Goals

Imagine you're at a basketball game and the stands are filled to capacity. The game is about to start, the music and the crowd are at a dull roar. People are talking and trying to find their seat. All are anticipating having a good time. Both teams run out to the court and the excitement in the crowd reaches a fever pitch. Both teams also stop short and look around with bewilderment on their face.
The backboard the hoop and the netting have been removed from both ends of the court! There are NO goals!
The referees tell the angrier by the minute crowd that the NBA has decided that goals aren't really necessary. They tell the crowd that the teams will be judged on how well they dribble, pass, and run.
Ridiculous isn't it? You can't play basketball without goals. There is literally nothing to shoot for. Without shooting at the goal you're just running, passing, and dribbling. I hope your life isn't like that. If you have no goals, you spend all your time running around during the day, passing out at night, and well... Dribbling
How can you be all you want to be if you don't know what it is you want to be or achieve? When the media interviews someone that has actually achieved anything great, you will never hear a response like this. "Well, you know, I was just walkin' around and suddenly, I found myself at the top of Mt. Everest!" or "I was sitten in my rocking chair on the porch and some group of people came over and gave me the Nobel Peace Prize!"
No. Nothing great was ever accomplished without goals. There was a study done of Harvard graduates over a 20 year period. They found that only 3% of the graduating class had specific goals that they had written down, looked at daily, and committed to memory.
20 years later, this 3% group with their written down goals had a net worth greater than all the other 97% combined that did not write their goals down. We were created to function best and be our happiest when our journey in life has goals. Studies have shown that people that have only the single goal of feeding a pet and petting it, live several years longer than those with no goals at all.
Victor Frankel was a prisoner during World War 2 and studied the men he was imprisoned with. He later became a psychiatrist and wrote a book titled, "Mans search for Meaning in Life." In it, he describes how the different prisoners reacted to the stress of incarceration. Under terrible living conditions, many gave up hope. They seemingly lost their will to live. They died quickly. Very few of the prisoners survived at all. It was about one in ten.The ones that did survive always had a reason. For some, it was seeing a loved one again. For others, it was to seek revenge against their captors. There were also those that believed that if they died, their lives would have been lived in vain. Goals are of extreme importance for success at anything. Goals make life more interesting. In the situation just mentioned, it could mean life or death.