Live Life Like There Is No Tomorrow
We all have a choice we can either make a living or design a life. In order to design our future we must have goals, a one single pointed directions to lead us where to want to go. A well-defined goals are like a magnet, they’ll pull us in their direction. The key is, the better we have defined them, the better we have described them, the harder we work on them, the stronger they pull and they pull us through all kinds of difficulties too.
Now we’re going to take some time to actually start designing the next 10 years of our life. We’re going to start setting our goals. Goal setting is one of the most important skills to develop if we want to design our future. I’m 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.
Long-term Goals and Short-term Goals
There are short-term goals and long-term goals. Like our preset destination, sometimes we’re flying across the country to a specific destination, other times we’re just walking down the street to the corner grocery store. Long-term goals are the equivalent of a major journey. When we reach the point where we’ve achieved our long-term goals our life will be fundamentally changed and the process of getting to that point will transform us into a stronger, wiser, higher performing person than we are now.
How can we identify our long-term goals? On a sheet of paper or in a notebook, write these five headings:
- What do I want to do? __________________________
- What do I want to be? __________________________
- What do I want to see __________________________
- What do I want to have? __________________________
- Where do I want to go __________________________
Now, under each of these categories, write down several possible long-term goals.
Be very relaxed about this. Just allow our mind to flow and come up with three to six ideas for each category. Don’t worry about a lot of details at this point and don’t spend too much time describing a particular goal in category number one. For example: what do I want to do? Suppose you want to write a book about the history of your family. Just quickly jot down “family history”. Then as you look down the list of categories it occurs to you that you’ve always wanted to see the pyramids in Egypt. so you write “pyramids”. Keep writing down ideas as long as the list of categories continues to inspire you. You’ll probably be surprised at some of the things that turn up we may have kept a great many desires and aspirations hidden in the back of our mind. But the opportunity to write them down will move them to the forefront of our consciousness. That’s one of the benefits of this technique.
When you’re satisfied with your list of long-term goals, read through the list once again. Then beside each item write the number of years that we believe it will take us to achieve that particular goal. It’s best to round off the numbers into 1 year, 3 years, 5 years and 10 years categories. For example,we may estimate that it will take us 10 years to research and write the book on our family history. But we’ll need only five years to get ourself into a position where we can take a trip to the pyramids. Create a time frame like this for every one of our long-term goals. Immediate goals those that will take less than a year to achieve are important too. And we’ll deal with those separately in a moment.
Distribution time frame for each goal
When we’re finished entering our time frames there should be a fairly balanced distribution of all our goals. If there are many one and three year objectives but only a few in the 10 years category, maybe we need to think more about what we really want our life to add up to. What kind of life we really want to build over the long run but if there’s a preponderance of 10 years goals. And relatively few of the shorter term variety this may be an indication that we’re putting things off that we’re focused too much on where we’ll be at the end of the day, and not enough on what we can accomplish. Right now keep working on our list adding and subtracting goals with various time frames until we’ve created a more or less even distribution.
See our goals absolute clarity in mind’s eye by asking question
Now, comes the really challenging and interesting part. So far we’ve just been adding things to the list but now it’s time to start making some selections. Now we’re going to start asking ourself what’s really important compared to what might just be sort of fun. Choose four goals from each of the four time frames 1 year, 3 years, 5 years and 10 years. Now we have 16 separate goals, so far we’ve only referred to them in shorthand fashion. But now we’re going to start seeing them very very clearly in our mind’s eye. We’re going to see each goal just as if it were being realized this very minute, and we’re going to write down a detailed description of exactly what we see:
Do we intend to open a handmade furniture store in three years?
What will the store look like from the street out front?
Will there be gold leaf lettering on the windows? or will there be a sign hanging over the door instead?
How many square feet will the store contain?
Will there be a showroom area for the furniture in front and a workspace in back? or will the furniture be built at a different location?
Do you intend to have any employees or will you run the business entirely by yourself?
