Life Goals – do they help ?

Setting, updating and measuring progress against goals.  That’s such a normal rhythm of our business life that we don’t even question or think about why we are doing it.  So it got me thinking.   Do we apply the same kind of discipline to our own lives ?  Should we ?

One would argue that we would benefit from having clearly defined goals that stretch what we believe is possible to achieve in our own lives.  It would help us stay focused, provide guideposts for tough decisions, and push us just that little bit extra to go for gold….to achieve dreams that we never thought possible.

Yet, goal setting when it comes to planning our life seems somewhat mundane; almost too serious …like it has the possibility of sucking all the fun out of life.  After all, isn’t life more enjoyable when you are not constantly chasing after and measuring your progress against goals.

Wouldn’t it be more fun to just “go with the flow” and see where life takes you ?  I can definitely see the plus side of that.  But perhaps the one thing that would tip the scale in favour of setting life goals, in my opinion; would be that it forces us to answer some tough questions about what’s really important to us.  Where do we see ourselves in 10, 20, 30 years time…..and is that the life we would have imagined for ourselves ?

So personally, I vote for setting some life goals vs not.  I think of it as my North Star that keeps me heading towards achieving what is most important to me…but like all travellers, that doesn’t mean I can’t take the occasional detour just for fun !

Has setting life goals helped….or hindered you ?  Send me your thoughts.