Goals are intentions that are fulfilling and rewarding. If done right, goal setting can motivate you to take massive action and to grow. They are driven by plans, dreams and desires, fuelled by discipline and maintained through commitment.
Here are the greatest quotes on goals, from some of the most inspirational people in history including Napoleon Hill, Edmund Hillary, Eleanor Roosevelt, Richard Branson and Albert Einstein.
- “Set your goals, write them down. Now you are one step closer to achieving them.” – Richard Branson
- “By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands — your own.” – Mark Victor Hansen
- “Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer to your goal. .” – Elbert Hubbard
- “Purpose is what gives life a meaning.” – C. H. Parkhurst
- “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney Company
- “If something is what you really want to do, just do it. Whatever your goal is you will never succeed unless you let go of your fears and fly.” – Richard Branson
- “When you know what you want and you want it bad enough, you’ll find a way to get it.” – Jim Rohn
- “One part at a time, one day at a time, we can accomplish any goal we set for ourselves.” – Karen Casey
- “You can’t hit a home run unless you step up to the plate. You can’t catch a fish unless you put your line in the water. You can’t reach your goals if you don’t try.” – Kathy Seligman
- “You don’t have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things – to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals.” – Edmund Hillary
- “A goal is a dream with a deadline.” – Napoleon Hill
- “To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.” – Bertrand Russell
- “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
- “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it.” – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
- “Your goal should be just out of reach, but not out of sight.” – Denis Waitley and Remi Witt
- “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” – Yogi Berra
- “If you’re bored with life, you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things, you don’t have enough goals.” – Lou Holtz
- “You can conquer almost any fear if you will make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn’t exist anywhere except in the mind.” – Dale Carnegie
- “Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.” – Fitzhugh Dodson
- “A year from now you may wish you had started today.” – Karen Lamb
- “We do not develop anything with one giant step. No matter who you are, or what you do, each one of us had had to take a lot of individual steps to accomplish a task, a job, a career, or even a hobby.” – Catherine Pulsifer
- “Do not wait; the time will never be ‘just right.’ Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.” – Napoleon Hill
- “When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.” – Napoleon Hill
- “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden
- Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” – Jim Rohn
- “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” – Will Rodgers
- “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.” – Abraham Lincoln
- “Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” – Tony Robbins
- “No matter how carefully you plan your goals they will never be more than pipe dreams unless you pursue them with gusto.” – W. Clement Stone
- “To me, business isn’t about wearing suits or pleasing stockholders. It’s about being true to yourself, your ideas and focusing on the essentials.” – Richard Branson
- “Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: now.” – Denis Waitley
- “I believe in goals. It’s never a bad thing to have a dream, but I’m practical about it. I don’t sit daydreaming about things that are impossible. I set goals and then work out how to achieve them. Anything I want to do in life I want to do well and not half-heartedly.” – Richard Branson
- “If you are not making the progress that you would like to make and are capable of making, it is simply because your goals are not clearly defined.” – Paul J. Meyer
- “Everyone needs something to aim for. You can call it a challenge, or you can call it a goal. It is what makes us human. It was challenges that took us from being cavemen to reaching for the stars.” – Richard Branson
- “One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals.” – Michael Korda
- “If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.” – Albert Einstein
- “You cannot expect to achieve new goals or move beyond your present circumstances unless you change.” – Les Brown
- “Begin with the end in mind.” – Stephen Covey
- “Begin somewhere. You cannot build a reputation on what you intend to do.” – Liz Smith
- “A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself. He makes his failures certain by himself being the first person to be convinced of it.” – Alexandre Dumas
- “Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success.” – David Joseph Schwartz
- “Life can be pulled by goals just as surely as it can be pushed by drives.” – Viktor E. Frankl
- “Make each day count by setting specific goals to succeed, then putting forth every effort to exceed your own expectations.” – Les Brown
- “Recast your current problems into proactive goals.” – Suze Orman
- “If what you are doing is not moving you towards your goals, then it’s moving you away from your goals.” – Brian Tracy
- “Success is about enjoying what you have and where you are, while pursuing achievable goals.” – Bo Bennett
- “If you are not making the progress that you would like to make and are capable of making, it is simply because your goals are not clearly defined.” – Paul J. Meyer
- “To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.” – Anatole France
- “The reason most goals are not achieved is that we spend our time doing second things first.” – Robert J. McKain
- “A goal without an action plan is a daydream.” – Nathaniel Branden
- “When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reach, don’t adjust the goals; adjust the action steps.” – Confucius
- “You control your future, your destiny. What you think about comes about. By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands – your own.” – Mark Victor Hansen
- “Goals provide the energy source that powers our lives. One of the best ways we can get the most from the energy we have is to focus it. That is what goals can do for us; concentrate our energy.” – Denis Waitley
- “A good system shortens the road to the goal.” – Orison Swett Marden
- “Objectives are not fate; they are direction. They are not commands; they are commitments. They do not determine the future; they are means to mobilize the resources and energies of the business for the making of the future.” – Peter Drucker
- “If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.” – Andrew Carnegie
- “It isn’t where you come from, it’s where you’re going that counts.” – Ella Fitzgerald
- “It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly. Do not mistake activity for achievement.” – Mabel Newcomber
- “Our ideals resemble the stars, which illuminate the night. No one will ever be able to touch them. But the men who, like the sailors on the ocean, take them for guides, will undoubtedly reach their goal.” – Carl Schurz
- “It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.” – Ursula K. Le Guin
- “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” – Henry David Thoreau
- “Great minds have purposes, others have wishes.” – Washington Irving
- “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” – Jimmy Dean
- “You must have long term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short term failures.” – Charles C. Noble
- “You’ll fail at a 100% of the goals you don’t set.” – Mark Victor Hansen
- “Your goals are the road maps that guide you and show you what is possible for your life.” – Les Brown
- “Goals provide the energy source that powers our lives. One of the best ways we can get the most from the energy we have is to focus it. That is what goals can do for us; concentrate our energy.” – Denis Waitley
- “A good goal should SCARE you a little and EXCITE you a lot.” – Joe Vitale
When it comes to success, you need to be patient, consistent and work hard to move ahead. Taking the necessary steps to achieve your goals takes a lot of willpower, dedication, perseverance, and emotional and mental strength. No one is perfect, and you will have days where you just don’t do what you set out to. Reassess the situation and keep moving forward step by step toward your goal.
