Goals and The Why

by Jacqui Allerton
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One thing that I have learned on my Time Management journey, one thing that stands out above everything else, is the importance of goals. Setting goals for your life takes a lot of thinking about. You should take your time over this activity, as I did. Initially, I wrote down lots of goals, more than 50. Then I picked out the ones that seemed most important to me. And then I began to pick them apart, to discover why they stood out as important to me.

The Wheel
I use the Wheel of Life as a tool for this as it covers 6 or 8 areas of life that all need some attention in order for us to feel complete, to feel whole. These areas are as follows:

Finance, Self-Development, Career/Business, Friendships, Love/Significant Other, Health and Fitness, Family, Home Environment.

Everyone has their strong areas and their weaker ones. Usually, the strong areas are the ones that matter most to us. The areas where we expend most of our time and energy. When I was working on my goals, there were four areas that I particularly wanted to focus on. These were my business, my partner, my family and friends and my health and fitness. For you, your priority areas may be different. Having areas of priority will allow you to have clear vision about what you want to focus on and where you want to spend your time. And having clear goals within those areas of focus allows you clarity on what actions and tasks you need to complete each day, week and month.

The Pen and Paper
A point I want to make now is the importance of writing down these goals. And I think that pen and paper is best, although of course you can choose to create only a digital copy, if that is how you work best. But, somehow, putting pen to paper makes these goals more concrete, more permanent. And you take them more seriously. Think also about time scales. When do you want to achieve this goal by? And is the time scale realistic? And don't be afraid to think big, to stretch yourself. Goals should be achievable but they should also inspire and motivate.

The most important bit...The Why
Now here comes what I think is the most important part. And that is the why. This is crucial. If you don't understand the why behind your goals, you are far less likely to achieve them. The motivation is what will keep you going and keep you on track, and if the motivation is not high then you are really going to struggle. So be clear on the why. Think about what is the real motivation behind wanting to write that book/climb that mountain/own that particular car/get that promotion.

Having clarity of goals is going to make management of your time so much easier. You will know which tasks are taking you closer to your goals, and which are not. Which tasks to spend time and effort on and which are wasting your time. If you do not have clear and measurable goals, you are setting off on a journey without a destination, and who knows where you may end up or how long it may take you. You could end up feeling frustrated, directionless and without purpose. To achieve fulfillment, to have purpose and to leave behind a legacy, goals are an absolute necessity.