Why is it important to set goals and share them with others?
Life is all about unguarded moments, spontaneous decisions, and unexpected turns. We often don’t know what tomorrow holds, but we do know that one day we will be old. You can’t deny that sometimes life gets hard to handle and you can’t always plan ahead.
This is why objectives play an important role in one’s life. It is in those moments of life when we need to focus on what’s in front of us, not what’s behind. Goal setting is a helpful technique to use when we want to achieve something. The goals can be big or small, personal or work-related. This article will focus on the benefits of how goal setting can help us with our life and also share some tips for achieving those objectives.
What is the Importance of Goal Setting and Sharing Goals?
Setting and achieving your goals are necessary for success in life. The quest for personal growth and development is never-ending. We want to be the best version of ourselves and so we set objectives to achieve that.
Setting goals will give you a direction. Sharing them will drive you to your destination.
Why are goals so important?
It’s no secret that setting goals is the first step in achieving anything. Whether you’re trying to lose weight, get a promotion at work or even simply achieve greater success in life, you need to have objectives to keep you motivated. If you don’t set goals, how do you know where you want to go? Goal setting allows you to map out your life direction.Without personal targets, you’ll never be able to move forward and achieve what you want.
Why is Having Goals Important?
Having goals can make progress more manageable, and it’s easier to achieve them when you know what they are. Goal setting research shows that individuals with no goals are more likely to feel frustrated, anxious, and angry than those with specific goals or plans in mind. There are many benefits of having clearly established objectives like increased productivity, better decision-making skills, improved self-esteem and confidence.
Objectives can help you organize your time by breaking your tasks into manageable steps; they help you prioritize what should be done first and what can wait. Setting goals also helps us feel happier and more satisfied with life.
A study published in the Journal of Happiness Studies found that individuals who set personal targets tend to be more happy, satisfied, and optimistic than those who don’t. This is due to a positive mental shift as the individual begins to see themselves as being more capable of achieving their objectives.
Why is it important to share your goals with others?
Setting goals without sharing them with other people, is like running without a leg. Sharing your goals with others will help you to stay motivated and accountable and will definitely improve your ability to reach them. But setting goals is not enough – we need people who believe in us, support us, and will push us towards achieving them. It’s why goal setting is so important not only for our own growth but also for other people’s happiness.
Sharing goals is one of the most powerful tools for increasing success: if you don’t share your goals with others in the right way, you’ll lose 1/3 of your chance to reach them. However, having objectives is useful only if they are shared. Why is it important to share our goals with others? It will help us to be more accountable for achieving them.
When we have objectives to work towards, we can ask others to support us and be more likely to follow through on what we say we will do. When we share our goals, we are able to hold each other accountable for our commitments. When we share our goals with people we trust, we are more likely to be open to ideas and suggestions from them.
So, why are goals so important?
What Are The Benefits of Goal Setting?
Setting and following goals is an important part of success in any field. The best way to achieve success in anything- from business, to relationships, to fitness-is to set clear boundaries and expectations for the work we do. We all have things we want to accomplish, but it can be difficult when we don’t know where to start or what steps to take.
Setting and sharing goals is a simple way for us all to get on the stage and make our individual visions a reality.
There are four classes of reasons:
- goal setting provides motivation
- goals help us getting things done
- goals give you a compass
- goals empower you to total personal mastery
In this article we are going to explore all of them.
1) Goal Setting Provides Motivation And Performance
Goals are also integral to self-motivation because they allow us to take steps towards the achievement of what we want in life. Setting goals is a natural instinct. Consciously setting them gives you something to aspire to. It’s important to have a specific goal when you set out to achieve something, whether it’s studying, losing weight, or writing a book.
How can goal setting improve performance?
Goal setting is a very effective method for improving performance. Locke and Latham’s research shows that there is a significant relationship between goals difficulty and performance: most people are motivated when they set challenging but realistic objectives.
It is a proven fact that most people achieve much more than their goals. It was observed that the best performance is the result of goals being both specific and challenging. What the researchers discovered was that people naturally increase the level of effort to reach the more difficult goals. This means, when you’re aiming for a difficult goal, you might have to put in a bit more effort to get there.
