“The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them.” – Og Mandino
Og Mandino has written some great books …… The Greatest Salesman in the World (part 1 and 2), Secrets for Success and Happiness,just to name a few of my favorites.
Do you set goals on a daily, weekly or monthly, yearly basis? Do your goals stretch you?
I am sure you have heard the acronym of SMART goals. If you haven’t, or haven’t thought about it lately, SMART goals are:
Specific
Measureable
Attainable
Realistic
Timeframe established
Do you set goals for yourself? Do you set base goals and stretch goals? Sometimes you might even want to establish big audacious goals. No matter what, we all set goals at some time or another, whether small or audacious, that we sometimes do not achieve.
So I want to ask you, why not realistically stretch yourself as you are setting your goals? If you don’t, no one else will do it for you. But when I say stretch yourself, don’t make your goals unattainable. They need to be possible, but not small.
One thing some of the most successful people have in common is they take the time to list their goals and create a blueprint of how to achieve them.
Written goals without an action plan of how you are going to achieve them are probably not worth the piece of paper they are written on.
One other part of the equation is speaking those goals publicly to someone you respect, love or who you know will hold you accountable. If no one else knows your goals besides you, it’s really easy to not work on them.
Your goals don’t have to be just business related, they can be personal as well. What are you inspired by, what do you believe in? What do you dream of achieving that will support your passions for making a difference? Those are a part of your core vales. Your core values are what help shape you as you move through life. Your values are also what determines your inner beliefs. Those inner beliefs in yourself and your ability to achieve drive the cogs in your wheel.
What big goals are you going to set for yourself in the next 30 days?
“The same wind blows on us all. The economic wind, the social wind, the political wind. The same wind blows on everybody. The difference in where you arrive in one year, three years, five years, the difference in arrival is not the blowing of the wind but the set of the sail.” ~ Jim Rohn
Sometimes, when we see an opportunity to make a big change in our lives, it’s a matter of changing the set of your sail. A colleague in my business, changed the set of her sail to change her life and her family’s. She was a very successful, busy executive with a large media company, commuting 4 hours a day from home to her job. By the time her day ended, she had very little time to spend with her two young daughters and her husband.
She wanted to be more involved in her family’s lives, but didn’t know how she could make that happen. Missing one of her daughter’s first steps was when she realized, something needed to change. A friend introduced her to a new business she could do part time and begin supplementing her income and eventually replace her executive salary, allowing her to make the change she wanted. At first, she resisted. She was already too busy. But when she thought about her future and what she really wanted, she made the decision to partner with her friend and take control of her life.
Today, she works her new business around commuting to work, watching her daughters play sports, just blending it into her life.
We all want to make the most of our lives. Thinking you are too busy to find a better way, or just not being open minded to new opportunities won’t always get you where you want to go. You don’t want to let any of the moments slip away, lost forever while you were waiting on a train, or for the clock to chime six, or for an opportunity to find you down the road. Don’t kick yourself a year from now for missing out on an opportunity that is in front of you today.
What are you going to do this week that can get you started towards really living the life you want? This isn’t a rhetorical question. Seriously take the time right now and decide what’s the one thing you’ll do this week to get started.
Leave a comment below and declare it publicly. There is power in public declaration.
What do you want your life to look like in 5 years? What are the plans you have for yourself and your family? Do you have dreams that you ignore and does your past define your future?
The first time I was asked that question, it really made me stop and think. I had no idea what I wanted my life to look like in 5 years. If you are like me and most of the rest of us, I was too busy building my businesses, with my blinders on, trying to keep my head above water. How could I fathom where I would be in 1 year, much less 5 years?
What I realized was I had stopped dreaming.
Remember when you were in kindergarten and you thought you could do and be anything you wanted; nothing could stop you? Then you started your career or a family and things didn’t turn out like you hoped. Then the doubt started creeping in. Will you succeed in your next project? Will you achieve the goals you have set for yourself or your company? Are you really a good parent, giving your child the right advice and direction? Those self doubts create limiting beliefs that stop you from achieving the greatness you were meant to achieve.
We stop dreaming about who and what we can be and what our future will look like. After all, we are just trying to do a little better at our tasks at hand each day.
I want to challenge you to make the same shift I did a few years ago. Step back, take a look at where you are, the great things you have accomplished. Don’t let what you have done in the past define where you are going. Your past can only define your future if you live there.
Write down what you want your life to look like in 5 years. Include your spouse, significant other and/or your children as you begin to dream about what your future will hold. Don’t be afraid to have some big audacious goals and dreams.
As you design the next five years, be specific, don’t just have a monetary goal. Decide what you want the money to do for you and your family. Where will your children go to college. Will you have their college tuition completely funded? What kind of cars will you be driving? What will your house look like? Where will you go on vacations? Do you want to fund mission trips or donate more to charities that you are passionate about?
This is your dream, so dream big! Your future is yours for the making! Why not you, why not now?
If you want to know more about making dreams come true, get in touch with me today so we can talk. I’d love to help you realize your dream life!
