It is said that God has planned something specific for each one of us. Each one of us has come on this earth to fulfill His peculiar motive; but we need to follow our intuition and pursue our purpose.

Motivation is the key to goal setting and goal setting is the door to success. Imagine small children making castles in sand. What is the motive behind their dogging effort to make the best castle? Well, it is nothing but the sheer joy of seeing something that you have made or created with your own hands. The accomplishment of building the best or the biggest castle around, itself gives this indescribable euphoric feeling to them. The point is that if the motivation to achieve a particular thing comes from within there is nothing that can stop you from achieving it. Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination. Goals help us understand ourselves better. They give us a time line and a roadmap to discover the true essence of our life.

Even a farmer needs to set goals to get maximum yield from his land. He works in a futuristic method; he manipulates by when he should reap and accordingly sows the seeds and nurtures the farm. In a corporate organization, the head of the organization is a true visionary; he sets certain short term goals which he and his employees strive to attain, thus simultaneously moving closer to achieving a bigger, long term goal. Thus goal setting is inevitable and vital in every walk of life.

Every person may have a different definition for goal. Some may want to do well education and career-wise while some may want to be a good parent or a good individual. Some may wish to strive towards attaining physical well-being while some may strive for emotional/mental well-being. Some may set goals to achieve a certain financial status while some may set goals to achieve inner spiritual peace and pleasure. Whatever is your reason or your goal, the only trick in the route towards your success is to surpass your disbeliefs and skepticism, accept that your dreams do exist, they are real, and you have the ability to realize them.

So how do you exactly set your goals? First and foremost, you need to identify your values, strengths and desires. You need to accept your shortcomings but not be ashamed of them. Once you are aware of your weaknesses you are rather alert than ashamed and thus you know exactly where you need to localize your energies. After this, you need to identify realistic goals, prioritize them, categorize them as short term or long term and then plan the course of action.

While planning your strategy you need to be cognizant of the fact that there can be failures. However, whilst some people treat ‘failures’ as learning curves some crumble when they meet an obstacles. Those who manage to realize their dreams are not the weak hearted who wallow in self pity, they are those who persevere and use so called ‘failures’ to their advantage. My view is that failures are learning experiences, which simply serve us! Its simply a matter of choice, what you choose to believe, if you choose to believe that a failure is the end of your dreams then so it will be. But if you choose to believe that a failure is indeed a teaching experience then you will learn and carry on with your journey. You should not be easily disheartened, remember that if you find a path without any hindrance, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere! You may need to reevaluate your plan and work towards your goals by taking another route. And lastly, you need to enjoy your journey of realizing your goals. Don’t get too stressed or worried, there is a higher power always willing to assist. You can reach ANY goal you set for yourself, for the ONE who stands by you at all times is SUPREME to any obstacles you can ever imagine.

Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes a goal. And goals are those dreams that have an ending!