If the goal is not realistic however, any effort adjustment won’t get the result, and with this you’ll lose energy first and motivation later.
Self-confidence and deadlines energize goal achievement
The researchers also found that the motivational impact of goals may be affected by ability and self-efficacy. This means that the more capable and confident you feel about your ability to perform a task, the more motivated you may become to pursue a goal.
While pure deadline pressure could not lead to higher productivity, having specific goals with a deadline can be a great energy source, especially if those deadline are accounted to someone you have respect to. If the objectives are specific enough, they’ll be concrete enough to inspire concrete action towards them. And if you have enough self-confidence, your deadline will get you into action.
As your action will lead you to intermediate wins, you will develop a sense of control and success, which will motivate you to continue working towards your goals.
Goal setting unleashes your passions, your passions unleash your energy
Your objectives are only part of the process for how to set life goals. You should also decide what motivates you and what your values are. It’s important to be passionate about your goals if you want to achieve them in the long run. Your targets should be important to you and should provide you with a sense of pride once they are achieved. Your goals must fill your life with purpose, relevance and passions.
This help them to sustain themselves when things become hard on your path to achievement.
2) Goal Setting Helps You Get The Things Done
Goal setting provides a framework for achieving those goals by giving us the opportunity to set priorities and reach them in an organized way. If you have clear targets you don’t get distracted by other things and lose sight of what is important for you.
Goal setting provides us with a structure for reaching our objectives and help us with direction, focus on the current task, plan ahead and get organized.
But remembert that only your own action will get you closer to your goals. Everything else is just thinking and planning.
Goals Keep You Focused
Setting objectives can help you stay away from distractive activities and focused towards your objective.
This process happens automatically and subtly but according to research does happen. This is what a goal gives you: focus. No matter who you meet along the way or what you see (assuming nothing is out of the ordinary) your goal allows you to stay locked in. You subconsciously keep away from distractions and your focus remains only on the goal.
Goal Setting Enables Your Resources
In order to set goals, one must first be committed to them. If not, the goals will inevitably fail, especially if are challenging ones (and we have seen why they should be). This is because most people who set objectives do not have a strong commitment to completing them and lack the motivation and drive necessary for their goals to succeed.
This is where goal setting comes in. Goal setting helps ensure that your resources are being used efficiently and effectively. By developing a plan of action for what you want to achieve, it becomes easier to use your resources successfully and responsibly as you track your progress towards achieving those goals.
If you are really motivated towards your target, you’ll find ways to approach them. And you’ll find what is currently at your hand. Setting goals and thinking how to achieve them will focus your time, knowledge, money, strategies, supporters towards your results. And this will greatly enhance your chances of success.
Goals Help You Overcome Procrastination
When you set a goal for yourself you make yourself accountable to finish the task. This is in complete contrast with when you do things based off a whim and it doesn’t matter whether you complete them or not. Goals tend to stick in your mind and if not completed they give you a “Shoot! I was supposed to do this thing today!” reminder. These reminders in the back of your head help you to overcome procrastination and laziness.
You’ll stop procrastinating because you’ll know what to focus on, you’ll be able to organize your priorities, and you’ll know exactly where you should be spending your time. That will absolutely take away any time for you to daydream and just procrastinate. You’ll have to be busy making your dreams happen.
Keep in mind however that long-term goals actually promote procrastination. Most people aren’t good with deadliness 3 months away. So whenever you’re given a long term goal, break it down into several short-term goals so you can complete a chunk of the larger long term goal at least every week.
Goals Allow You To Measure Progress and Have a Pace
By setting goals for yourself you are able to measure your progress because you always have a fixed endpoint or benchmark to compare with. This is why you should always make your goals measurable: you can then break down that measure in a reference pace that will help you to achieve it.
For example you may have the target to write a 200 page book and start with passion. If you lose your track, simply count the number of pages you have already written, and you will instantly determine how far you still need to go. You can then restart with your target, or adjust your pace if you find it better for writing your book.
If you keep track of your progress right from the start, you’ll notice if your pace is ok or if you have to adapt it. You won’t be lost in your way and you’ll be able to take corrective actions before being in trouble.