Any goal is a powerful motivator only if there’s a powerful reason behind it
Think of all the questions that need to be answered in order to see our goal with absolute clarity. And then write the information down in a notebook or on a piece of paper that will become one of our most important personal possessions. But that’s not all. Any goal is a powerful motivator only if there’s a powerful reason behind it.
Why do we want to achieve our goals?
Why do we want to own a handmade furniture store or a private airplane or a newspaper in a small town in Vermont?
Why do we want to compete in a triathlon or visit the Australian
Why do we want to be the first woman in our family to earn a PhD?
Write down our reasons for wanting each goal in the same degree of detail that we use to write our descriptions. If we can’t find a clear and convincing reason for each of our 16 goals, do some serious re-evaluating. We may have more whims or pipe dreams than real goals and now is the time to make that discovery. Keep working on our list until we have 16 clearly envisioned strongly motivating long-term goals. Review what we’ve written at times and keep track of our progress toward these objectives.
Above all persevere, goal setting is a very important first step. But goal achievement is a continuous lifelong process that’s what makes it so challenging. That is also why it’s so extremely rewarding to finally attain our long-term goals with regard to immediate goals. Those would require anywhere from a day to a year to achieve. I recommend creating lots of objectives that can be accomplished in a month or less. Write them down, read what we’ve written at frequent intervals.
Keep track of our progress and do something often that brings us closer to realizing these very short-term objectives. That way we’ll always have something to celebrate. These goals are not only important in their own right they’re also confidence builders and motivators toward a lifestyle based on perseverance and achievement. Another thing to check for on our list is that we have included goals for each of these three important categories:
- Make sure you’ve listed your economic goals your goals for income profits and productivity
- Make certain your list includes material items you want, tangibles such as a home, a car, a boat, furniture or jewelry. Don’t attach the wrong importance to things but they are important
- You’ll want to include on your list goals for personal development. Write down all your personal development goals. Your goals to be more physically fit to lose weight, to be more decisive, to be a more effective leader, to be a better communicator, to learn another language
Of course there are other types of goals to consider family goals, social goals, lifestyle goals. This is pretty heavy homework, but remember, whether or not you do your homework, shows up in the marketplace as well as in the classroom.
After we have determined which of our goals are 1 year, 3 years, 5 years and 10 years. And after you’ve 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:
1 year goals the four most important
3 years goals the four most important
5 years goals and the four most important
10 years goals and the four most importante
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 color. For example, also describe why it is important to you?
When we’re unclear, we only put half-hearted effort into it
This is a process where you either talk yourself into it or talk yourself out of it. Which is good. When you’re 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 1 year, 3 years, 5 years and 10 years goals that you truly believe in, that inspire you that you’ve 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’s 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’s 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. 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.
We grow from two experiences, one is the joy of winning and the other is the pain of losing.
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’s 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. Don’t join an easy crowd go over the expectations are high where the pressure to perform is high. It is how we grow
Here’s 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’ll have to develop
Write down things you’re going to have to learn
Spend a little time writing a few sentences on this, the answer to this will give you some personal development goals
- Ask yourself is this really my goal is this truly what I want? Is it a positive goal?
- Is it important enough to me to become what it takes to reach this goal?
- Is it mine is it worth it?
Redefine what actually is important to you.
Redefine how hard you’ll really work to get them
Achievement means moving forward and in order to move forward you must be motivated, inspired ambitious. You must have dreams and goals that create ambition. Good ambition, positive ambition. Ambition does not mean being greedy. It does not mean being selfish. It does not mean getting ahead at the expense of others. Ambition is not greed, ambition is not avarice and all-consuming desire for wealth. Ambition is not hoping you can win at the expense of others. Ambition is not greed. Ambition is an eager desire to achieve, an eager desire to get ahead in life. To do more for your family to prosper in health, wealth, and relationships.
Set some challenging goals, set some goals that’ll make you stretch.
Become more than you ever thought you could become.
Design Life, Live Life, Love Life!
Vanessa Low
In the past twenty years, I traveled around the globe, sold everything, and moved to a sailboat. And now, I’m back to the land, ready to share my story, live a simple, grateful life and enjoy the beauty of the world!
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