Fear of Goal Setting, Why Set Goals?

Do you have a fear of goal setting? Have you set goals in the past that did not work out how you wanted? Are you disheartened as a result? Or maybe you are afraid to set goals in case you fail and you know how awful that feels so end up staying safe instead. Some people are afraid to set a goal in case they cannot handle the success so they put off setting the goal and keep putting it off. Do you procrastinate when it comes to goal setting?

Do you even think about it? Most people do not and that is OK so long as you are not bothered what turns up in your life and who you are, what you have and what you do. So I am in the yes goals are good for you school of thought.

First of all consider why you want to have a goal. What is your reason for wanting to be, do or have whatever it is? Your Reason Why. For example, you want to overcome your fears. Great! A really positive desire. However, why do you want to overcome your fears? Why is this important? What will it give you? When you know exactly why you have set the goal and if it is a compelling reason then you will take the action require to achieve it. For example, you want to earn more money because it will pay for th education of your children. You want to overcome your fears so that you can get a better job or start your own business and have the lifestyle you deserve.

You need to know where you want to end up so that you will know when you have got there. If you are not bothered about where you end up and when then you do not need to set a goal. It is about being able to measure how well you are doing and if you are not moving forward fast enough then you can decide what else you can do. One of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey is Begin with the end in mind. What is it that you want to achieve? If you want to be more confident, think about what this means. What will you look like? What will you be saying? How will you feel? What will you do differently when you are confident? Once you are clear about what the end goal means then you can start to work out what steps you need to take to get there.

In the business world it is about having a Vision or mission statement and breaking it down into objectives that will get the organisation to where the leaders want it to be. All objectives need to be linked to the higher purpose and each individual needs to work on tasks that will achieve their objectives and ultimately the company goals.

In a survey of University graduates it was found that 3% had accumulated more personal financial wealth, over a 20 year period, than the other 97% of the class combined. The only difference was that the 3% had written goals.

Even if you know that setting a goal is a good thing to do that will not stop you from worrying about how you will achieve it. Those fears about how you are going to get to where you want to be take over and you end up doing nothing except worry. Your own thoughts limit your success. You need to get into the habit of forgetting about the how, establish what you want to achieve and then trust that everything else will fall into place.

I am interested to know your experiences of goal setting so do let me know,

Enjoy the process of life,

Noelyne Jones