Setting Goals Stimulates Your Creativity
Goals are the driving force behind our creativity. When we set goals for ourselves, it helps us to get out of our comfort zones and push our own limits. This will expose you to new situations and your creativity will be challenged to find new ways to progress and overcome obstacles.
This is a very good exercise that will greatly enhance your attitude towards higher challenges and will help you towards long-term success.
3) Goals Give You a Compass
Personal goals are the most important thing if you want to get ahead. They are your compass for figuring out where you are going. Knowing what you want to accomplish in life empowers you to take control of your time and focus on what is important for you.
Goals give you greater control of your future and of your life.
Goals Help You to See the Bigger Picture
Sometimes, it’s difficult to set goals because we want things to happen immediately, but it’s better to set realistic targets that we can work towards. Start living the life you’ve always wanted. It’s the first step toward creating a life full of meaning.
Setting long-term goals will help you to get the whole picture. And having a whole picture will help you to both reach your dreams and get there, one step at a time.
Goals Help You Reach Your Dreams
It’s tough to know what you want in life and how to get it. But diving into your passions, your deepest motivation and what you love doing will help you reach your dreams. Whether you’re aiming for a career, finding your soulmate or simply looking to start a business, knowing where you want to be and what it takes to get there can help you plan, focus and get there sooner.
Here’s the thing – it’s not always going to be easy or comfortable. But goal setting will help define you your goals in a way that will help you in your path, break it down into easier chunks, set your milestone, start your journey, get closer every day, and finally be there.
Goals Will Challenge and Clarify Your Values
Your goals are the things that you want to achieve in your life. They can be anything from buying a house, to starting a business. You always have to think about your values before you set any obejctives for yourself. If you value family, but also want to go backpacking around Europe for 18 months, then these are two mutually exclusive goals that will require some thought.
James clear in his four burners theory article explains very well the foundational impact of your life pillars on your more intimate goals. The short version is: the higher your goal, the more your values will be challenged and you’ll have to make core choices about your life.
You’ll have to make this choice, and this will make your life clearer.
Goals Will Help You Take The Closer Path To Success and Give You a Sense of Direction
Goals are like your personal compass that points you in the right direction and helps you determine what you really want to achieve. When you are in a context you aren’t familiar with, you might be lost and end up somewhere you don’t want to be. But with a goal to guide you, you know which road to take and that road leads you to where you need to be.
If you know how far away your goal is, you can always take a step closer to it.
Remember that whatever you do will get you closer to your goals or away from them, so choose you action wisely.
Goals Will Help You To Prioritize
Why is setting goals and priorities important?
Setting goals and priorities is important because it leads to better decision making and productivity. Priorities should be aligned with your objectives so that you can accomplish them in a timely manner.
Goals will also help you define your priorities – they help you filter the most important things to do now from the ones that just waste your time. Just ask yourself: “Is this moving me closer or further from my goal?”.
This saves you from exhausting all your time and energy into something you will eventually find trivial. Clear goals in your mind will make sure you are focusing your time and energy on those things that are worth it.
Goals Will Help You Make Better Decisions
In your path towards your goal, you’ll be often faced with decision. Prioritization, as we have just seen, will help you to deal with it. When your goals are set, it will most likely help you identify the right choices based on the long-term view of your purpose. You can always go back to your purpose – why you have these goals – and then come up with a decision when put in that kind of situation.
Use your goals as a compass, and your decision making will be easier.
4) Breaking Down Your Goals Will Empower You to Total Mastery
Your goals will help you better achieve mastery. If you resolve to achieve your goal whatever it takes, it will be a compass not only for your action, but also for what you must become and what you must learn to be successful with it. In my opinion this is the most important part of the complex answer to our initial question: “Why is it important to set goals and share them with others?”.
Intermediate Goals Give You Courage
If you break down your big goal into smaller ones and you start achieving them, you’ll find that you are having progress towards your goal and you can reach it. This is especially true if you are going to define weekly milestones, so experience little success regularly and in short time frames.
Every milestone reached gives you a success and makes you closer to your goals. Both these things will propel you feeling on being able to do it. This will unleash your courage and your confidence in your ability to achieve greater milestones.
