Research shows that less than 3% of people write down their goals.  Most people are statistically more likely to spend time organizing exactly what they want from the supermarket than they are working out what they want from life.  Crazy but true.

One way, most successful people would say the best way, to get more out of life is to develop meaningful personal and professional goals.  The biggest predictor of success is purposeful direction.  If you don’t have something to aim for in life, the chances are you will end up achieving far less than you would like.  Almost every successful person in the world started with a clearly defined goal and a plan to achieve it.

The beauty of setting goals is that they actually help to streamline your life, adding focus and something tangible for you to work towards while shedding unproductive low yield activities.  In some ways goals are like guideposts helping you to move towards a meaningful life, towards something that holds special importance to you.  What that special something is, is a very individual choice.

The first step to working out what you want is to establish what is important to you in life.  If for example, you value your friends and family above anything else, then it makes sense to set a life goal of spending as much quality time with them as possible.

Consider answering the questions below and start devising goals around the answers you produce:

• What would you want to achieve if you knew you could not fail?
• What is the legacy you most want to leave behind?
• What and who exactly are you when you’re at your absolute best?
• If today was your last day on earth how would you spend it? Who would you spend it with?

Your answers to these questions will provide you with valuable insights about what is truly important to you in your life and help you jump start your goal setting process.  

Put yourself in in that 3% and you’ll have a chance to make 2018, and all your years to come, the very best years of your life!