Role of Personal goal in Self Management

Targets or Goals bring meaning to an endeavor. It defines where we are going and when we would reach the destination. I have come across many such people in my life who had very clear goal and invariably they achieved it too.

Most of the people working in corporate world have goals to achieve. Depending on a situation, it may be daily, monthly or yearly targets.  I wonder how many have set similar goals for their individual life. Individual goals will be a superset of corporate goals for the individual. While interacting with many people, I have learnt from them that either they have very hazy personal goals or have no personal goals. Naturally this subject requires attention.  I have seen successful people;All of them had clearly defined goals for themselves. Their relentless pursuit made them successful in life.

I would like to share my personal experience: There have been occasions in life when I had dreamt of impossible things. I had my eyes set on the targets, persistently worked towards achieving them and was finally successful. I would like to mention my academic achievements. I remember the day when I picked up the prospectus for admission in XLRI. While going through the same, a thought crossed my mind to get all the Gold medals meant for a batch. I appeared in the test, went through the curriculum without losing focus of  thought (Goal). Needless to say, I always worked towards achieving my goal and sought God’s grace. I was lucky, God obliged me. There have been numerous occasions like this where I set up goals to achieve something. Believe me in all such cases, I always achieved what I thought. At other times, I got into activity trap, got defocused and kept moving without goal. If you don’t know where you are going, then you shall never reach your destination.. This is my personal experience and I am convinced that if you think of achieving something you will surely do it. God or your luck will take you there. I think setting goal in your life makes you different from others who move without goal or getting into the activities trap.

It is important to set a goal in our personal life as well. I would like to introduce here the concept of “Wheel of Life”. Wheel of life can be conceptualized as a wheel having various spokes like physical environment, career, relationships, romance, health, personal development etc. A typical wheel is shown below in the picture. In order to have a smooth journey, you will need to have satisfaction on all aspects (spokes) of the wheel. Just Like a flat tyre of a car leads to a bumpy journey, imbalanced satisfaction across various dimensions (spokes) leads to bumpy journey of life and leads to unhappy individual. It is impossible to have a strained life across some dimensions and a successful professional life.  I advocate others to look at the different dimensions of “wheel of life” and set goals in reach of them. Once you set goals, follow the simple steps of ASK-BELIEVE-RECEIVE as advocated in the book ‘SECRET’.You shall surely reach the target.

ASK: This is the affirmation of Goal. Keep on doing this every day. If you follow a religious faith, ask  God to help you.

Believe: Assume you have already achieved the same. Do it regularly.

Receive: Also visualize the state of happiness after achieving the goal.

Repeat this three step process relentlessly. Needless to say this has to be backed up with efforts. Saint Kabir has said-

Karat karat abhyaas ke, jadmati hot sujan.
Rasari aawat jaat te, sil par parat nisaan.

Relentless effort makes a difficult task simple like soft rope creates a deep impression on hard wall of a well made of rocks simply because the rope is used time and again to take water out from the well rubbing against the hard wall.

The last part of my discussion today is challenges associated with Goal Achievement.

1.       Not having goal: This is the main cause of lack of achievement. One needs to set balanced goals across all dimensions of “Wheel of Life”.

2.       Loss of Focus: Sometimes people set goals, but lose focus eventually.

3.       Lack of review: One needs a formal periodic review of his or her goals and fine tuning dynamically.

I am surprised if the challenges are so simple to act then why don’t we do this? The answer is the activity trap.  Friends, have faith in this simple phenomenon which will work wonders for you and will change the path of Life.

Set balanced Goals, stay focused, stay calm, you will reach the destination.