Do you know where you are aiming?
We must have a theme, a goal, a purpose in our lives. If you don’t know where you’re aiming, you don’t have a goal. My goal is to live my life in such a way that when I die, someone can say, she cared. – Mary Kay Ash
Being the daughter of a Mary Kay senior sales director meant quotes like this were commonly heard in my household. If I was struggling with why I needed to get work done, or the reason behind a task, my mother always reminded me that everything positive we do leads us towards our goals in our lives. She was great with those motivational messages. Not only that, but she always kept multiple goal lists next to her desk, and in turn, I always had them as well (like mother, like daughter). Each list was laid out with 10-15 small goals, and then one large goal at the bottom. This goal was something that would take a long time to accomplish (months, years, decades, depending on the list. I had goal lists for soccer, school and personal life. Each one had an ‘ultimate goal’ with lots of little ones above it that would help me get there. Even after I left home, the idea of ‘goal lists’ was ingrained in my brain. I usually had 3-4 at a time, sitting somewhere on my desk throughout college. After college, when I started working for other people, I began to use my lists less and less. My goals just didn’t stay in the forefront of my mind, because I didn’t fully feel like I controlled my job or future. After I got laid off earlier this year, I decided that I didn’t want to be in a place where my goals weren’t important.
When I told my mom that I didn’t want to take another job working for someone else and wanted to start my own business, she was so excited for me. And of course, reminded me to make my goals list. It changes almost weekly, as I update and achieve goals, so as of today:
A few of my top goals are:
- Go to BlogWorld and New Media Expo 2009 with a sponsorship
- Have Wright Creativity making me a consistent income ? what I was making in the corporate world by December 2009
- Become #1 on the adage power 150 list by my 2 year blog anniversary (July 27, 2010)
- Make the OC Metro’s Hot 25 list for 2010
- Rescue a greyhound
- Purchase a home in Mission Viejo
- Get my book, Riding with Lucifer published and on the NYT best sellers list
And the ultimate goal that these are all leading to: Stop working completely by the time my oldest child is 8.
If you notice, as you go down the list, the goals get progressivly larger and more difficult. But, If I do each of the goals above them, then the ones down the list aren’t actually that big. it’s like a snowball effect…the more goals I achieve, the bigger the goals I will be able to achieve.
Do you keep a goals list?
Remember, your goals are your goals. While you may have similar ones as someone else, there is absolutely no way that you will achieve them in the same manner. We all have different processes and ways to get to where we want to go – make sure that you are doing it your way, and you’ll find it much easier.
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