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easily gauge whether an effort is likely to bring you closer to or further away from them. With your goals in front of you, you make fewer wrong turns and invest less time in trial‐and‐error dead ends. If you know that “be an outstanding father” is at the top of your written list, then overtime, extra assignments, travel, and other actions that take you away from your kids won’t distract you as easily; you know you’re more likely to achieve this goal by spending time with your kids, going to their games, taking walks, throwing a ball, playing dress‐up, going to the park, or writing a note.
✓ Stay motivated. Written goals fuel motivation, inducing you to perform at a higher level and at a faster rate in order to achieve.
As you put together your list of goals, you need to consider the five core aspects of wants that I cover in this section. My mentor Jim Rohn taught them to me when I was in my 20s. These five questions dramatically reduced the amount of time I needed to achieve many of the goals that are now crossed off my goal sheets, and these same questions can help you expand your thinking so you can have more, be more, and achieve more.
As soon as you finish reading this section, read no further until you get your goals on paper. Your task after reading this section is to come up with at least 50 goals that you want to accomplish within the next ten years. As you brainstorm your list of goals, keep a few points in mind to make your goal‐setting effective:
✓ Make sure your goals line up with your wants. Don’t evaluate goals based on what you think you need, deserve, or can realistically achieve; attack it by what you want. Your success is determined by how you invest your time each day.
✓ Think big. “Go big or go home” is a philosophy I encourage my clients and workshop participants to embrace. Many shy away from setting big goals for a range of reasons, from fear of disappointment to concern that they may not have the drive to pursue them.
✓ Pick a time somewhere in the future and work backward from there. For any goal that stretches further than ten years, break it down into smaller goals with shorter time frames to increase your focus, intensity, and commitment. See the later section “Assigning a time frame to each goal” for details.
✓ Make your goals measurable. When you establish a measurable, quantifiable goal, you know you can’t fudge on whether you achieved it or not. You either hit the target or you don’t. You also know where you stand at any given time. Goal measurement naturally falls into two categories:
• Number‐based goals: Measuring your progress toward a goal is pretty easy when the goal is number‐based. You know when you’ve acquired a million dollars or lost 30 pounds, for example. The bank statement or scale is pretty simple to read. As you craft financial and other goals that are associated with numbers, be specific. Do you want to earn a certain annual salary? To put away a certain amount of money each year? To run a certain number of miles by September?
• Non‐number‐based goals: To measure a non‐number‐based goal, focus on how you’ll know when you’ve accomplished it. For example, will some organization’s seal of approval establish you as a world‐renowned archeologist? Will being elected president of the chamber of commerce constitute being a business leader in the community? Will having your children expressing greater thanks for your efforts as a parent equate to being a better dad or mom?
As you identify and record 50 goals you’d like to achieve in the next 10 years, contemplate the following five core questions to guide your goal setting.
Individualism is key when crafting your goals, and it applies to both what you record and how you record it. You can put your goals in Evernote, enter them in an electronic spreadsheet, post them on a visual whiteboard, or even use them as wallpaper for your phone.. whatever is easiest for you and triggers the constant reminder. Or maybe you find that your thoughts flow best when you write them down by hand. The important thing to remember is that whatever method best enables your mind to flow freely and inspires you to craft your goals is the one you should use. Don’t let others sway you in how to craft and define your goals or what your goals should be.
Consider this little‐known fact about yours truly: I have written ten books, and all have been written by putting pen to paper. This archaic approach may seem ridiculous in today’s high‐tech publishing environment; dictating my thoughts into Dragon or some software would certainly be easier and less time‐consuming than writing everything by hand. But not for me. For whatever reason, the direct connection among my hand, pen, eyes, and brain enables me to create a better book. Inspiration comes to me frequently while writing thoughts down, so I stick to my routine and get someone with more time to type my writing into an electronic file.
What do you want to have?
The question of what you want to have focuses on material acquisitions. What possessions do you yearn for? A swimming pool? A sailboat? Do you fantasize about owning a sports car? Do you dream of a formal rose garden landscaped into your backyard? Someone to cook and clean for you? Your own private jet? Winter vacations in the Caribbean? If your home environment is a priority, imagine the place you want to live. An expansive ranch overlooking the Pacific Ocean? A Fifth Avenue penthouse? An off‐the‐grid abode that runs on solar and wind power? A villa in Tuscany?
What do you want to see?
When you ask yourself what you want to see, think experiential acquisition. Travel is likely to be a key focus. I’m certain you can easily come up with at least ten places you want to see. Have some world wonders fascinated you? The Pyramids of Egypt? The Great Wall of China? I travel internationally a few times a year on business, and it only fuels my desire to see more parts of the world and expand my awareness of how other people live.
Your desire for new sights may lean toward unfamiliar geography – the desert lands of the Southwest if you’re a New England native or the Rocky Mountains in winter if you hail from a lowland home. Perhaps your see goals are more personal. You may have always wanted to visit the country your ancestors came from or even visit the small town in the Midwest where your great‐grandparents met and raised a family.
What do you want to do?
Most likely, many of your goals are connected with the question of what you want to do at some point in your life. Whereas the possessions you want to acquire help create your lifestyle, the action‐oriented question you consider here focuses more on bigger events and feats outside the daily realm. Because this category is vast, I have my clients consider three main aspects of this question:
✓ Activities: You may want to include some once‐in‐a‐lifetime experiences, such as snorkeling with sea turtles or hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro. What about a goal of regular exercise four times a week? Or