GOAL-SETTING

            “Chasing success is not done when we are old and time is running out. To enjoy success is to start goal-setting when we are still young. Know when the perfect opportunity comes and grab it” – john Aspirin           Goal-setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future and for motivating yourself to turn this vision into reality. When we ask a person, “What are your goals in life?” What we want to know is his aim or purpose in life, or his plans for the future. The answer to this question will depend on the values, ideas, thoughts, ambitions and aspiration of the individual. Attempts at answering this questions could include responses such as; “I want to become a Professor of Psychology, a musician, a medical doctor, a husband, and a father, a footballer, a politician, the Mayor, the state Governor, the President of my Country, etc.           Goal-setting helps one to sort out his life early enough to avoid regrets in the future. The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life. It helps you to know precisely what you want to achieve, when you want to achieve it and where you have to concentrate your efforts. You will also quickly see the distraction that could otherwise lure you from your course.             Goal-setting techniques are mostly used by top level athletes, successful business people, teachers and coaches, administrators and all achievers in various fields. Goals give you long-time vision and short-time motivation. They also focus your acquisition of knowledge and help you to organize your time. This article discusses goal-setting with reference to business and/ or entrepreneurship. It defines goals and state why we set goals.                                                          
 WHAT IS A GOAL?              A goal is an outcome or attainment an individual is striving to accomplish (Wool folk 2007). Goals are what we want to achieve (Okon 2001). A goal is whatever we want  or desire and we make it a target for achievement, attainment or acquiring.                                                          
WHY WE SET GOALS.             There are usually personal and organizational goals. What concerns us now is the setting of personal goals. Goals helps us to find our direction in life, they also  help us to live our lives the way we want. By setting goals we achieve focus in life. Setting sharp, clearly defined goal help us to measure and take pride in the achievement of these goals. With set goals, we can see forward progress in what could have seemed a long pointless struggle. By setting goals, we will also raise our self-confidence, as we recognize our ability and competence in achieving the goals that we have set. According to Okon (2001) goals influence motivation in two ways:1 :  A goal provides a person with a target to shoot at or something to aspire towards. The existence of the goal generates motivation in the person to work towards attainment of the goal. 

2:  Goals influence motivation by providing a basis for assessing how well the person is doing in terms of how close he is to reaching the goal. People cannot really tell how well they are doing without some   standards for measurements or comparison, and goals provides that standards.  Surely, Goal-setting influences motivation, it has to be a personal goal for it to be able to motivate a person.