Why Do You Need to Have Goals in Life?

Let us all have goals because it will give us control of our lives and a sense of direction. Keep these goals as high and as big as you can.

In financial planning, goals will always be present. Someone asked me, why do we need to synchronize our investment with a goal? Can I just invest then leave it there in the stock market? The questions has stopped me for a while, it prompted me to properly search and dig deeper the purpose of goal setting.

What is goal setting? Goal setting involves the development of an action plan designed to motivate and guide a person or group toward a goal. Goal setting can be guided by goal-setting criteria (or rules), such as SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound) criteria. Goal setting is a major component of personal development and management literature. Studies by Edwin A. Locke and his colleagues have shown that more specific and ambitious goals lead to more performance improvement than easy or general goals. As long as the person accepts the goal, has the ability to attain it and does not have conflicting goals, there is a positive linear relationship between goal difficulty and task performance.

There is a saying I have found, “We human beings are goal-seeking organisms. We only function at our very best when we are working toward accomplishing something that is important to us.” And even in the best meaning of success—“Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal,” Earl Nightingale said. If you want to be successful, you need to have goals. It is difficult to be successful if you don’t know where you are aiming at. Now there it is, goal-setting is vital and the most important skill of all high peak performance and self-motivation.

There was a study conducted in Yale University in 1953 among the seniors in the graduating class. A series of questions had been prepared and one of which was, “Have you set specific and clear goals for your life? Have you written it down?” Only 3 percent of the graduating seniors have done so. In 1973, after 20 years, they interviewed the surviving members of the batch. What they have found was astonishing: the 3 percent who set goals were worth more in financial terms than the entire 97 percent when put together. In other studies conducted, the result has been consistent.

In every success story we heard and read, in every peak performing man and woman is an obsessive goal setter. They are motivated by a compelling, burning and internal goal. With a goal, you are pushing the success mechanism that is in you.

But the real question is, why is it so few people have written goals?

1. A majority have a fear of rejection — they fear that they might be criticized by their peers or caused destructive criticism—e.g., stock market is too risky, you will lose your money. The better way to overcome this is to keep your goals confidential and share it with people who have goals and willing to help you achieve it.
2. A majority don’t know how our education system doesn’t spend even an hour in discussing how to set goals. That is why I am so thankful to people in the financial industry, especially the Registered Financial Planner, in spreading financial literacy in our country. Cheers to that!
3. A majority do not understand the importance of goals, that it all starts at home. If the family discusses goals, when parents teach kids about goal setting and the importance of goals, then kids would appreciate its importance.
4. A majority fear failure — the greatest obstacle to achievement. A majority do not understand this, that failure is an indispensable prerequisite of success. Did you know that Thomas Edison was the greatest failure of all time? He would later become the greatest inventor. He said, “I have not failed at all; I have successfully identified 5,000 ways that will not work that puts me 5,000 ways closer to the way it works.” It is impossible to be successful without failure. Learning from all setbacks are the right way we should do.

Now, because of this four, the majority extended mediocrity to play it safe, lack of self-discipline and confidence, lack of the will and belief.

Let us all have goals because it will give us control of our lives and a sense of direction. Keep these goals as high and as big as you can.

In lieu, RFPs have the ability to help responsible people set up their goals. We can help you identify what are the short-, medium- and long-term goals in your personal finance, because finance is the backbone of every family. People should hire RFPs because we have a code of ethics that we follow, that it should be the client’s or public’s interest up front and not ours. And we help people bridge the present to the future goals.

Serge Bargayo is registered financial planner of RFP Philippines from Cebu City.

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