“All successful people have a goal. No one can get anywhere unless he knows where he wants to go and what he wants to be or do.”

-Norman Vincent Peale-

  
    Every great achievement begins with a goal. The term “goal” is the target a person wants to reach within a given time. A goal focuses on a dream you want to realize concerning an ideal person you want to become, the ideal grades you want to obtain, the ideal business you want to start, the ideal work you want to do, among others, in the future. In short, a goal is a dream destination a person wants to reach within a specific time frame along the course of life.

       To succeed in any area of your life, you need to set a clear goal for yourself, and the entire process requires two fundamental principles: KNOWING WHERE YOU WANT TO GO and GOING WHERE YOU WANT TO GO. You can never get what you want in any area of your life (school, work, marriage, etc.) unless you know what you want (where you want to go) and take
the timely step to start the journey to where you want to go. Real and lasting success requires both of these inextricably linked principles. Unfortunately, many young people are either caught up in the trap of not knowing exactly where they want to go and therefore they are wandering aimlessly, or they know where they want to go, but they sit down and do nothing. In either case, it is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve any worthy goal in your life.

        Over the years, my work as a teacher, life coach, writer, and motivational speaker has brought me into contact with many young people with great potential as well as beautiful goals and plans—they know where they want to go and have what it takes to get there, but the sad thing about them has been their unwillingness to step out of their comfort zone and start the journey. It is sad, but that is the reality I have seen with many people. Young people of today want success in their academic, professional, and personal lives, but they are not ready to pay the full price that is attached to these goals.

      To illustrate my point to young people during seminar presentations and counseling sessions, I have always asked this question: “CAN YOU JUST PICK ANY WORTHY THING FROM THE SUPERMARKET WITHOUT PAYING THE PRICE ATTACHED TO IT? Life is like a supermarket. Our goals are the beautiful things that you can find in the supermarket. In the supermarket, everything has a price and a utility (satisfaction) value. You must pay the price to own the item and get the utility. This analogy practically applies in real-life situations. Every goal in life has a price and prize (reward) connected to it. You need to pay the price of your goals through sacrifices and inconveniences before you can enjoy all the wonderful rewards in terms of fame, prestige, financial security, and others that are connected to them.

      My dear reader, without knowing where you want to go and going where you want to go, there cannot be any significant achievement in your life, and even hard work, perseverance, and desire, among others, which are considered critical attributes of success, are as helpless as a ship without a compass. My many years of research into the lives of outstanding achievers revealed that no one has ever succeeded—whether in school, work, or marriage—without having a clear goal.

     A goal is like a compass and a roadmap that enable a person to travel from the known destination to the unknown destination without getting lost and wasting time and other resources. It is rather unfortunate that many young people in the 21^st century are trying to live their lives without clear, specific, written goals and yet expect to achieve outstanding results in whatever they are doing or pursuing. This is the same as setting off across an unknown country without a roadmap and hoping to reach your destination with ease. Without a roadmap, you may eventually get somewhere, but it will take longer, and you’re more likely to get lost and waste time and money than if you had planned your trip with a roadmap and full information about the terrain. Therefore, you need to set goals to achieve success in any field of endeavor.

     My dear reader, as Bishop Oyedopo remarked, “Unless you discover who you are, why
you were created and why you are here, life will simply be an experiment.
Instead of living, you will only exist. You are running with a vision, going on
a mission or burning with passion. If you do not belong to any of these, life
is reduced to a burden.” People who know where they want to go and go where they want to go become unstoppable history makers and record breakers in life, and nothing they seek stays away from them. People who fail to set goals live their lives on a meandering day-to-day basis, and you see them 2 years, 6 years, and even 10 years or more from now, and their lives are largely the same, except for a few changes that are really due to the results of others’ actions and desires rather than their own.

If it must be done, it must be done now. Know where you want to go and take the first step now to go there. Procrastination is not only a thief of time but also a thief of great dreams. Set a goal for yourself and take the first step now without waiting for the so-called “right time” because it may never arrive. Now is the time!

Dear cherished reader,
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