Goal Setting Tempers Your Discipline
As you know by now setting goals is essential for your life but setting goals can also be useful when it comes to your discipline. We have seen that by setting objectives you get a sense of direction in your life. You want to achieve more, you want to be more productive and that’s why you set goals.
Setting goals will help you get organized. You will have a direction in your life. As your goals are defined and measurable you will know what to do to achieve them.
If you exploit this for personal accountability, for example setting up a weekly check on how you are doing with your objectives, then you’ll have to confront a decision: going further or give up. If your goal is motivating enough, you’ll always go further. So you’ll develop a pace where you check how things are going and how will be going forward. You’ll develop the discipline to follow up with what is necessary and let go what is not.
Setting goals would make your journey more disciplined and the same will be for your life.
Goal Setting Tempers Your Resilience
For the same reasons you can understand that going for your objectives is a powerful ways to develop resilience. Psychologists have found that the process of goal-setting tempers resilience because it improves people’s awareness about what they can do to improve their situation.
It helps them feel in control and take responsibility for their actions. It also motivates them to take action towards achieving their goals because they know that there is a reward waiting for them at the end.
Weekly goals will help you be more resilient in life by giving you something to work towards and giving you an incentive to get through tough times because you know that there is something waiting for you at the end. And I bet you’ll choose always getting further against giving up.
Setting Goals Creates an Atmosphere of Self-Belief and Confidence
Understanding your goals, writing it down, setting up a plan to achieve it will make things much clearer. And this will increase your feeling that maybe you can do something to achieve it or at least to get closer. When we set personal targets, the process of planning, working towards and achieving the goal is exciting.
The fact that you are doing something which is completely out of the ordinary makes you feel good and it makes you want to do more of it.
This will give an initial boost to your self-confidence. But is when you take action that your confidence unfolds. When you break down your goals and set small intermediate milestone, you are able to achieve them more easily. And when you achieve them, you are more confident about your skills and your ability to achieve your larger goals.
Your little success will increase your courage, and cementing your courage will help you develop self-belief and self-confidence (“I can do it”, “I can achieve my goal”). We have seen that by setting a goal that is hard to achieve you increase your chances of achieving it because it will trigger your resources and your effort.
This will lead to an increased sense of satisfaction once you achieve it. You will feel proud of yourself and of what you have achieved in the past.
Further, the development of your courage, discipline and resilience will increase your confidence in your ability to overcome the challenges you’ll find along your journey. And all of this, together, will create a lasting atmosphere of self-confidence and confidence, throughout the journey towards your goal.
Goal Setting Allows You to Learn What You Need to Reach Your Highest Achievements
With goal setting you set an objective and then figure out the steps you need to take in order to achieve it. These steps will trigger obstacles that will fit along the way. And this will allow you to develop the skills you need to overcome them and reach higher goals.
If you want to become an expert at something, you’ll have to learn and practice that skill over and over again until you get really good at it. The more you practice the skill, the better you’ll get at it. Setting milestones towards your goals will expose you to the barriers that keep you away from your goal. You will learn the strategies, thoughts, decisions and actions that will get you through.
This will develop your personal power and when you’ll hit a similar barrier on your journey, it will become just a way to prove yourself that you have become more powerful.
So far we explored the first part of our quest on: “Why is it important to set goals and share them with others?”
It’s time to find out what’s the role of other people.
Why Is It Important to Share Your Goals With Others?
Developing your personal goals is not enough. We’ll see shortly that if you don’t share your goals with others you are going to miss another 50% of increased goal achievement effectiveness. We have seen that goals are and incredible source of focus, resource and empowerment. But when you are aiming for very big goals, you won’t able to achieve them alone.
Well, psychology research shows also that sharing your ordinary goals will greatly improve your chances of success.
Sharing Goals With Others Will Boost Your Success Rate
A study by Dr. Gail Matthews (a clinical psychologist at Dominican University of California) published in 2015 and involving 267 participants, found that writing goals down and committing to actions towards them influences goal achievement. The study was divided into 5 groups.
