It is not difficult to get trapped by economic necessity and settle for existence rather than substance. We all have a choice. We can either make a living or design a life. We are all affected by five factors.
- Environment
- Events
- Knowledge
- Results
- Our view of the future our dreams
Of all these five influences make sure your dreams are the greatest influence on your daily decisions and activities. Put another way; make sure that the greatest pull on you is the pull of the future. For your dreams to greatly influence you, or the future to pull you, your future must be well-planned.
There are two ways to face the future. One is with apprehension the other with anticipation. Majority of people face the future with apprehension? Why? They don’t have it well-designed. And without really thinking about it, they have probably bought someone else’s view of how to live. You will face the future with anticipation when you have planned a future you can get excited about. When you have designed your future results in advance, in this way, the future will capture your imagination. It will exert an enormous influence on you. And to design your future you must have goals.
Well-defined goals are like a magnet. They pull you in their direction and the better you have defined them, the better you have described them, the harder you work on them, the stronger they pull. And they pull you through all kinds of difficulties too. Without goals, it is easy to let life deteriorate to the point where you are just making a living. It is not difficult to get trapped by economic necessity and settle for existence rather than substance. We all have a choice. We can either make a living or design a life.
Goals are major to a genuinely success-oriented person without them you are just playing around. The difference between a goal-directed individual and someone without goals is like the difference between a Wimbledon champion and a kid batting a tennis ball around on a court with no net, no opponent to bring out the best in him and no way of keeping score. Surprisingly, despite everything that has been written about the importance of goal setting, very few people actually put it into practice.
Now we are going to take some time to actually start designing the next 10 years of your life. We are going to start setting your goals. Goal setting is one of the most important skills to develop, if you want to design your future. I am going to give you enough homework not only to keep you busy for the rest of your life, but also to help you create the kind of life you may have always dreamed about living, but never believed possible. So let’s get on with it. The sooner you exert the discipline, the sooner you will be enjoying the results. Once the results start to come believe me, you won’t mind the hard work and discipline it’s going to take.
Now, get a sheet of paper and at the top of it write the words Long-range goals. I am going to ask you some questions and I want you to jot down the answers. If you don’t have paper and pen handy, follow along with me now just read. Then later read again when you can write down your ideas. After I have asked the questions, which is the first part of this exercise. You can stop reading and work on your answers. All right, let’s start this exercise. The basic question you are going to answer is:
What do I want within the next one to ten years?
I want you to take about 12 to 15 minutes and make a list of at least 50 things you want. Within the next one to ten years. These are Long range goals. To help you get started with your list, consider these questions.
- What do I want to do?
- What do I want to see?
- What do I want to be?
- What do I want to have?
- Where do I want to go?
- And what would I like to share?
Now with these thoughts starter questions in mind, Answer the basic question. What do I want within the next one to ten years? See how many things you can write down. At this point don’t take the time to describe in detail everything you want. This is the time for you to let your thoughts pour, to write fast and to abbreviate. For example, if you just write down Great wall, you will know what that means. You don’t have to describe the colour and the interior of the car. You will do that later in this exercise. I want you now just to abbreviate and write fast Make the list as long as you possibly can. Try to write down at least 50 items 50 things you want within the next one to ten years. These are long-range goals. Spend about 12 to 15 minutes on this.
After you have completed your list, you are ready for the next part of the exercise. Go through your list and next to the things you think you can accomplish or acquire a year from now write a number 1. Next to the things you think it will take three years to realize write a 3. Next to the things it will take five years to accomplish right a 5. And next to the things it will take ten years to accomplish write a 10. Go through this list now to the best of your ability and say: That looks like it will take me about a year or three years or five years or ten years. Some big goals might be out there ten years from now. Once you complete this part of the exercise you might come to the conclusion that you need a lot more three-year goals and less one-year goals, for example. Or that you need more ten-year goals.
You see while you are working on one goal you must have something else in the planning stages. If you don’t, what happened to some of the early Apollo astronauts could happen to you? After they came back from the moon, some of those astronauts experienced deep psychological and emotional problems. And the reason for that was after you have been to the moon, now where do you go? That seemed to be the end, the finish. What later astronauts did was to make sure that they had major projects lined up after they returned from the moon trip. The way you enjoy life best is to wrap up one goal and start right on the next one. Don’t linger too long at the table of success. The only way to enjoy another meal is to get hungry.
