Tired but happy asked whether she really has to declare her goals for 2007. Last week, I wrote about goals for 2007 in three parts: Share Your Goals, The Basics, and Flexo’s 2007 Goals) and inspired those already thinking about their goals to share the details online and possibly those who weren’t thinking about goals to give it some thought.
But you shouldn’t just set goals because some personal finance blogger is encouraging it. Personally, I’m incredibly sloppy with my goals. I don’t have specific long term goals because more time (between now and the future point at which I’ll measure progress against hypothetical goals) introduces many more uncontrollable variables. The idea of setting goals is very popular among motivational speakers and productivity gurus because the activity helps people become more focused and therefore more worthwhile to big corporations that employ them.
Setting goals is not necessary at all. If thinking about a target isn’t right for you, then there’s no reason to spend time on an activity that won’t pay off.
Updated December 20, 2011 and originally published January 3, 2007. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
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Luke Landes founded Consumerism Commentary in 2003 and has been building online communities since 1990. Luke, also known as Flexo, has contributed to PC World Magazine, US News, Forbes, and other publications. 
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Hi, Flexo.
Thanks for the link, and for the permission to slack off on the whole goal-setting thing.
Really I feel I should set goals because it seems a useful sort of excercise. And it will be fun to look back on the year 2007 and see if I made my goals. So I suppose I’m glad I did it.
TBH