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No forward thinking is required.
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You will always be successful—no accountability, no disappointments.
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Your week is already full. Maybe you'll set goals next week.
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You have already reached your destination. Life has little more to offer.
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It gives you a good reason to keep buying lottery tickets.
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You can hang out with other aimless drifters. Like-minded people love company.
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The 95% of North Americans who don't set goals can't be wrong. They may be mediocre or very average, but not wrong.
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You'd rather live by other people's goals. It's easier if they set them.
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No goals = no failure.
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To-do lists work just fine for me.
Now, of course I am being silly, but these reasons to not set goals are scarier than you think. I certainly hope you didn't highlight any of them. Unfortunately, many people do buy into this mentality.
Goals offer a host of benefits and the one that impresses me the most is that goals provide a destination. How do you know where you are going in life if you don't have a destination? Most of us spend more time planning our weekend, holiday, or party than we do our own lives. We don't plan to fail, we fail to plan. You have probably heard or read these ideas many times before. That's because they are true. Once again the path of least resistance and the pain of regret prevails.
I recently visited my brother in Toronto and I noticed an advertisement in the apartment building elevator that I'm sure you will appreciate. The ad was posted by a financial services company and in bold print asked the question, "Where will you be in five years?" It then offered four choices: (a) Driving a new car? (b) On a vacation? (c) In a new home? (d) In this elevator? I cracked up. Not only was the ad amusing, it delivered a powerful message. Unfortunately, given that only 5% of us have written goals, financial or otherwise, I'm sure "d" is the answer in most cases.
Valuable Benefits of Setting Goals
Dynamics of Motivation
This is part of Attitude # 2: Set Goals
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