If you want to reach that image floating around in your head of your super-fly, organized, well-rested healthy self, you need goals. Writing down a couple of sentences can be the difference between day-dream and reality. In fact, people who take the time to write their goals down on paper are 5 to 10 more times likely to succeed in reaching them.

Think of your health and wellness goals as an extension of your new-moon intention setting ritual. Journaling your intentions at each new moon helps give your deepest desires a moment of reality. Setting goals for yourself around your health & wellness is no different. But understanding the value behind setting goals or intentions can be the defining factor in truly embracing a goal setting practice.

Here are five added values of goal setting:

1) IMPROVE FOCUS
Setting goals channels your energy and triggers your behaviors. The sense of direction helps you laser in your focus instead of working aimlessly and wasting time and energy.

For example, when you set a monetary goal for work you go in focused to reach it. You may even start breaking it down into mini-goals on how to achieve the larger goal you set. Selling x dances or trying to make x amount of dollars each hour. When you feel yourself get frustrated or pulled off course, bringing your thoughts back to your goal can redirect your energy and help you focus back on the present moment instead of getting lost in negative thoughts. 

2) INCREASE MOTIVATION
Without goals, there’s no endpoint or deadline to work towards, which makes putting everything off until tomorrow that much easier.   Having goals encourages you to take action, they give you something to plan and work towards. Like making it to flex class every week so you can finally get your splits or peeling your butt out of that comfy chair and approaching a customer so you can make that money goal you set for yourself.

3) HELP YOU AVOID “SHINY OBJECT SYNDROME”
Since you’ve already been distracted no less than 5 times since starting to read this post, I know I don’t need to explain what shiny object syndrome is. But how does it apply to goals? Setting goals helps keep you from jumping from one “shiny object” to the next based on what feels the most exciting at the moment. If you’re continually hopping from one dance class to the next, you’ll never master any of the moves.

You’re better prepared to avoid distractions when you have set goals in place.

4) HELP YOU TO THINK BIGGER
The simple act of sitting down to write out your goals forces you to think about what you want in your life. Instead of simply waking up every day and going through the motions, goals give you tangible things to work towards. 

What level of success do you want? What does that look like? What does your dream home look like? What does healthy look like to you?

5) PROVIDE A WAY TO TRACK PROGRESS
It can be easy to be discouraged if you feel like you haven’t “arrived” where you want to be. But, by having set goals in place, you’ll be able to see you’ve made steps in the right direction and are better off than where you started.

For example, taking photos of your splits will show you really are getting closer to the floor or taking a moment mid-shift to count your money to see how well you’ve done at reaching that money goal for the night. Once you’ve seen progress toward a goal, you’ll want to keep riding the energy high.

Remember, your goals should be energizing and meaningful. They should help you connect to your deeper self and create a vision for your life. A few sentences written down can mean the difference between dream and reality. So grab your journal and write out a few goals.