Have you ever gone to look up something on your phone, saw a new Facebook or Snapchat message, and then 10 minutes later forget what you even got on your phone to look for?
Distractions at their finest can derail us for minutes, hours, possibly years, if we are not intentional with some of our decision making. Goal setting is an important part of making healthy decisions for our future. Goal setting is important in life because: “If you don’t know where you are going, how can you expect to get there?” Basil S. Walsh.
Goals help us decide what we want to achieve in life, motivate us, and build self-confidence when we achieve the goals we set for ourselves. So, why is it so important to set goals, especially when you are younger? I mean, you have your whole life ahead of you, right? Well, there is a concept called sliding vs. deciding. It basically states that if you are not intentional with your choices and your future, you may end up sliding into places in life that you never expected to go.
Take for example a relationship. You are attracted to someone, then you decide to start to date them. Then let’s say you add sex to the relationship. Neither of you have ever talked about marriage or becoming parents together, but as your relationship and sexual relationship progresses, you find out you are pregnant. Now, you have some decisions to make for your future. You never had committed to marriage with this person, or becoming parents, but you may feel the need to make a commitment now that a baby is in the picture. This is an example of sliding. The consequences of the choices we make direct us to options where we may feel like we have less control of the options we have for our future.
So, what would you like to accomplish in your future? Start now by making a mental note of where you would like to be a year from now. Five years from now. Ten years. Having your goals and dreams set will help you work to accomplish them. Now think, are the decisions in your life right now encouraging the future you have marked out for yourself, or discouraging it? If you are making some unhealthy choices that do not work towards what you would like to do with your future, it’s never too late to make a fresh start. It’s never too late to start working towards where you want to be, so you do not slide through life going places you never planned.