Personal Skills

Why you should set goals

Planning for your future or just wanting to get the most out of your year? Gain long-term vision and short-term motivation by setting some goals. Whether you’re thinking about subject selection, post-school pathways, gap year options, your next holiday destination, or how to get fitter and healthier, you’re already forming goals. Here are some reasons why you should set goals.

Provide focus and find your passion 

Spending some time thinking about what you'd like to achieve in the future (either in a year, five years, or even ten years) can help you work out what's really important to you. If you care about something, you're more likely to stick with it and feel a sense of achievement when you follow through. Writing down your goals and putting an action plan in place are the first steps to finding your passion.

See and measure your progress 

No matter how big, challenging, or daunting your aspirations are, goals can help you break them down into manageable steps and plan ways to work around obstacles. Eventually, lots of small goals will lead you to your ultimate destination (plus, it feels good to celebrate milestones along the way).

Overcome procrastination 

"Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till tomorrow what you can do today."

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Putting things off is so easy to do, but it means you’ll probably end up achieving less.

Setting goals helps you be more accountable to yourself. Instead of brushing it off and thinking “I’ll do it tomorrow”, your goals will stick in your mind. If you don’t complete an action or step, it might nag at you. Goals can work as a constant reminder of what you should be doing, and prompt you into action.

Increase your motivation 

Once you’ve gone through all the effort to discover, plan, and set goals, statistically there is a much higher chance you'll be more motivated than ever to see them through to the end. You don't want all that hard work to be for nothing, right?

Take control of your future 

Goals can help to keep you productive and preserve your sanity by making you feel a bit more in control. Planning our futures can help us to feel less stressed, and even improve our mental health. Despite the unknowns of the future, goal setting still has great value – so try not to get sucked into the “why bother” attitude and instead opt for making the best out of what you have to work with.

You can set goals anytime 

If you haven’t set any goals yet, don’t stress. It's never too late and there's no perfect time or deadline. You could take some time to think about what you’d like to achieve right now, or book it in for this weekend. Then you can get stuck in and start taking action once you have a bit of direction.

Make sure your goals are:

• Realistic and achievable
• Measurable
• Valuable and meaningful
• Flexible – it’s OK to change your goals or milestones if they’re not working out for you!