Goals must be realistic, but at the same time difficult. Challenging goals provide more motivation and force athletes to strive better and release more effort, making them stronger and more determined, traits that would really be advantageous in the long run. Goals must be achievable in the long term or in the short term. The process of personal goal setting in itself is powerful enough that if you're going through with the process you might think that your life's meaning or purpose had been found. But it is not. The euphoria is only a result of your self finally realizing that you're on the right track. For some, the process itself is motivating. The goal setting activity is the time when one s self is evaluated and assessed. That is why one importance of goal setting is that it provides a venue for one to know himself or herself better. By knowing oneself better, and humbly admitting shortcomings and realizing talents and skills, one can estimate his or her own capability or capacity, which, in the long run, would be helpful in other and various aspects of life. Some Simple Guidelines for Effective Setting of Goals They say that the best opportunities offered to you in life are the very same opportunities you create. Physics law of inertia states that without a force or action imposed on an object, no motion or movement can take place. The same is true with your life. Don't harbor goals that are too big. But hey, this will limit your creativity right from the start. It's true that you must have a list of your goals but it doesn't mean that this couldn't be changed. Even the U.S. Constitution has its amendments. On this note, its good to touch on a little of this much abused set-realistic-goals mantra. This step-by-step procedure is to be broken down further into smaller steps, so that monitoring the progress of the minute detail plan is possible almost on a daily basis. With each step, a set of performance or actions to be taken should be put in place. These steps or actions are needed to be assessed, updated and once in while revised.