Set Goals Quotes & Sayings

If you are not taking the time to set your own goals, chances are pretty high someone else is doing it for you. So don't be surprised someday when you end up someplace you never hoped to be. — Mark W. Boyer

But one week later, when the researchers measured typing speeds again, they found that the workers, on average, were completing 103 lines per hour. Another week later: 112 lines. Most of the typists had blown past the goals they had set. — Charles Duhigg

When you're on the show that's not the time to make decisions. It's before you get on it, so you won't be swayed by pressure. Mentally prepare yourself for the show, and set goals for yourself and stick to them. — Carmen Rasmusen

Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it. — Marcus Aurelius

Most of what we strive for in our modern life uses the apparatus of goal seeking that was originally set up to seek goals in the state of nature. — Richard Dawkins

The dreams you craft at the level of your soul are very different from goals, which are tangible, measurable and set the future. — Alberto Villoldo

Without doubt machines will be able to determine the means and avenues to goals, but men will continue to set the goals themselves. For what machine can ever apply the considerations of compassion and justice which, as man's enlightenment spreads ... will enter ever more into the decisions that affect his future ... in the universe? — Lewis Strauss

There are often two sets of goals in life: those that we establish, and those that really matter. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

To lead a successful life, then, it's a good idea to work out what you really want. Then get together some plans. Then set some goals. — John C. Parkin

If the goal you've set for yourself has a 100 percent chance of success, then frankly you aren't aiming high enough. — Benny Lewis

Do you want to be right more than you want to know the truth? It's the truth that set me free. Acceptance, peace, and less attachment to a world of suffering are all effects of doing The Work. They're not the goals. Do The Work for the love of freedom, for the love of truth. — Byron Katie

You were prepositioned on this planet. But you weren't predestined. A clarification of your life purpose will lead you to set your goals, achieve your dreams and reach your destination. — Keerthi Singhe

We have to be diligent in serving God and in fulfilling the task set before us by Him — Sunday Adelaja

Nobody - myself included - believes that we could ever achieve total information awareness. But the government needs to set goals and long-range objectives. Total information awareness is a good goal. — John Poindexter

Shorn of unattractive language about "robots" who will be producing taxes and not burglarizing homes, the general idea that schools in ghettoized communities must settle for a different set of goals than schools that serve the children of the middle class and upper middle class has been accepted widely. And much of the rhetoric of "rigor" and "high standards" that we hear so frequently, no matter how egalitarian in spirit it may sound to some, is fatally belied by practices that vulgarize the intellects of children and take from their education far too many of the opportunities for cultural and critical reflectiveness without which citizens become receptacles for other people's ideologies and ways of looking at the world but lack the independent spirits to create their own. — Jonathan Kozol

I set my goals way higher than the achievable. And when I fail, I fail at a very high level. That's my process. It's really demented, but it actually works. When you are aiming really high and doing something new, you must be also prepared to fail, learn from your mistakes and begin with a new plan. More motivated than before. — James Cameron

To reach your full potential, you have to set goals that will stretch you. You must not be afraid of taking risks. You must learn to recognize opportunities and have the courage to pursue them. You have to make better choices that will provide better results. Finally, you need to avoid the negative influences of other people and surround yourself with successful people who will encourage you to pursue your dreams. — Zig Ziglar

As a kid, I think I wanted to be the on-set dresser for 'Charlie's Angels'. My goals weren't lofty. No. I just wanted to someday quit my paper round and that was about it. — Ryan Reynolds

If I want to achieve the goals I've set, I've got to be in tip-top shape. — Michael Phelps

On a regular basis if you're trying to produce something, I think you should work every day and set achievable goals. — Chris Bohjalian

Exercise and sports are greatly affected by what goes into the mind, and the mind is greatly affected by sports and exercise as well. This is true among exercisers at all levels, despite their different goals. A major element in mental training is visualization ... Visualizing a positive outcome can create a pattern of success, as long as you set realistic and specific goals. — Grete Waitz

The only thing that lives beyond the grave is the wake you have created by the way you have lived your life; the goals you have set; the distance away from the normal you dared to tread. — Gerry Lindgren

It has proved politically wiser to set goals than to start programs. — Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Part of the issue of achievement is to be able to set realistic goals, but that's one of the hardest things to do because you don't always know exactly where you're going, and you shouldn't. — George Lucas

