Many people tell me, "You know Adam, I tried setting goals before but it did not work" I respond by saying this, "It is not the goal that did not work, you did not work."



Setting clear goals give us a clear direction to base and our plans and drive our actions. When you do not get what you want, it is merely part of the journey of getting what you want.

As you take action and follow your plans, will you move towards your goal? Of course you would, but very rarely is the path a straight and easy one. Along the way you definitely encounter some obstacles, setbacks and frustrations. As you move towards your goal, pretty soon you go "bang", you go down, and you get setback.

It could manifest as a form of rejection, a lost business deal or even a business failure. At this point of time, there will always be 30 percent of people, who would give up on their dream. They will say "I set my goals, I took action but I just did not make it. I just failed". Then they give up, never daring to shoot for anything anymore for fear of going through the same pain of failure.

Next comes the remaining 70 percent who will not let this one setback stop them. They will quickly recover and take action again. They will take action, and along the way as they are progressing towards their goals after the first failure, "boom" they will hit another setback, another frustration, another failure.

At this stage, another group of people will give up. They will say "You know, I tried it once, tried it twice, it did not work, let us forget about it".

In the process of working towards our goals, as frustration and failure sets in, there will always be people who give up along the way.

It is probably only the remaining 5 or 10 percent of people who finally achieve their dreams. In fact sometimes setbacks may not even come as small failures, they could even come as big plunges, big valleys so to speak.

When you have no specific goals, you will tend to go towards whatever influences you in a short term.

You will be like a sheep following other sheep around. After some time you move all over the place and end up going really nowhere.

But by setting a clear goal and focusing on it, you only make decisions and take actions that will move you in that direction.

When you are focused on what you want, you will not be drawn in different directions by the people or events around you. When you are clear of your goals, you do not get distracted and you do not get influenced. You only know what you should do to get your goal.