Home » Mind & Soul » Counseling » The Importance Of Goal Setting

The Importance Of Goal Setting

© Lynette Rees

Are you the sort of person who always has a goal in life? Or are you the sort of person that drifts along aimlessly never getting anywhere?

What is the importance of goal setting?

We set a goal in order to have something in life to aim for. It is vital that we strive to achieve something. If we do not then our very purpose to life seems to be missing.

Some children are lucky they know almost for as long as they can remember what they want to do with their lives. The little girl who wants to be a nurse, the little boy who wants to be a policeman. They may even be so forward thinking that they have their future career prospects all mapped out: the correct subjects to take in school so that they can train towards their future goal. But quite often, most of us get side tracked along the way and lose direction. It happened to me. I was one of those little girls who wanted to be a nurse. I took the correct subjects at school and a pre-nursing test, then trained to be a nurse.

I reached my goal of qualifying to become a State Registered Nurse, as they were called in those days. However, there were not that many jobs to go around at the time and I left the profession rather than work in the X-Ray Department or theatre, as it wasn't the type of nursing experience I wanted. As the years passed I trained in shorthand/typing and had a couple of clerical jobs. Then I had the children and worked in a mother and toddler group and a play group. As the children got older I decided to take a Diploma in Childhood Studies, which was a fairly high level course that could lead into social work or teaching. I was doing very well, and for the first time in my life I think it would have been fair to say that I was top of the class. However, this was at a cost. I became such a perfectionist, striving for distinction level in all my assignments that I burnt myself out. I left half way through the course, unable to return and felt that somehow I had lost my direction and was aimless.

I was mildly depressed for sometime, although I did not require any medication. Then one day I opened up "Woman's Weekly" magazine to see the offer of a "Women's Confidence Day" that was to be held at The Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea. It sounded really good. For the cost of £15.00 I would have the chance to attend lectures held by the well known author and psychotherapist, Gael Lindenfield. It was to be a real pampering day, something to do for myself. I asked my friend Alyson if she was interested, which she was and I applied for tickets.

The copyright of the article The Importance Of Goal Setting in Counseling is owned by Lynette Rees. Permission to republish The Importance Of Goal Setting in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.