I want people to expect more from me because I expect more. If you don't set goals high, you're not trying. — Todd Helton

It is quite possible that, even if you set the most relevant, realistic goals, you may not achieve them in the way or the time you wanted to. Life may throw something unexpected in your path, which stops you from achieving what you want, when you want. This is not failure. Feeling like you have failed is bound to lead to low mood, and can often come about if things haven't quite gone according to plan. However, the best thing to do is to draw a mental line under the experience, learn from what has happened and try again. As long as you are still trying, you are working towards your long-term aims; and as long as you are doing that, you are never truly failing. — Anna Barnes

Always strive to aim for the highest peak of the goals in life you have set, this way if you manage to reach even half way toward a goal, landing in the middle is not such a bad place to end up. — Victoria Addino

But if you can't love your-self, you can never love others. And if you never overcome your lack of self- love, you will carry that problem into all your relationships. Plagued by rejection, you will experience conflict with others, you will struggle to set meaningful goals, and you will feel a vague uncertainty about what truly matters. — Ken Freeman

Being passionately curious about things give us the desire to want to learn, to explore and to seek opportunities to set goals and accomplish great things. It allows us to dream. — Ellen J. Barrier

If you expect more from yourself than from others, you are saying that you are better than others and, therefore, must perform at a superior level. I do not mean that you should not set goals for yourself. Rather, the question is, how do you react if you cannot meet these goals? Honestly admitting that you may have not done your best is not judgement. It is judgement when you draw a conclusion about yourself based on your ideas about failure.
Honesty involves taking responsibility; judgment has to do with blame. To view yourself as bad or a failure because you did not accomplish what you set out to do is judgment. To state clearly and simply that you did not accomplish your plan is taking responsibility. — Judith Hanson Lasater

Unless you have a definite, precise, clearly set goals, you are not going to realize the maximum potential that lies within you. — Zig Ziglar

You have to set yourself goals so you can push yourself harder. Desire is the key to success. — Usain Bolt

*Be goal-oriented. Call it a bucket list, a life plan or just a list of goals. But whatever you call it, create a list of things you want to accomplish; both short and long-term. Like the list of changes you wish to make in yourself, meditate on accomplishing each goal you set in a reasonable amount of time. — Sam Siv

As a scientist, I play in the top league - the Olympics, the World Championships - and I want to be in the lead. As a runner, I set personal goals, and I want to push beyond my own personal limits. I was very happy when I practiced for several months and then reached my goal to run a marathon in 2:50. — Wolfgang Ketterle

I'm not a big believer in long-term planning and far-off goals. In fact, I generally set 3-month and 6-month dreamlines. The variables change too much and in-the-future distance becomes an excuse for postponing action. — Tim Ferriss

Each day brings a fresh opportunity for you to set the standard of how dedicated and committed you are to your needs, wants, goals, and relationships. — Steve Maraboli

If you set goals and go after them with all the determination you can muster, your gifts will take you places that will amaze you. — Les Brown

Knowledge only becomes wisdom, when it is utilized and produces fruit that makes it possible
to reach the goals that God has set. — Sunday Adelaja

Without a plan, even the most brilliant business can get lost. You need to have goals, create milestones and have a strategy in place to set yourself up for success. — Yogi Berra

Success is the continuing achievement of becoming the person God wants you to be and accomplishing the goals God has helped you set. — Charles Stanley

Our goal over the next few chapters is to address the origin of complex structures - including, but not limited to, living creatures - in the context of the big picture. The universe is a set of quantum fields obeying equations that don't even distinguish between past and future, much less embody any long-term goals. How in the world did something as organized as a human being ever come to be? — Sean Carroll

I'm just not a purist. You set goals and you have to work with everyone to figure out how to get what you can. — Scott Peters

The more goals you set, the more goals you get. — Mark Victor Hansen

Set goals, challenge yourself, and achieve them. Live a healthy life ... and make every moment count. Rise above the obstacles, and focus on the positive. — Robert H. Goddard

I never try to set goals that I know are too tough to achieve or out of my reach. — Louis Oosthuizen

You are designed for success. Life's tough, but you are greater than its challenges. No matter what you have been through, you're still here. You have a history of victory.

