This is a guest post from Jacob, enjoy!

 

I know a lot of people who are living an “Auto-Pilot” life. For a lot of them, their life looks like this…

· They work a dead-end job that they hate.

· Because of that dead-end job, they live for the weekend.

· Yet, when the weekend comes its drink, drink, party, and some more drinking.

· Then Monday morning comes (it’s always too early) and they are right back to where they started.

I call this the Auto-Pilot life and there are an incredibly large number of people living around you that are living this life (maybe it’s you??).

For me…I see life in a different way. I have dreams. I have a vision of the life I want to live and I can assure you that it’s not an Auto Pilot life.

I’m not here to bash that lifestyle; please don’t misunderstand. For those of you who are OK with that life, I wish you the best! But for those of you who are sick of going around in circles every Monday, I want to provide evidence that goal setting can help you reach your dreams.

Embrace Goal Setting

Goal setting can be an incredibly powerful tool. It can take the weakest man or woman and make them into strong human beings with incredible potential.

Here are three reasons why you should embrace goal setting. Goals can…

1. Turn Your Weaknesses into Strengths

2. Help You Stretch

3. Change Your Dreams into Reality

Let’s dive into each of these…

1. Goals Can…Turn Your Weaknesses into Strengths

I don’t mean to crush your confidence, but you have “chinks in your armor”. The good news is that you aren’t alone; all of us are in the same boat! Goals can help you overcome those “chinks”.

Goals help you stay accountable to yourself. They give you clarity and a way to review your efforts. It’s these actions that enable you to slowly improve and grow. By embracing goal setting, you can turn your “chinks” into strong parts of your armor.

Suggestion: Focus on one weakness at a time. Don’t overload yourself. Set a goal and see it through. Then move on!

2. Goals Can…Help You Stretch

You can look at stretching in two ways: you dislike it and therefore don’t want to do it, or you are OK with it and take advantage of it. I want you to look at it the second way. If you are willing to be OK with it and take advantage of it, you will benefit from it.

A good goal, is one that will force you to work hard, get out of your comfort zone, and make you go above and beyond what you would normally do. But if you can embrace that fact, then goals can help you go to a whole new level.

Suggestion: Consider how much your current goals make you stretch. Can you make them harder, without them being unreasonable? My guess is that you can do more than you originally thought.

3. Goals Can…Change Your Dreams into Reality

I have a dream that I am working towards…my permanent vacation called: retirement. My ultimate goal is to have a beach home, with dolphin swims and reading good books. Because retirement is far away, I have created “mini” goals that I can achieve now to help me get to that ultimate dream.

Now that I am starting to achieving these “mini” goals, I am starting to see that my dream is becoming a reality. I am closer to my retirement dream than I was before. You too can take your dreams (whatever they may be) and make them into reality, by embracing goal setting.

Conclusion

It’s a brand new year, which means that you have a chance to become a new YOU. Goals can help you achieve that new you, or a new life, or in my case…a future retirement life. Goals can inspire you. Goals can motivate you. Goals can empower you to become more ever dreamed you could be.

Don’t sit idle and let your life pass by before you start setting goals to help you become who you want to be, and live the life that you want to live!

Bio

After spending six years in the accounting, retirement, and financial realm, Jacob turned his attention to teaching others about important life skills. He works with clients one on one, in addition to teaching others through his website PowerOverLife. Jacob currently lives in Gilbert, AZ with his wife and 1-year-old daughter. You can also follow up at Twitter.