Purpose and Goals in Our Lives - Where Do We Want to Go?

There are many aspects of our lives that require making choices and determining how we invest our time and energy. If we waste the opportunity to organize our limited time and energy resources, we will never experience the happiness and rewards that are within our reach.

Setting goals present a dilemma because we are committing to something that may not be reasonable tomorrow. We may feel that the exclusivity of attention may distract us from other opportunities. We may find ourselves moving in a direction that is not what we envisioned earlier. The good thing is that when we engage in goal setting, we always begin to see things that may not have been evident in a status quo environment. New perspectives and insights will help us, in a iterative process, to set the right goals and make adjustments that take us much further along the path of success.


The point to take notice here is that there are great opportunities to be uncovered and capitalized, but can't be accessed while we sit still, or just go with the flow of everyday occurrences and events. It is only when we are committed, and apply our energy and time to the pursuit of goals that we put ourselves in the best position to attain what was not possible.

To shed light on the issue from another angle, too many people are paralyzed by unattainable goals and artificial expectations. They feel like failures when they are really a great success. In the same vein, there are people who sacrifice everything to reach goals of wealth and power. A great many of us wonder if sustained success is even possible? The answer is yes, if the goals are realistic and attainable. It is the responsibility of those in power and in leadership roles to assess the standards and to take responsibility for setting achievable expectations. Goals that are specific, hard but realistic, accepted by the person(s), linked to feedback and reward, and set in a participative manner have a high correlation to improved performance.

We do need to give ouselves the empowering structure of regular goal setting and goal renewal to keep us on a success path.