I don’t strictly write down my goals and maybe I should but I’m not here to tell you to do something unless I, at the very least do it myself. Goal setting is more than just important, it’s vital, without it you will stagnate. I’m in an important part of my career I’ve got that critical one years worth of experience, that amount that you need to even get most junior level jobs. Yet I could very well sit back, clock in and clock out each day for the next 40 years. I could gradually get better, use the same technology each day and progress as anyone would, doing the same thing each day. Hell, maybe I even get really good at my job. Yet there's just something extremely depressing about that whole situation, I wouldn’t have any sort of aims other than to get in at 9 and leave at 5. My life would slowly waste away, time slipping by like water through your hands, each moment passing but nothing sticking. It’s this concept that I often think about as I’m heading home for the week, the thought that it’s already Thursday, yet it feels like just yesterday it was Sunday. The work day is very quick and before you know it you’re in November wondering where the year went. I find that when I stop and think about what my goals are and how I'm progressing towards them, is when time slows down just a little bit. It’s like having extra webbing in your hands, it captures just a little more time. For me, time is an elusive beast, but when I sit and plan at least in my head each night where I'm heading, what my goals are and how I’m going to achieve them, it gives me the pause, the awareness of time. My hope is that it will stop me from waking up at 60 years of age, wondering where did my life go?

Goals don’t have to be written out, but like ever self-book says. I don’t and maybe I should, maybe it will focus me more but I also know that my goals aren’t set in stone. I don’t necessarily want millions in the bank or a Lamborghini in the garage, or to be the best programmer alive. I just want to continue to improve, each and every day, getting that 1% better through directed self-improvement. I don’t necessarily have any grandiose dreams of creating the next Apple or Microsoft. I do want to create my own business but I’m not sure in what capacity or when I want to do that. However, I take each day as it comes because I find that if I leave myself open, then opportunities come knocking.

Stagnation is one of those states that I fear most, as a very goal oriented person I struggle with the monotony of daily life, yet I thrive on the routine that it gives you. The routine is what makes it easier for me to function, I’m not one of those people that can drop a night at home to go out partying because someone asked me last minute. I also struggle with not doing something each and every minute, I feel as though I’m wasting my time playing video games when I could programming. However, I think if you have these goals set in your mind or on a page that say this is where I want to be at this date, then it pushes you to do the work but it also gives you pause to slow down in daily life, knowing that you’re heading in the right direction. It allows you to take time off and spend it with your family because you have this clear idea in your mind about where you’re heading. Actively taking the time to rest and recover, scheduling it in is a lot more rewarding when you know that it’s just a break so that you can get back to your goals harder again tomorrow.

Reflecting on where you’ve come and where you still want to go is one way to hold onto more of that time that keeps slipping away. Reflecting on the improvement or the sheer volume of work you have produced is important because you often forget just how much you have done. You forget that just 6 months ago you were here, but now you’re all the way over here. Unless you take this time to reflect on your goals and the progression that you have achieved then you will continue to lose time, you will continue to let it slip by. You will wake up on Friday each week thinking to yourself “Where has the week gone?”

What you want in life is completely and entirely up to you. You might want billions of dollars or you might want to wake up each morning and create beautiful paintings. Whatever you want, you need to set goals on how you will get to that state. It’s not easy to become a billionaire, much like it’s not easy to become a world-class painter or even a decent painter. It is my belief that it’s the aim and the constant practice at your craft which makes life rewarding. Taking each day to deliberately move towards your goals and deliberately reflect on your progression is what slows you down. We need to spend more time self-reflecting, thinking about the present and the future, less time on our phones or watching TV. The reason most people lose weeks, months, years of their lives is that they don’t take the time to set goals, reflect and postulate on ideas, problems and opportunities around them. Instead, they drown out the noise in their head with as much distraction as possible. I’m guilty of all this myself believe me, yet when I do take the time to slow down and spend some time thinking, I enjoy life better, I feel more relaxed and at ease.