Another thing to check for on your list is that you have included goals for each of these three important categories.
Economic Goals – First, make sure you have listed your economic goals, such as your goals for income, profits and productivity.
Personal Acquisition Goals – Second, make certain your list includes material items you want, tangibles, such as a home, a car, a boat, furniture, or jewellery. Don’t attach the wrong importance to things, but they are important.
Personal Development Goals – Third, you will want to include on your list goals for personal development. Write down all your personal development goals such as your goals to be more physically fit, to lose weight, to be more decisive, to be a more effective leader, to improve in your academics, to be a better communicator, to learn another language among others.
Of course, there are other types of goals to consider. Family goals, social goals, lifestyle goals, and you can add to this list. This is pretty heavy homework. But remember, whether or not you do your homework it shows up in the marketplace as well as in the classroom. And after you have determined which of your goals are one year, three-year, five-year, and ten-year. After you have made certain your list includes economic goals, things and personal development goals, I want you to go back to this list again. Now pick out the four most important One-year goals, the four most important three-year goals, the four most important five-year goals and the four most important ten-year goals. Those 16 goals will give you plenty of work for now.
Get out some more paper and in a brief paragraph describe each goal. How high, how long, how much, what size, what model, what colour for example? Also describe why it is important to you. This is a process where you either talk yourself into it or talk yourself out of it, which is good. When you are unclear as to why something is important, usually you put only half-hearted effort into it. What you want is a powerful motivator. But the reason why you want it is an even more powerful motivator. It has greater pull. You may find that some of your goals you thought at first glance were important are not important after all. Do some reflecting, refining and revising. The point is right now; try to have approximately four one-year, three-year, five-year and ten-year goals that you truly believe in, that inspire you, which you have sold yourself on.
When these goals and the reasons you want to obtain them are each clearly described in a brief paragraph, transfer this information to a journal or some type of notebook that you can carry with you easily and refer to often. It is essential to set aside some time every week to review all of your goals, to rearrange them, redo them restructure them, to add goals, or to tear up the whole list and start over. Goal setting is not something you do just once. It is a continual process. Also, you must constantly check your progress toward your goals. You don’t want to fall too far behind on, or worse, lose sight of your important goals.
Now just as important as your long-range goals, your short-range goals are also important, your goals for tomorrow, next week, next month, six months from now. These are goals you can accomplish within the next year, the immediate future. We call these goals confidence builders. When you work hard, burn the midnight oil and accomplish these little things, it builds your confidence to go for your long-range goals. Write down in your notebook or journal all the little things you would like to have or accomplish in the next year. How you set up this list is up to you. You might want to break it down by week or by month. Set it up in whatever way works well for you. Part of the fun of having a list is being able to check off something as obtained or completed. Every week try to check off at least one thing on your list of short-term goals. And when you are able to check off something major, something on your list of long-range goals, celebrate! Make winning joyful! Congratulate yourself. It is very important to celebrate progress.
We grow from two experiences. One is the joy of winning and the other is the pain of losing. Here is what that also means, make losing painful. Put it on yourself. If you set something up, fool around, didn’t pull it off, put it on yourself. And get around people who will help in this area. Hey, don’t join an easy crowd. Go where the expectations are high, where the pressure to perform is high. It’s how we grow. Here is a most important question to spend some time answering. What kind of person will I have to become to get all I want? Write down a few thoughts on that. Write down some skills you will have to develop for example. And some of the things you are going to have to learn. Just spend a little time writing a few sentences on this. What kind of person will I have to become to get all I want? The answer to this will give you some personal development goals.
Remember that income does not far exceed personal development. All of us have to do this kind of self-examination. I have to look at my own life and say, well here is what I want. But am I willing to become what it takes to get what I want? If I am too lazy, if I don’t want to learn, read, study, and grow to become that kind of person. Then I cannot attract what I want. Now either I have to change my wants or I have to change myself.
Welcome to 2021 and Happy New Year!