So ignore the haters, the doubters, and free yourself from the emotional saboteurs. Don't ever forget that you are beautiful, you are capable, you are worthy... you are enough.

Set healthy standards and stick to them. Don't settle. Set healthy goals and follow them. Let your behavior speak the love and passion in your heart. Live life to the fullest... make each day worth remembering... Dream BIG & dare to go for it... Be unapologetically you! — Steve Maraboli

Goals are to be set clear without frills. Do not be deterred and take reality as it is, not as it should be. — Jacob Gelt Dekker

If we are to achieve long-range goals, we must learn to set up and accomplish short-range goals that will move us along the way. If we do not consciously select our goals, we may be controlled by goals not of our own choosing - goals imposed by outside pressures (such as the expectations of others) or by our habits (such as procrastination) or by our desire for the approval of the world. — Ezra Taft Benson

A person should set his goals as early as he can and devote all his energy and talent to getting there. With enough effort, he may achieve it. Or he may find something that is even more rewarding. But in the end, no matter what the outcome, he will know he has been alive. — Walt Disney Company

If you're trying to be miserable, it's important you don't have any goals. No school goals, personal goals, family goals. Your only objective each day should be to inhale and exhale for sixteen hours before you go to bed again. Don't read anything informative, don't listen to anything useful, don't do anything productive. If you start achieving goals, you might start to feel a sense of excitement, then you might want to set another goal, and then your miserable mornings are through. To maintain your misery, the idea of crossing off your goals should never cross your mind. — John Bytheway

Good leaders set vision, missions, and goals. Great leaders inspire every follower at every level to internalize their purpose, and to understand that their purpose goes far beyond the mere details of their job. When everyone is united in purpose, a positive purpose that serves not only the organization but also, hopefully, the world beyond it, you have a winning team. — Colin Powell

P R E S I D E N T Y O S H I D A'S T E N S P A R T A N R UlE S Hideo Yoshida's quest for management excellence was no doubt driven by his visions for Japanese marketing and media, but also by an overall worry about Japan's economic prospects after World War II. As a result, he developed a set of business and work principles, or rules, which he called the "Ten Spartan Rules": difficult work.5. Once you begin a task, complete it. Never give up.6. Lead and set an example for your fellow workers.7. Set goals for yourself to ensure a constant sense of purpose.8. Move with confidence. It gives your work force and substance.9. At all times, challenge yourself to think creatively and find new solutions.10. When confrontation is necessary, don't shy away from it. Confrontation is often necessary to achieve progress. These traditional work rules still guide Dentsu's employees, and are carried around in their notebooks — Anonymous

Set goals so big that unless God helps you, you will be a miserable failure. — Bill Bright

I learned how to believe in myself. Learned how to set goals, you know, self help books man. I just read every single one I can get a hold of, and I still do. — Drew Carey

Trying is not enough. We have to go out and set goals and measure definitive progress so that four years from now we are in a better position to add new voters to our base of support. — Kevin Madden

Once you set goals that really matter to you, you are no longer the same person. Real goals will affect almost everything you do all day long. And they will be with you wherever you go. Your handshake, your manner of dressing, the tone of your voice, the way you feel - all will change once you have goals. That's because when your goals matter, everything you do becomes related to their accomplishment. — Jim Rohn

The specific goals we set for ourselves are almost always subsidiary to our long range intentions. A good parent, a good neighbour, a good citizen, is not good because his specific goals are acceptable, but because his successive goals are ordered to a dependable and socially desirable set of values. (1947) — Gordon Allport

I believe we are most likely to succeed when ambition is focused on noble and worthy purposes and outcomes rather than on goals set out of selfishness. — John Wooden

Good-to-great companies set their goals and strategies based on understanding; comparison companies set their goals and strategies based on bravado. — James C. Collins

You set your goals to a point where they're attainable, but far enough away that you have to really go get them. And every year I push my goals a little bit farther away, and every year I work a little bit harder to get them. — Rafael Palmeiro

It's not enough to dream. It's not enough to try. It's not enough to set goals or climb ladders. It's not enough to value. The effort has to be based on practical realities that produce the result. Only then can we dream, set goals, and work to achieve them with confidence. — Stephen R. Covey