- Group one had just think about the business goals they hoped to achieve within four weeks.
- Group two was asked to the same, but also to write down their goals.
- The third group had to write their goals down but also to commit action for each.
- Group four was required to do the same but to share these commitments with a supportive friend.
- The last group was asked, in addition, to send weekly progress updates to their friend.
Only slightly half the participants completed the study, but the results were quite clear: At the end of the study, group one only accomplished 43% of their stated goals. When checking all the groups that wrote goals (2-5) against the one that didn’t, the average improved effect was of about +50%.
Those in group four accomplished 64% of their stated goals, which is still +50%. The last group had the most success, accomplishing 76% of their goals. So just sharing goals gives marginal advantage against just writing them. But if you a weekly progress report towards a supportive friends, the increased accountability rises your success rate to being almost double more successful compared to those who merely formulate goals.
Sharing Goals With Higher Status People Will Increase Your Commitment
In 2010, Derek Sivers gave an inspiring TED Talk called “Keep Your Goals To Yourself” . He says that sharing your goals with other people can make you less motivated. In contrast, Ohio State University research found that people tend to be more committed to their goals after sharing them with someone whose opinions they respect.
The study was about performing a basic computer task. Participants were asked to try the task and declare the expected improvement in performance when redoing it in a subsequent test. The group who didn’t tell their goal to anyone didn’t see any improvement.
The same happened for those declaring their goals to people who were peers of the study participants. But when they shared their target goal with the higher status people, they were more likely to reach their goal.
This was confirmed in other similar experiments. This seems reasonable enough – it’s hard to tell someone whose opinion matters to you that you didn’t follow the goal you shared with him as important. If you have not acted, you will try to compensate with some subsequent action to avoid the unpleasant feeling of deluding these people or being judged negatively.
So sharing your goal with a higher-up makes you more motivated, simply because you care what this person thinks of you and you’ll trigger a “performance anxiety” motivation. This level of anxiety is however crucial, because it could also trigger more stress than action and in that case you’ll find yourself blocked. If this happens to you, be smart enough to acknowledge it and humbly ask these people for help.
So these people should be someone you respect, but you don’t fear. You shouldn’t share goals with suppressive or competitive people. This can include people in your family that disagree with your goal. Sharing with these people will trigger pressure, criticism, fear of failure and, after a while, a sense of inadequacy.
Benefits of Sharing Goals With Other People
So sharing your goals will improve their achievement. But there are many other benefits you will gain if you share your goals intelligently.
Sharing Goals With Others Makes You Accountable and Gives you Another Compass
We have seen that smart accountability will greatly improve your chances of success. Be as accountable to yourself as you would to your friends. You’re responsible for your progress, so keep yourself accountable by sharing your goals with a friend. Your quest for your goal doesn’t have to be lonely or overwhelming. You just have to set aside your own goals and take on those of others, so that everyone can reach their goals together.
You don’t have to have the same goal. It’s enough your goals lead to the same direction. This mean you could share some milestones or share some resources. It’s like going to run with a buddy instead of alone. You don’t have to have the same goal.
It is enough that your goals lead in the same direction. This means you may be sharing some milestones or sharing some resources. It’s like going for a run with a friend instead of alone. Much more fun, much less stress. Much easier.
Crossed accountability is key to making steady, consistent progress toward your goals.
Sharing Goals With Others Will Get You The Support, Help and Resources You Need
Achieving goals is difficult. We often hesitate to share our goals with others because we’re scared of how they’ll react or if we’ll lose their respect or admiration. But they are more likely to be interested and offer their help and support to help us achieve these goals. Whether it’s positive feedback, indicating someone else you should talk to, alternative resources when something goes wrong.
It’s much easier to find alternative approaches when you are not alone.
Discussing Your Goals With Others Develops Your Strategic Thinking
When we share and discuss with others the goals we want to achieve, it helps us to develop a strategic thinking and make more informed decisions. You can test your strategy, your plan, your next steps and your resources against your supportive friend’s opinion. You can check what works and what doesn’t, what are the risks and what are the opportunities.
