If you are setting a goal you determine what you need to do to accomplish the future you that you want to become. Having goals allow you to focus your mind on everything that needs to be done.
When you have a goal you grow towards it. The problem is what happens when you achieve your goal. For example you may plan on getting rid of some extra bodyweight. If you have lost the desired weight it’s tempting to get back into your normal life. But what will happen to the success you achieved? The lost weight will go back up again. Instead of solely focussing on the goal determine what type of person you want to become. Don’t aim for that certain weight on the scale but become a healthy person and maintain it.
Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another. – John Dewey
There is two ways that completing a goal will not decrease your future gains. The first one is the most difficult and that is whenever you achieve a goal you set a follow-up goal for you to continue your path of success. If you don’t set a new goal you will fall back and lose the progress you had. Manage to set new goals and you allow yourself to adjust where you want to end up by adjusting what goal you aim for. An example is your goal could be to pay off your debt, the next one is to buy your home and after that you are saving for getting your children to school and then to have enough to retire.
The second way to set your goal is by setting a goal that you can constantly work on and will never finish. For example you want to become and stay an athlete, by being healthy. Instead of just striving for a certain goal you are becoming the person that accomplishes the goals that you would normally set for yourself. At the same time you will not constantly have to change and set new goals. You just stick with your main goal and don’t have to change anything. An example that doesn’t fall under this is the desire to read 10 books in a year. You would have to change afterwards. Instead decide to read 10 pages every day. This will slowly get you into the habit of reading more without feeling the need to set a new goal. Slowly you might be reading 20 pages a day, but your goal can remain the same.
In the end it doesn’t matter how you set your goal, it’s important you don’t focus on a certain goal without thinking of what to do afterwards.