen upon progress because you don’t even know what you are progressing on.
Also, it’s better to choose a goal and then find out that it’s the wrong thing and change it than to have to deal with these problems. Then, at least you know you are one the right track and you will eventually get it.
Deciding in your mind that you want to be something more than average can be scary. It can be even harder when you have to take the first steps. However, I think any amount of pain would beat a gray life of nothingness.
That is why if you were to only take one piece of advice from me, I would say write down goals. Without goals, you have nothing.
Athlete-Student
BucketsoverBooks
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