Where will you be in 3-5 years?
Thursday, February 22, 2007 at 6:54PM A good way to outline your goals is to visualize where you plan to be three to five years into the future and work backwards, like you were designing a comic book storyboard. Imagine you have a magic paintbrush and the world is your canvas. Break down your pictures into different elements. Choose places you will be, what you will be doing, who you will be with, the kinds of projects and activities which will fill your time. The only way to reach your dreams is to define them, write about them and discuss them in ways they can be broken down and worked out.
What will it require to realize these goals you envisage for yourself? If you see yourself winning an olympic medal in a certain sport, then you'll need to list what you think you'll need to get there. You'd likely list things like; find a coach, buy good footwear and atheletic apparel, acquire necessary equipment, draft a training schedule, research qualifying meets in which you'll need to compete in your desire to qualify for the Olympics. You'd need to go from genera lists to timeframes and budget, where and how you would obtain what you need. This list would go on.
What would you require if you foresaw yourself in a thriving business down the track? You'd obviously need to isolate key industries of interest. From there, you may go to a library to borrow books on writing business plans, doing marketing assessments and basic accounting. You may also seek out people who have run their own business and ask for advice on steps to follow. The more information you colloect, the more focused would become your course of action.
What if you had plans to marry your girlfriend and settle down? You may dream of a wedding, a new place to live together and other elements ot this picture. Again, working backwards is a great strategy to help you figure out the details. If you decide on a number of guests, the prospective venue, whether you'll offer food or some kind of reception, whether you wish to marry in a church or somewhere else, who would marry you? would you have a honeymoon? Each element would have a tentative cost and would require thought and real research. You may consider consulting a professional wedding planner or deciding to skip the hassels and elope.
What if you desired to plan a special trip? It would be necessary to decide on a destination, the mode of desired transport, the planned activities, whether you had an coinciding plan like travel photography, beating an ocean swiming record, landing freelance journalism projects or writing a book. Each element would have an associated cost in preparation time and money. This requires a breakdown so you could find ways to save the money and devote the time you would need.
What if you desired to lower the stress in your life and increase your overall health and well-being? This would require that you clarify exactly what you mean by this? Would you hopeto lose weight? Become more physically fit? Evolve into a vegetarian? Go off to some spiritual retreat? Make a concerted effort to change different personal habits, schedules and priorities? Do you wish to do this on your own or with the support of a friend or group that shares your goals? Anything is possible once you set your mind to accomplish it.
What if you desired more than anything to go into remission from a long-term illness? In your mind, you would know what your current emotional, physical and other capacities are and what kinds of changes you would hope to evolve. Again, by pinpointing exactly what you wish to do, you can determine whether you wish to focus on things like physiotherapy, homeopathy or other alternative approaches to medicine and wellness. Will you read books and consult specialists? The world is your oyster. You have the freedom to shape your life as you would hope to have it.
Reader Comments (2)
That is so true! I once read that you can do ANYthing you want, but maybe just not EVERYthing. :)
Or can you do everything? :) Maybe eventually we can. Oh -- we surely can!
Breaking it down, step by step, baby steps and putting the time in is the way to do. Write out your goals. But most of all, whatever our dreams and hopes, remember to LOVE what we do. Somebody VERY wise, a friend of mine from Southern Ne w Brunswick, Canada who now lives with her husband and their VERY cute and wise child in Australia once wrote on her blog something to the effect that "it's not so much what you do as how you feel about what you do." LOVE what you do. Love every moment. Love because you're made of love!
xxoo