I like to think I set aspirational but reasonable goals and encourage my team to achieve them. — Sheri McCoy

I've always been a player that likes to get round the back and get crosses in for other people. When I first burst on to the scene some people only saw the goals I was scoring. More recently they've taken notice of the goals I've set up. It is nice to be recognized for that. — Michael Owen

Looking back, if I had to live my life over, there are things I would do differently, but the one thing I would not change is my charitable giving. I'm particularly thankful for my father's advice to set goals so high that they can't possibly be achieved during a lifetime and to give help where help is needed most. That inspiration keeps me energized and eager to keep working hard every day on giving back and making the world a better place for generations to come. — Ted Turner

If you're a chronic procrastinator, I would highly suggest you only focus on one thing. It's much better to finish the year achieving only one goal. Then to set three goals and achieve none because you procrastinated on all of them. — Alex Altman

No, he wasn't a Jain, thought the Swede, but he might as well have been - he was just as pathetically and naively nonviolent. The idiocy of the uprightness of the goals he had set. — Philip Roth

I set goals, but they're mostly very personal goals. I never try and set a goal where 'I want to win this,' or 'I want to do this,' where other people can affect what I do. If I want to swim a new best time, I sit down and work out the best way of doing that. Whether I can shave a few tenths of a second off a turn or the start, my goal is putting them all together in a race. That's the way I set my goals. — Liam Tancock

In the end I have to hold myself accountable ... I had to make a change if I really wanted to reach the goals I had set for myself. I had to get out of being comfortable and get into a situation that was going to really push me. — Kara Goucher

Th e average person spends much of his or her lifetime building
financial security, but it can be lost, never to be regained. That's
why you need to carefully assess your definition of financial
security and make sure it is realistic for the goals that you have
set. You can take the necessary steps to put that plan in place,
and never lose that financial security, and to pass on your values
and assets to the coming generations. — Christopher K. Abts

I lived the true American dream, because I was able to pursue what I set as my goals at a very young age. — Mario Andretti

Our Father, who has set a restlessness in our hearts and made us all seekers after that which we can never fully find, forbid us to be satisfied with what we make of life. Draw us from base content and set our eyes on far-off goals. Keep us at tasks too hard for us that we may be driven to Thee for strength. Deliver us from fretfulness and self-pitying; make us sure of the good we cannot see and of the hidden good in the world. Open our eyes to simple beauty all around us and our hearts to the loveliness men hide from us because we do not try to understand them. Save us from ourselves and show us a vision of a world made new. — Eleanor Roosevelt

Anarchism is no patent solution for all human problems, no Utopia of a perfect social order, as it has often been called, since on principle it rejects all absolute schemes and concepts. It does not believe in any absolute truth, or in definite final goals for human development, but in an unlimited perfectibility of social arrangements and human conditions which are always straining after higher forms of expression, and to which for this reason one can assign no definite terminus nor set any fixed goal. — Rudolf Rocker

If you do not get the chills when you set your goal you're not setting big enough goals. — Bob Proctor

Nature designed with a random set of genes and circumstances in which we were born. To be happy, we have to accept it and make the most of nature's design. Are you? Goals will help you do that. I must add, don't just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful. Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order. — Chetan Bhagat

I don't set a whole lot of goals. It smacks a little bit of will to me, and I find that will is not the way to go for me. — Michael J. Fox

Do not envy the success of any person. But set your goal on a successful guy. Then this will make you succeed. — Fahim Khan

I cried because there are those of them who are just as intelligent as Ricky Wasserman or Arnie Greenwald or Yael Berg and just because of circumstance, they turn out so horribly. They see the young and affluent, they see their cars and their vacations and their fancy clothes, and they set their hearts on obtaining objects of material wealth. The young and rich already have these things, so they are free to devote their energies to developing their minds or having good, clean fun, or anything they want, really. And they are able to set their goals on spiritual fulfillment because they have everything they need otherwise. It's just not fair. — Phoebe Gloeckner

For the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East. — Barack Obama

Set the kind of goals that will make something of you to achieve them. — Jim Rohn

Second, I try to set more personal goals for learning new skills in the next eighteen months. — Sheryl Sandberg

