What Are Life Goals and How Can You Set One | SBI Life
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What Are Life Goals and How Can You Set One | SBI Life

Insurance Basics & Financial Advice In this fast-paced world, where the hustle-and-grind culture is embraced, we tend to forget our purpose and the goals we want to achieve in the long run. You can have one or multiple goals to achieve, but you find yourself stuck in a rut and focusing on something that would not yield any returns or take you to your destination. And that is something we do not want you to face. Here is a guide to help you set and achieve any financial, career, family or social life goals. To begin with, let us first know what is a life goal.

What Are Life Goals, and How Can You Set One? | SBI Life

8 Minute |

Life Goals

How to Boost Your Personal Growth by Setting Life Goals?

In this fast-paced world, where the hustle-and-grind culture is embraced, we tend to forget our purpose and the goals we want to achieve in the long run. You can have one or multiple goals to achieve, but you find yourself stuck in a rut and focusing on something that would not yield any returns or take you to your destination. And that is something we do not want you to face. Here is a guide to help you set and achieve any financial, career, family or social life goals. To begin with, let us first know what is a life goal.

What are Life Goals?

Think of life goals as flying an aeroplane from destination A to B, where A is where you are today, and B is where you want to be in the future—with you being the pilot in control. In short, life goals are everything you want to accomplish and reach your destination (i.e. B). For instance, you want to buy a luxury car, have a balanced diet every day or build the home of your dreams with your family—these are some common life goals. They could be small or big, short or long term, or be as specific as losing a certain amount of weight. Everything depends on what you want and achieve. Below are some life goal categories to put things in shape and help you understand better.

  1. Financial Goals: Managing your money is primarily important as it helps you set, plan and achieve your other life goals to reach the outcome you are striving for. Whether you want to save up to visit your dream destination, buy a designer bag or gather funding to study abroad—everything falls under financial goals.
  2. Family Goals: Maintaining a healthy work-life balance and spending more time with your family is how to stay connected, appreciate the people in your life and live happily. Family goals include preserving relationships with one another. For example, going on a vacation or a shopping spree, planning a weekly family dinner, or volunteering to do some household chores could be some goals you might be interested in.
  3. Health and Fitness Goals: Yes, who said you cannot have goals to keep your body in shape? The objective of fitness goals could be anything, improving the sleep cycle, keeping mental health in check, engaging in any kind of exercise daily, etc. Whoever said health is wealth is right because only a healthy person can achieve various life goals.
  4. Social Goals: These are the life goals that connect you to your immediate world to make an impact and offer something of value to society. They could also be plans to change or expand your social life and social habits. Community service, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), solving problems of society, and bringing change in yourself and the society for good are some examples of social goals.
  5. Career Goals: Continuous learning helps you learn more ways how to achieve goals in life. And that is possible only when you have set career goals for yourself. Acquiring a new skill, learning a new language, getting a master’s degree, finding better job opportunities, etc., are some career goals you can focus on. Remember, age is not a barrier to learning, so irrespective of the stage you are currently at in your career, you can constantly set career goals for yourself.
  6. Lifetime Goals: These are plans you intend to achieve in your lifetime. There are no limitations when setting such life goals—you can set whatever you want to achieve. Things like deciding your retirement age, planning about having your own family, owning a private jet, taking a world tour, and climbing the highest mountain all fall into this category of life goals.
  7. Personal Goals: These goals motivate you to achieve what you want in life. They are geared mainly towards personal development to become a better version of yourself. Some examples of personal goals are being more proactive, practising gratitude, eliminating bad habits, and learning new ways to cope with stress.

Why Is It Important to Have Life Goals?

Life goals act as guidelines in helping you move ahead in life. They are the foundation of your life journey, showing you the direction you need to go. Following are three reasons why goal setting is important in your life.

1. Goal-Setting Can Help Us Focus and Align Our Behaviour

Imagine hitting the bullseye using a dart without being given a dartboard. Where would you aim, and how will you determine whether or not you have scored a bull's-eye? This is the best example to help you understand why goal-setting is important. Life goals give you the apt target to focus on and strive to achieve. And once you have set the target in mind, you can align yourself and take the necessary steps to hit the bull’s eye.

