What do we mean by a 'goal'? It seems that these things are important, yet, so few people have them and some have been woefully misled by the term. Everyone at some point in their life has heard that it is important for us to have goals. Goals provide you a map to your future, whether in business, life, career or indeed sport. It seems obvious, but a football team playing without a goal to aim for is just kicking a ball around. But, other than the more obvious physical goals as the target of a particular game, what exactly is a goal? And how do you know when you have achieved it? Is it even very important to have goals? A sporting goal is a useful analogy though, here we are more interested in the non-sporting variety. The OED definition of a goal is "an aim or a desired result". That's useful, but I prefer the Wikipedia version which defines a goal as "a specific, intended result of strategy." They amount, ultimately to the same thing: the intended achievement of a desired result. The dictionary definition, however, suggests that the goal exists with or without you.
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