Everyone has at least one goal, perhaps they may call them dreams or aspirations. A goal can be anything – a particular career that someone is striving to achieve, a particular grade in an exam, to lose weight or even to run a marathon. In the dictionary, a goal is defined as, ‘the result or achievement toward which effort is directed’.
At the moment, I’m trying to run 5K in 30 minutes. To many people, this may seem easy but to me, it’s a struggle. I’m getting better at the running part but at the moment, it’s running it to time that keeps tripping me up. I have other goals too; I want to achieve three B’s in my A levels and improve my self-esteem. Of course, each of these things takes work, time, effort.
I believe that having a focus is what every person needs, no matter how small. Us humans are conditioned to go to work/school, come home, go to bed and then to repeat the cycle again the next day. This pattern could ruin us. We need some excitement, an extra goal, something more to strive towards.
We are all different so these goals could be anything, however small or big you want to make them. I’ve seen what routine does to people. My Grandparents, for example, they do the same thing every week, eat the same meals, see the same people. I used to be their focus, they practically brought me up, but as I got older obviously things changed. It was only when my family bought a dog that they had something new to focus on, they had a new goal and someone else to train up.
According to Mind Tools, setting a goal ‘focuses your acquisition of knowledge, and helps you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life.’ If that doesn’t convince you to set a goal, I don’t know what will! The website also gives tips on how to set goals.
Obviously, I’m not a professional but I believe that a goal should take you out of your comfort zone, a goal should be realistic and a goal should have objectives, a set of guidelines to follow. Another piece of advice I would give is to work in the now. Don’t set a goal and then start tomorrow because that will lead to you constantly putting it off. I didn’t know I wanted to run 5K until I was actually on a treadmill one day and I just did it. It was a struggle at first and it still is. This leads me to my biggest piece of advice – Don’t give up, however hard it may be. Keep going.
Good luck!
