In order to achieve our true potential and live really extraordinary lives, we must envision the goals we want to achieve. And yet, we tend to go through our lives just struggling to get from one day to the next. We often don’t have goals beyond trying to pay the rent and staying on top of the bills. The goals we do have tend to be vague and distant: things like, “I want to take a vacation someday,” or “Someday I’m going to retire.” And if that’s where you are, don’t feel bad about it! Your goals are completely normal. But it’s time for you to break out of that normal box. It’s time to do something really extraordinary with your life. It’s time to turn your life around. Are you ready?
Setting Life Goals
Once you’ve found the motivation to make a change in your life, the first important step is to set new goals for your life.
So how do we go about setting goals?
Goal as Process: What type of life do you want to lead?
First of all, think of your goals in terms of how you’d like to live your life. If you see your goal as an end point, then what will you do when you get there? The thing is, you’re not aiming for a goal that you’ll only achieve on your deathbed. You want to live! You’re aiming for a goal that you can achieve within the next three to five years. You want to make noticeable incremental progress towards this goal within the next four to six months.
Vague, distant goals are too daunting; they tend to remain vague and distant indefinitely. Let’s focus on something specific that you can achieve. Let’s get you a win!
Think of your goals as lifestyle, or an ongoing project. Do you want to work remotely? Do you want to travel? Do you want to remodel your house, change jobs, increase your income, or start a new business? Now we’re getting somewhere.
Set Specific Goals
Next, think of your goals as specifically as you can. Narrow it down. Don’t be like me. I’m trying to do too much, and that’s making it far too difficult for me to get things done.
The more specific you can be with your goals, the better. I saw some advice like this over on LinkedIn recently: it said something along the lines of, don’t just say you want to be a content creator; say you want to write product reviews for one of the top five leading content sites in your specific industry. That’s nicely specific.
Some examples
Imagine, for example, that you want to start an online retailer. You wouldn’t just say that you want to create an ecommerce store that will sell whatever to whoever. Decide who your customer is, and why they want to buy from you. Decide what value you’re going to bring to the service. For example, you might decide that you’re going to sell gently used but fashionable children’s clothes to young moms in low-income households; and you’re going to ensure the quality of your products by selecting the items yourself from garage sales and donation stores. This will give you a chance to travel for work, meet new people, purchase most of your inventory on the weekends, and still leave you with enough time to work at your day job on the weekdays until the business becomes so successful that you can focus on it full-time.
In my case it might be something like, don’t just say I want to be a web developer; say I want to develop an online platform that will enable people with little or no previous business experience to start and run a profitable web-based business of their own; and furthermore, I want to outsource the day-to-day operation and marketing of that platform to contractors or employees, thus freeing up my time so I can create more platforms, spend time with my family, and pursue my creative projects. I wish I had set a goal that specific when I launched my business many years ago. A goal that specific would have given me a solid direction and differentiated me from all the other web designers. But it’s never too late!
Envision what a successful outcome would look like for you. For example, as you envision your future self, you’re not an author: you’re internationally recognized, and you’re getting invited to speak at writing events. You’re not just launching this new online business: you’re going to get a hundred thousand customers within two years and bring in five hundred million dollars in gross revenue within five years.
Set Goals that Excite You
So, the third point is, as you work on setting goals, focus on goals that excite you. I heard this tip from my friend Shawn Stratton of the Plant-Based Profits podcast a few months ago, and I think it’s an excellent point.
As creatives, we often tend to dream up more goals than we can realistically pursue in the amount of time we have available. I try not to shame myself about this, but at some point it’s important to narrow down the list of priorities and focus on just a few projects. If you’re faced with this problem, some of the questions you might ask yourself about each potential project might include:
“Does it excite me? Am I excited about this project? Is it something that I feel all tingly when I think about pursuing it?”
“Is it profitable? If I’m successful, will I see a financial return on the time I invest in this project? Will it connect with a market and further my financial goals of self-sufficiency and financial freedom?”
“Does it resonate with my identity? Can I see myself doing this? Is this an expression of who I want to be and what I want to do with my life?”
Set Big Goals
Finally, be extreme. Be extravagant. Set goals that scare you. Don’t play it safe. If you only set goals that you can achieve easily, then you’re not really challenging yourself. Dream big!
You’ll know you’ve chosen a good goal when the people around you or the voice of doubt at the back of your own mind start to accuse of of “magical thinking” or “being unrealistic.” That’s when you know it’s a good goal. Don’t accept those limitations. Limitations are for overcoming.
Don’t limit yourself to what you think you can easily achieve. Does five hundred million dollars sound like an unrealistic goal? Then double it, and imagine your new business making a billion dollars. It happens all the time. Why not you?
In April of 2020, I set myself a goal of writing a poem every day for a year. And yes, I missed a couple of days, but I wrote several hundred poems during a historic period of time, through the pandemic lockdowns, the Black Lives Matter protests in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, and the 2020 election and the civil unrest that followed: and I felt like I really captured that moment in my poetry. Setting myself that challenge is what created that opportunity.
Early in 2021, I decided to participate in the “75 Hard” challenge. For 75 days, I worked out twice a day, stuck to a diet plan, and abstained from alcohol. And yes, I missed a selfie here and a glass of water there; but I lost 22 pounds in two and a half months. I never would have achieved that outcome if I hadn’t tried to pursue a goal that scared me.
Take chances
We tend to get wrapped up in our fear of failure; and that’s a normal human response. It’s even worse in the social media era, when we’re discouraged from taking chances, because if we do fail, there’s always a troll right around the corner who will gleefully rub our face in it. But the opinions of trolls are not important. It’s only by taking chances that we’re able to achieve greatness and really live up to our full potential.
When I was in my mid-twenties, I got a job teaching overseas for a year. Just recently, my sister and her family lived overseas for two years. And even now, I have a friend from Portland who has been living in Thailand for the past decade. We sometimes hear these lifestyle pieces about “digital nomads” and we’re inclined to write it off as an unrealistic or impossible dream; but all around us, people are living that dream and making it a reality every day.
Dare to Be Awesome
So dare to be different. Dare to be awesome. Dare to be excellent. Take a chance on a really extraordinary goal, and you might just find yourself living a really extraordinary life.
