How does an ant eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
And so it is with goals. One of the key aspects to accomplishing any goal is to break down the action steps into manageable bites. With this in mind, you now need to start thinking about the goals you want to accomplish in the coming year. Yesterday I wrote about defining your priorities. The reason this is important is that your priorities need to be the guide for your goals. Setting goals outside of priorities are meaningless because by definition your priorities will supersede them.
Before we get to the goals you want to achieve in 2013, we have to look farther ahead at the bigger picture. Your long term goals should dictate your short term goals.
Using your priorities as a guide, what do you want your life in these areas to look like in 20 years? In 10 years? Now here is the exercise for today that will lead to clarifying the long term such that we can begin to focus on the short term.
Take a piece of paper and a pen and sit in a quiet place for at least 15 minutes. You can go longer if you want, but no less than 15 minutes. Write down everything you would like to have, do, and be within the next 10 years. You need to approach this exercise with the limitless thinking of a child. Do not stop to consider the likelihood of success. That would be editing. You shouldn’t edit a dreaming exercise. Just let it go and have some fun with it. The goal of this exercise is to write down as many things as possible regardless of how far out they might seem at this time. The Seven aspects we covered in Part one will help you broaden your thinking.
This exercise is fun and an eye-opener. I did this years ago, and went to a hundred things. As a result, many of these things have come true in my life. We’ll bring this list back to the coming year in our next step.
