50 of the World's Best Quotes to Inspire Goal Setting

What’s one thing you can do to greatly increase your odds of success in business?

Having clear, specific, and written goals! That’s right, research has shown that you are 42% more likely to achieve your goals and dreams simply by writing them down. Business goal setting is important because it turns aspirations into tangible objects which require commitment and action. Goals also help keep us focused and on track. The act and practice of goal setting allows an entrepreneur to set the course for the business that is in alignment with the vision and values intended for the company.

Here are some quotes to inspire your goal making process:

1. “Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” ~ Tony Robbins

2. “A goal should scare you a little, and excite you A LOT.” ~ Joe Vitale

3. “A goal properly set is halfway reached.” ~ Zig Ziglar

4. “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” ~ Jim Rohn

5. “To sit back and let fate play its hand out and never influence it is not the way man was meant to operate.” ~ John Glenn

6. “A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.” ~ Bruce Lee

7. “Envision, create, and believe in your own universe, and the universe will form around you.” ~ Tony Hsieh

8. “Goals allow you to control the direction of change in your favor.” ~ Brian Tracy

9. “If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.” ~ Albert Einstein

10. “Goals transform a random walk into a chase.” ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

11. “People are not lazy. They simply have impotent goals – that is, goals that do not inspire them.” ~Tony Robbins

12. “To live a fulfilled life, we need to keep creating the “what is next”, of our lives. Without dreams and goals there is no living, only merely existing, and that is not why we are here.” ~ Mark Twain

13. “Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” ~ Pablo Picasso

14. “A goal without a timeline is just a dream.” ~ Robert Herjavec

15. “All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which seemed impossible.” ~ Orison Sweet Marden

16. “The greater danger for most of us isn’t that our aim is too high and miss it, but that it is too low if we reach it.” ~ Michelangelo

17. “You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.” ~ Jim Rohn

18. “It’s better to be at the bottom of the ladder you want to climb than at the top of the one you don’t.” ~ Stephen Kellog

19. “You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.” ~ Maya Angelou

20. “If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us.” ~ Jim Rohn

21. “This one step – choosing a goal and sticking to it – changes everything.” ~ Scott Reed

22. “I think goals should never be easy, they should force you to work, even if they are uncomfortable at the time.” ~ Michael Phelps

23. “Some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all — in which case, you fail by default.” – J.K. Rowling

24. “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” ~ Nelson Mandela

25. “Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I’ll give you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals and I’ll give you a stock clerk.” ~ J.C. Penney

26. “If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it.” ~ Elon Musk

27. “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” ~ Henry Ford

28. “Instead of looking at the past, I put myself ahead twenty years and try to look at what I need to do now in order to get there then.” ~ Diana Ross

29. “A person should set his goals as early as he can and devote all his energy and talent to getting there. With enough effort, he may achieve it. Or he may find something that is even more rewarding. But in the end, no matter what the outcome, he will know he has been alive.” ~ Walt Disney

30. “Be practical as well as generous in your ideals. Keep your eyes on the stars, but remember to keep your feet on the ground.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

31. “I don’t focus on what I’m up against. I focus on my goals and I try to ignore the rest.” ~Venus Williams

32. “You don’t learn to walk by following the rules. You learn by doing, and falling over.” ~ Richard Branson

33. “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” ~Zig Ziglar

34. “Intention without action is an insult to those who expect the best from you.” ~ Andy Andrews

35. “The only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.” ~ Michelle Obama

36. “One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals.” ~Michael Korda

37. “Success is steady progress toward one’s personal goals.” ~ Jim Rohn

38. “We hold ourselves back in ways both big and small, by lacking self-confidence, by not raising our hands, and by pulling back when we should be leaning in.” ~ Sheryl Sandberg

39. “The new year stands before us, like the chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals.” ~ Melody Beattie

40. “The question I ask myself like almost every day is, ‘Am I doing the most important thing I could be doing?’” ~ Mark Zuckerberg

41. “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

42. “Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it.” ~ Oprah Winfrey

43. “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” ~ Jim Rohn

44. “Life is short, fragile and does not wait for anyone. There will NEVER be a perfect time to pursue your dreams and goals. ” ~ Unknown

45. “If you raise your standards but don’t really believe you can meet them, you’ve already sabotaged yourself. You won’t even try; you’ll be lacking the sense of certainty that allows you to tap the deepest capacity that’s within you… Our beliefs are like unquestioned commands, telling us how things are, what’s possible and impossible and what we can and can not do. They shape every action, every thought and every feeling that we experience. As a result, changing our belief systems is central to making any real and lasting change in our lives.” ~ Anthony Robbins

46. “I fear failure, but I won’t let it stop me. Sometimes you just got to do it or else it just doesn’t happen.” – Mark Cuban

47. “I am here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow into a mountain, not to shrink to a grain of sand. Henceforth will I apply all my efforts to become the highest mountain of all and I will strain my potential until it cries for mercy.” ~ Og Mandino

48. “Successful people maintain a positive focus in life no matter what is going on around them. They stay focused on their past successes rather than their past failures, and on the next action steps they need to take to get them closer to the fulfillment of their goals rather than all the other distractions that life presents to them.” ~ Jack Canfield

49. “My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose – somehow we always win out.” ~ Ronald Reagan

50. “The harder you work for something, the greater you’ll feel when you achieve it.” ~ Unknown