These examples, and those that surround us every day, are why creational thinking, not critical thinking, should be our ultimate goal in education. Critical thinking is a skill that allows us to steer a valuable course through a known problem. It engages a problem-solving skill set but stops short of what is possible. If problem solving and critical thinking are the goals of education, the bar is too low. Creational thinking, the use of content while branching into the unknown, leads to the possibility of truly elegant solutions. That is where the bar needs to be, particularly in light of the challenges that lie ahead for us. — Grant Lichtman

Self-belief, also called self-efficacy, is the kind of feeling you have when you have, like a Jedi, mastered a particular kind of skill and with its help have been able to achieve your set goals. — Stephen Richards

The Millennium Development Goals were a pledge to uphold the principles of human dignity, equality and equity, and free the world from extreme poverty. The MDGs, with eight goals and a set of measurable time-bound targets, established a blueprint for tackling the most pressing development challenges of our time. — Ban Ki-moon

An important part of any focusing regimen is to set aside time at the end of the day - just before going to sleep - to acknowledge your successes, review your goals, focus on your successful future, and make specific plans for what you want to accomplish the next day. — Jack Canfield

What Fred Lebow went through was an inspiration for me. You have to set goals for yourself. — Grete Waitz

Set reasonable goals; not something vague and unrealistic like "I want to be super-model skinny." I always had visions of very thin actresses in my mind when I was at the gym and it seemed so unattainable that I would quit any health regimen before it even got off the ground. But when I changed my mindset to focusing on making the healthiest choices possible for myself, it was a lot more realistic, more attainable, and then the results were visible. — Alison Sweeney

Set your sights so high that even failure has in it an echo of glory. — Anonymous

Those who don't set goals in life end up being controlled by those who do. — Paul Sloane

The 3-minute mile goal is to teach runners that the impossible is where goals should be set. — Gerry Lindgren

This Creative Mechanism within you is impersonal. It will work automatically and impersonally to achieve goals of success and happiness, or unhappiness and failure, depending upon the goals which you yourself set for it. Present it with success goals and it functions as a Success Mechanism. Present it with negative goals, and it operates just as impersonally, and just as faithfully as a Failure Mechanism. — Maxwell Maltz

You can achieve your set-goals by God's grace — Lailah Gifty Akita

Resolutions: So many will fail; NOT because they didn't set goals, but because they didn't set behaviors. — Steve Maraboli

The key to life is to set goals and go after those goals, don't hold anything back. — Benson Henderson

Being obsessed by goals is bad for you. You should set goals, even ambitious goals, regularly. But focus on them only to the extent that they give you direction. — Srikumar Rao

Always do your best in whatever you do;
set goals and seek challenges;
become a role model for those coming behind you; and
always have God in your heart. — Charles F. Bolden

But having set myself these goals, I had to work really hard to achieve them. — Imran Khan

If people would forget about utopia! When rationalism destroyed heaven and decided to set it up here on earth, that most terrible of all goals entered human ambition. It was clear there'd be no end to what people would be made to suffer for it. — Nadine Gordimer

Summary of the Rich Habits Promises: I WILL form good daily habits and follow these good daily habits each and every day. I WILL set goals for each day, for each month, for each year and for the long-term; I WILL focus on my goals each and every day. I WILL engage in self-improvement each and every day. I WILL devote part of each and every day in caring for my health. I WILL devote part of each and every day to forming lifelong relationships. I WILL live each and every day in a state of moderation. I WILL accomplish my daily tasks each and every day; I will adopt a "DO IT NOW" mindset. I WILL engage in rich thinking each and every day. I WILL save ten percent of my gross income every paycheck. I WILL control my thoughts and emotions each and every day. — Thomas C. Corley

All this, sadly enough, is truer of the more educated, higher-income, professional families. It is here that the competition is the greatest, the expectations most elevated. If the boy would be happier as a telephone linesman or a forest ranger, he is in a hopeless bind. His goals have been set for him by his milieu, and he cannot be his own man; so he simply refuses to play the game. He does not try. — Sydney J. Harris

It is a tricky business to know when you should set goals and objectives in order to achieve a focus, and when you would be better off dealing with the acceptance and management of your current reality so you can later step into new directions and responsibilities with greater stability and clarity. Only you will know the answer to that, and only in the moment. — David Allen