For instance, your goal is to buy your dream car, which is about Rs. 50 lakhs. So, keeping track of your spending habits, cutting down unnecessary expenses, setting up a monthly savings account for the same, etc., are some of the activities you will carry out to buy the car. All these activities are behavioural changes that will align you in achieving the desired goal.

2. Setting Goals Can Increase Happiness

Making progress towards achieving the goal arouses a sense of happiness and sastisfaction. Furthermore, setting life goals makes you feel more optimistic about the future, and once you have achieved them, your happiness will keep multiplying.

For example, you have raised about Rs. 30 lakhs for your dream car from your savings and investments in six months. How would you feel? Happy, right?

3. They Motivate Us to Maximise Our Strengths

Taking and accomplishing Small steps every day towards achieving your goal fuels motivation and boosts your confidence. They encourage you to do better and put 100% effort into accelerating your flight towards the destination.

Now that you have just about Rs. 20 lakhs to raise, you will look for different ways to gather this sum in the best way possible. For instance, you will check out car loans, sell your old car, search for the best deals, etc., to quickly gather the funds and accomplish your goal.

How To Set Life Goals?

Sometimes finding and setting life goals may seem intimidating or overwhelming. But there is nothing to be worried about. Following is a guide on how to set life goals to help you set and achieve them in better ways. Remember, everyone is different, and each of you has different goals you intend to work towards, so your life goals will be specific only to you.

1. Consider Your Passion:

The first step towards setting life goals is to design them. By that, we mean goals should be concrete endpoints that can be measured. To begin with, setting goals, you can consider things you are passionate about, such as bike riding. So, your goal could be going on adventurous bike rides twice yearly. This could be the stepping stone to figuring out everything you want.

2. Put Them on Paper:

Now that you have an idea dump, put all the goals on paper or note them in a worksheet. Then, categorise them into the different types of life goals for better clarity. Note, no idea is too silly, small or big, so write down everything you think you want. And yes, you can change or edit those ideas later as you move forward.

3. Imagine Your Future:

After segregating your goals, plan a rough action plan and improvise it as you gather all the resources you need to accomplish them. Create a timeline for how long it will take to achieve those life goals. Also, jot down all the baby steps you should be doing and when you should do them (weekly, monthly, yearly).

4. Examine Potential Obstacles:

Nothing can stop you from achieving your life goals if you have analysed your plan thoroughly and examined the things that could go wrong. Some common obstacles you could face are a lack of motivation, self-belief, and confidence. To overcome these, break down your goals into subgoals and take baby steps to build your empire.

Best Way To Go About Your Life Goals - Set SMART Goals

SMART is a concept that could help you understand how to set a life goal much better. To make sure your goals are clearly defined and attainable, they should be

1. S (Specific):

Set your goals precisely. Ask the following questions to get to the core of your aim.

  1. What needs to be accomplished?
  2. Why is this goal important?
  3. Who is the responsible entity?
  4. Which resources are required?

2. M (Measurable):

Your life goals need to be measurable to track your progress and stay motivated. Address the following questions to evaluate the measurability of your goals.

  1. How much/many?
  2. How will I know when it is accomplished?

3. A (Achievable):

To figure out ways you can realise your goal and work towards it, it is essential that they are truly attainable and not an unconventional goal that looks good on paper but is nearly impossible to accomplish.

4. R (Realistic):

Your life goals should be practical and relevant with the help of available resources and time, as unrealistic goal setting can demotivate you in case you cannot achieve them.

5. T (Trackable):

Life goals should be time-bound. Otherwise, there will be no sense of urgency resulting in less motivation to accomplish them.

Start Living Your Dream by Setting Life Goals

Yes, you can do it. Do not overthink and start your journey by setting SMART life goals for yourself and let your dreams come alive. Just put some time and thought into it and let the ideas flow.

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