The first thing you need to do, is to define your goals. This is very integral to your potential success as you can’t very well succeed until you know what it is that you want to achieve!
‘Chase your dreams’ people say.
‘Follow your heart!’ they announce.
But what if you don’t know what your goals are? How can you go after the thing that will make you happy when you have no idea what that thing is?
Have a Vision
The problem a lot of people have, is that they start with a goal rather than a vision. In reality, a goal should come from a vision and you need one before you can have the other.
So what’s the difference?
A vision is a lot more abstract than a goal. A vision is not a plan or an idea but rather it is a lifestyle, a way of life, a state of affairs a dream. Your goal will then fill in the steps from there.To find your vision then, the simplest strategy is to try picturing your perfect life.
Imagine you have been given a magic lamp and can make three wishes. Meanwhile, you also won the lottery. What does this perfect life look like? What does it entail? Where do you see yourself? Who is there with you? For some people, this vision is going to be the typical archetype of success.
You might be as we described earlier, standing on top of a high-rise building, looking out over your domain and wearing a smart suit. But maybe that’s not it. Maybe you’re sitting in a hammock, drinking a cocktail while watching the sun set over a tropical ocean?
Or perhaps your dream is more modest? Maybe you imagine having a beautiful house, a beautiful wife/husband and great kids. Maybe you envisage being able to spend all your time with those kids. Or maybe, just maybe, your vision is completely bizarre to most people.Maybe your vision involves playing World of Warcraft all day. Maybe your vision isn’t even physically possible.
Don’t Let Others Define Your Goals
All of this is fine – and the first crucial lesson we need to learn here is that you have to be honest with yourself. You need to be 100% brutally honest and if your dream is to enter a beauty pagent – as a guy – just admit it. Maybe your vision is just to be a bum and lie around the house!
Too many of us feel as though we have to live the life that others set out for us. We feel as though we need to achieve what is considered the traditional view of success. We feel the urge to please our teachers, our parents. And so when someone asks us ‘what is your goal?’, we will often say ‘to be a lawyer’.
We’re too embarrassed to say that we just want to spend more time with our kids. And we’re too embarrassed to say we want to be a pop star. But what is the point of chasing someone else’s dream? Go after the things that you feel passionate about and never feel ashamed of whatever they may be!
You Can Do Anything… No, Really!
When you write these goals, it is really important that you don’t hold back and that you write down the things you really want to achieve – no matter how far fetched or unimpressive they might seem to others. If your goal – like the Dad from Step Brothers – is to become a dinosaur…
then heck, write it down!
The problem is, that as we’ve already examined, too many of us have our sense of pride and even our identities tied up in ‘what we do’. It’s the first thing we ask at parties! But there’s no reason it should be like this. Why not work simply as a means to fund the lifestyle you really want and get your sense of accomplishment out of your achievements outside the office? How about using your free time in the evenings to write a novel? To compose a
masterpiece? Or to set up a side business?
There is absolutely nothing stopping you, so get out there and go for it! Want to be a rock musician? Fine – then all you need to do is to set up your own YouTube channel where you play your instrument. If you can build a big enough following, then you’ll enjoy a modicum of fame and some income from your music. You might even land a record deal! The same goes if you want to be a comedian, or an action star.
Want to be a writer? Just start writing! You can be anything you want to be – it’s just success that is the hard part!
Want to have a mansion? Then create an epic budget and put all of your savings into making that happen. You might have to build your own property but there’s no reason this can’t be done if you buy the land – and it’s more affordable than you probably think. There are ways you can get work done more cheaply too.
But actually, you might not need a mansion to fulfill your vision. Maybe it’s not the size of the home that matters but rather the décor. Maybe you’d be just as happy with a large, modern and beautiful home with some stunning
centerpieces. And as it happens, this is highly achievable for less if you know how. A minimalist décor for instance means that you can spend less money on things you don’t need and more on just a few stunning centerpiece items
that will make your home truly memorable for instance.
And this is also how you’re going to achieve that dream of becoming a dinosaur. Because so often, it turns out that what we want is often not so simple. You might dream of being a dinosaur but ask yourself why you have this
unusual aim. Is it because you want to be big and powerful? Do you want to be completely free? Do you love the natural habitats they live in?
All these things are achievable and so you can be a dinosaur in ‘essence’. More likely, you might find that even though it’s hard to become an astronaut, you could still indulge your love of space, the unknown and discovery by becoming an astronomer. Or maybe you could launch a camera into space as a hobby? Write a blog about space? Become an explorer?
To get to the bottom of what you want to achieve and to get to the‘essence’, you can use something called ‘The Five Whys’.
The Five Whys
The Five Whys is a series of questions that you can ask yourself in order to get to the ‘bottom’ your own motivations on pretty much any subject (and it also has a ton of other useful applications too). In this case, you’re going to
ask yourself ‘why’ you want to achieve a certain thing. Why do you want to be a movie star? Why? Etc.
The first time you might answer that you want to be a movie star so that you can get a sense of accomplishment by sharing your work with everyone. The next ‘why’ you might answer by saying that you love performing and you love getting feedback from others. The next ‘why’ you might answer because you like to make others happy and so on.
And by getting to the essence of your goal and your vision – the emotional hook that is motivating you – you’ll be much better at making yourself happy.
Write Those Goals and Let’s Get Started
Now you know how to go about writing goals and having a vision, I want you to follow those steps and get a real picture in your mind of what you want to achieve and some steps on paper as to how you’re going to get there.
Here’s the thing though: you’re going to write them down no matter how crazy they sound, no matter how off-the-wall they are.
