Why is having goals important?
Goal setting is an essential part of a healthy mental “diet”. At its core, goal setting is a planning tool that helps us structure our actions which will lead us to a desired achievement. Now, those achievements may differ, for example “I want to have a better grade next time”, “I want to have a better grade than John” or “I don’t want to have a worse grade than John”. These three types of goals can be categorized as Mastery, Performance-approach and Performance-avoidance respectively.
Regardless of which type of a goal setter you are, psychologists agree that goals are essential to success in any sphere of life. The concept may affect the outcome in four major ways: choices one makes, effort employed, persistence and cognition. All of these factors contribute to creation of behavioral patterns which then contribute to work. This can be simply having a good sleeping schedule or as far as taking additional classes for hours and hours a day to have better grades. Goal setting helps to construct order and rhythm to a routine (almost like the Notelet planner) and by definition are what a person wants, therefore an achievement of a goal, short-term or of a lifetime always triggers an endomorphic reward system in the brain, leading to increased levels of happiness and well-being. Finally, it is much more satisfying to hand in a well-prepared essay written over two weeks rather than a rushed, unfinished mess the night before. However, it is important to evaluate the significance of a set goal in order to not overdo the effort. Although it sounds unlikely, research has shown that narrowing the focus of one’s life to achieving a certain goal can have harmful implications on social relations and mental wellbeing. A careful approach to developing goal setting is a key to success, so take your time to think about what you want to achieve this month and write it down!!