A goal is a desired end-result of what you want in life, and which you are pursuing. To get a goal is to set up a kind of machinery process that determines how this desire is to be achieved. Goals are therefore characterized by questions such as “What time is needed to effect a purposed activity?”

Goals motivate; one of the most difficult parts of any kind of work is the beginning. Some people abandon projects because they somehow cannot tackle the hurdle of beginning. The solution to this problem is to set goals.

Goals are like milestones on a journey; it is encouraging to realize that one milestone leads to the other. As we accomplish one step after another we are motivated to go ahead.

Goals also save time; you probably have experienced the tremendous amount of time that can be wasted just because you don’t know what to do. Take for instance a woman who goes to the market with a list of items she needs to buy, she is most likely to return quickly with efficient shopping than the woman who simply walks to the market without knowing precisely what she is going to buy. She wastes time deciding in the market what she wants to buy and may even end up buying what she would regret later on.

A plan gives you, at a glance, a bird’s eye view of what you aim at doing and how you want to do it; that gives you orderliness and sorts out confusion. It enables you to identify hindrances, which you are likely to meet on the way and to find solutions to them before hand.

A goal enables us to evaluate our activities; at the end of the period of time set to accomplish our goals we sit down to evaluate what we have achieved or failed to achieve. We will be able to tell whether we achieved what we wanted only if we planned towards achieving them.

Clear decisive goals prevent unnecessary deviations from we are pursuing, for it enables us to say no, even to good things if they do not help to promote the main goal that we have set up. In this case we become stabilized, not driven about by every kind of activity. Once we set goals we should stick to them and prevent ourselves from unnecessary deviations. That is not to say that once a goal is set it cannot be changed or modified. However, to keep on changing our goals at every difficulty on the way will result in not achieving our goals in life.

Goals enable us to sort out our priorities. There are more desirable things in life than we have time and energy to achieve, and it’s absolutely important that we do the most important things first. With goals we can arrange our aims according to their order of priority.

Goal setting, in long term or short term, can give us a positive sense of direction.

Anyone who has no goal in life is directionless, has no vision. “Without a vision, the people perish”. If we have a vision, goals and plans are the strategies that enable us to work towards it.

A good goal should be clear and specifically stated, for if it is ambiguous so will the plan that will seek to accomplish it.

A goal should be attainable within your own capabilities, skills and talents. What is the use of setting up a goal that you know from the onset that it can’t be achieved?!

A good goal includes specific time within which to achieve it.

A good goal should be measurable, should aim at the end result, so that at the end of the stated period it can clearly be known whether the goal has been achieved or not.

Goal setting is not easy. Stop a while and ask yourself, “What is my goal in life?” you will realize how difficult it is to co-ordinate your ideas on your life goals. It is difficult, yes, but then nothing worth achieving is easy. As you make goal setting a habit, it will soon become a part of you.

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Contributed by:
Gabula Atudde Women's Groups
A WOUGNET Member