Coming to Terms with Personal Goals

Have you ever worked toward a big, long-term goal? Perhaps the goal you had in mind would take months or even years to successfully accomplish. It is a big commitment, whether it is about business or personal goals. How should you deal with it?

Personal Goals

Long term personal goals like these require a lot of determination, hard work, and perseverance to see them through all the way to the end. They also require a commitment. And they need to be created correctly in the first place.

When you are working toward long term goals, it is important to understand that it is natural for your interests and needs to change during the process. It does not mean you need to change your goals. It is your plans and strategies for getting to your goals that must change.

An early mentor of mine shared this clever statement that has guided me well through the years, "Set your goals in concrete, but draw your plans in the sand!" This is good advice for both business and personal goals. Take it as your own.

Striving for self-improvement and betterment for yourself is a big part of feeling contentment. However, it is also natural for human beings to change, grow, and evolve over the course of their lives.

Sometimes that means your interests and needs in relationship to your big life goals can change, too – and that is OK! But, remember, do not feel you must change your goals just because circumstances change.

To maintain contentment in your life, especially when you are working toward meeting big long-term goals, it is important to be honest with yourself and reassess your efforts on a regular basis. Change your plans. Change your strategy. Not your goals.

Sometimes you will believe that you need to make some changes to your ultimate goals before moving forward. This is rarely the case. Doing so will be valid if your over all life choices change. To be sure that you are maintaining feelings of contentment by working toward goals that align with what you truly want out of life, take time, and get help if necessary, to set the right long term goals in the first place.