You can adapt your strategy to have a more solid approach with this discussion and seeing how well this will overcome your obstacles will help you develop a very strong strategic mindset. This will become easier as you’ll progress towards your goals, and higher possibilities will open to you.
Discussing Your Goals with Others Helps You Confront Other People’s Opinion and Judgment
It’s really difficult to have a solid idea of what you want out of life, but when you share your goals with others, you not only allow yourself to confront their opinion and judgment, but you can also gain newfound perspective on the task. When other’s people opinion differs from yours, you’ll have the opportunity to challenge your thoughts and revisit them.
By thinking about your goals and sharing it with others, you’ll also have the opportunity to take other people perspective and their opinions on your life into account. If you share your goals, you’ll have the opportunity to let others help you get there. You’ll have to make room for others ideas and thoughts, and not only learn to accept them, but to manage them and use them as resources towards your goal. Other’s will challenge you, but they’ll also support you. Your opinions and views on your goals won’t be the only one, but other’s people will be able to contribute too…
This will help you to develop your self-belief. Sometimes you’ll be sure of your position. This is where you’ll confront disagreement and learn that it’s just another resource towards your goal, if managed properly. And when you’ll be solid enough, you’ll even be able to react to other people judgment in a positive way.
Discussing Your Goals With Others Helps You Challenge Your Inner Critic
Talking to someone about your goals can help you challenge your inner critic. Your inner critic is that inner part of your mind that tells you that you’re not good enough, that you’re an impostor, and that the world would be better off without you. Your inner critic is just a voice, albeit one with some power over you, but it’s only one voice among many.
The bigger your goals, the higher the chance that your inner critic will trigger and throw at you some big troubles.
Talking about your goals with supportive friends can give yourself more confidence when pursuing them. Talking to someone about your goal allows for external validation of these goals in ways that talking alone cannot provide. This external validation can help remind us that we are capable and worthy of living our lives the way we want to.
Quite interestingly, developing your goal setting skills will help you to respond to your inner critic and will empower you to develop your self-confidence and achieve higher and higher goals. You can learn a lot about your inner critic and how you can deal with it in my article this website.
How to Share Your Goals With Others
So goals are an important catalyzer for your future and sharing them with others will help you to achieve them much more easily. But how to share them? What should we share?
Here’s a starter list:
- Discuss the importance of the goal Share where you are in relation to your goal.
- Seek feedback and input for how to proceed next
- Express gratitude for help given so far and encouragement to keep going
- Send weekly reports on what you are going to do this week to come nearer to your goal
- In the report, share what you were able to do that you planned in the last week…
- …share what you couldn’t do and why,…
- …share what else you did towards your goal and why.
Then keep doing this, week after week, milestone after milestone. Always ask for feedback. You don’t have to be perfect at this, but the more feedback you get, the better you’ll know what to do next.
In addition to that, it’s important to set realistic expectations of yourself. Remember that none can do for your goal more than what you can do.
Conclusion: Goal Setting is Important for Success
So, “why is it important to set goals and share them with others?”
Now you know that goal setting will give you a compass for your life, instill motivation, help you get things done, and most importantly, your goals will guide you to total personal mastery. This is why goal setting is important for success, and you won’t achieve any lasting success if you don’t work on these items.
But set goals and sharing them with others isn’t enough to achieve them. Only your own action will get you closer to your goals. Everything else is just thinking and planning. Some people may feel like they don’t know where to start or set goals for themselves.
However, if you take this first step toward success by setting your goals, you’ll be one step closer to realizing your dreams and achieving happiness.
A structured goal setting process will help you to define your goal, take your first step and stay on track. My 8-step goal setting process will do just that and it works like this:
- exploit your passions
- create a vision
- write a mission statement
- choose concrete long term goals
- make a plan
- think about the feeling of reaching your goals in the future
- break it down
- review, assess and continue
To get further help, if you’re ready to get a head start towards your goals while discovering what gives a direction to your life, and set your path towards what you want to achieve, click on the image below and register right now for my new free 12 Day Goal Setting Challenge. The challenge is designed in a way that will help you take action.
Enroll now, your goals deserve it. See you there!
To go even further, check my new “Effective Goal Setting for a Life of Freedom” course
