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Think about your life goals


There’s never a good time to sit down and think about what you want to accomplish in life. We have busy lives, and even when we’re not busy, we might just feel more like vegging in front of the TV or checking our feeds than thinking about the rest of our lives.

Do it today, if you haven’t yet. It could take as little as 10 or 20 minutes, and it could make all the difference in the world.

And it’s not that hard. You probably already have a good idea of what you want to do, but you may not have it written down. Or maybe you’ve done this exercise before, but you haven’t updated your goals for awhile. Now’s the time to do it.

1. How to start? First, think about what you’d like people to say about you at your funeral. This comes from Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People — the habit called “Begin with the end in mind.” It’s also very effective. Imagine you are at the end of your life, looking back. What would you like to have accomplished? What kind of person would you like to have been?

Now here’s the key: start living your life so that you will eventually get to that point.

2. Now that you’ve given that a little thought, jot down some ideas for life goals you’d like to achieve before you die.

They can be in many areas, but here are a few to start with: professional, education, family, spiritual, travel, recreation, hobbies, community, charity. You can probably think of more, and you don’t need to have goals in all of these areas. Just some topics to get you started.

3. Refine your list, or expand it. After your initial brainstorm, you may want to trim it down. But you may also want to expand: sometimes it’s fun, and worthwhile, to dream big.

4. Now break it down. What should you accomplish in the next 10 years for each of these goals? How about 5 years? How about two years? One year? And this month?

Once you’ve planned out each goal for 10-year, 5-year, 2-year, 1-year and 1-month periods, you’ve got yourself a pretty solid plan.

5. Take action! I like to take my monthly goals, and make a to-do list for this week. What can I do today to further my goals? And if I can get just one thing done, I’ve done a lot to make those dreams a reality!

Take a step towards your dreams today by writing them down, and making a plan.

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Brilliant comments (12)

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Mikio Says:

February 12th, 2007, 0:11 am

Good post! I update my life goals once a year, every New Year, and I think it has helped me a lot! Great blog, btw. I read it every day.

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Wilhelm Chung Says:

February 23rd, 2008, 0:26 am

This is some of the reason why I started mobtropolis.com. It’s often far too easy to let the daily grind take you over, and all of a sudden months have passed you by. Though you were busy doing SOMETHING, not much of it has felt satisfying–like it didn’t matter whether you did it or not in hindsight, though it didn’t seem like it at the time.

I think the world’s full of interesting things around us, but it’s so often easy to just pass it by, because there’s always ’something that needs to be done for someone else’. Time to get stuff you want to experience on the board and leverage a little peer pressure to get stuff done.

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Tatiana Says:

March 24th, 2008, 13:15 pm

Great Blog! congratulations!

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Jonathan Says:

July 4th, 2008, 1:24 am

Great post Leo! My life goals come from my favorite poem Ulysses by Tennyson. “To Strive, To Seek, To find, And not to Yield.”
Which I have translated into To Strive for Love, To Seek Knowledge, To Find Happiness, and Yield not to Fear.

I have recently written a post on my blog that I am hoping to spark a debate on which are them most important questions in our life. I was hoping that you might check it out and leave a comment. My blog has been link to yours from day one, as I am a big fan of Zen Habits. So I was hoping that you might comment and encourage some of your readers to do the same. The post is on my Blog EnlightenYourDay.com and the link is the following: http://enlightenyourday.com/2008/07/03/a-debate-on-the-most-important-questions-in-life/

Thanks and keep up the great work
Jonathan

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Nayan Says:

July 5th, 2008, 3:05 am

Hi!
I have been thinking about writing my goals by defining the roles I play and thinking about tributes I would like to get from different kinds of people. This was going on since 1 week. I was afraid to begin

Reading your post, gave that nudge for me to complete writing it. I have now done it.

Thanks!

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Stephen Smith Says:

July 5th, 2008, 10:50 am

There are a lot of great goals here folks, keep at it and I pray that you attain them. And keep us posted on your progress!

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c.j. boehle Says:

July 6th, 2008, 0:53 am

i am in the tailend of my life and am so very pleased that I managed to muddle through. Every day is just the frosting on life’s cake. I had a career,my children are raised,I loved well and often and i don’t mind a bit being worn around the edges. Such a relief to no longer be concerned with striving to be a beauty. I have thyroid cancer and am now on suppressive therapy. I have forgiven myself for all the stupid things I have done in my life and of course everyone else for any stupid things they might have done to me. I believe in the general goodness of all and if damage was done I believe it wasn’t intentional so that bit of business is done. Now my goals are:
1. to stay as healthy as I can so as not to be a burden to
anyone
2. to not be a big bore and remain spirited and charming

3. to not leave my husband with onerous medical bills.
I want to be like Molly Ivens and go until I can’t anymore and when I die I want everyone to be surprised and say
“why she didn’t even seem that ill”
.
Thank you so much for this lovely blog and the wonderful lists that help remind us of what is really important after all in living our lives and how to get to where we wish to be.

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Veronica Says:

November 9th, 2008, 14:04 pm

There are lots of people who live there whole life without goals. But the person who has a goal becomes successful. So, our first goal should be to have a goal.

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Jude Says:

January 10th, 2009, 7:18 am

I am in the situation where I don’t have a life goal. I don’t know what I want after years working in corporate environment.
Everybody should have dreams of what they want in life. Happy New Year to you all! :))

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tip Says:

May 20th, 2009, 13:21 pm

Thanks for a lovely site, I am very impressed :-)

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Everything Counts Says:

May 23rd, 2009, 15:20 pm

Goal setting plays a major role to your motivation and success. Your goal can be as basic as to learn driving or losing body weight. Focus on what you desire and off what you don’t want. So, set your goals and start working on the ways to achieve them.

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free divorce papers Says:

June 12th, 2009, 1:14 am

This is what I’m saying… Plan big. Take small steps.

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