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Do you know your retirement lifestyle priorities?
Do you know what is important? Can you tell what makes you get up each morning? Is there a prize at your finish line? Have you got a schedule that tells you when you plan to reach it? If you do then you are a man (or woman) with a mission.
Most people don’t fall into that group. Maybe they know what they want to accomplish and because they have a goal, they think that they are on the path to success. But until they put a date on that goal and focus each day on moving closer, they are nothing but pretenders. A goal without a specific date and a plan of activities to take you to the goal is nothing more than a fantasy. It may provide you a few pleasant moments as you daydream but it will not change your life.
Set SMART Goals
Goal setting and planning are important and if you don’t know how to do that important task then it should be your first priority. Today, however, I want to suggest something that you should apply to your goal setting in order to rev your engine to top performance. Adopt a sense of urgency when you create your plans.
Learn the two dimensions for your sense of urgency
There are two dimensions for this sense of urgency. The first dimension is a short schedule for reaching your goal. Don’t go easy on yourself and set a goal that lets you finish in a slow walk. Set one that requires you to run. When you set goals, make sure that those goals push the very edge of your abilities and don’t push the date you plan to reach them so far out that you don’t get excited. The date you set should make you feel that there is not a minute to waste. Your deadline is just ahead and you are closing fast. There isn’t any time to relax or take a nap.
The second dimension is purely mental. You need to wrap your mind around that goal until you just can’t live without reaching it- no matter what it may be. Picture yourself at the finish line. Get excited about who you will be and what you can do once you reach it. Feel the emotion that comes with reaching the goal and keep it alive by picturing the result at least every day.
Don’t take it easy on yourself
Don’t let yourself become indifferent to your goal because when you have a sense of urgency the work will no longer seem a burden. Your sense of urgency will carry you.
Ralph, you and I will have to agree to disagree on the subject of goals; sounds too much like work to me. But I do like to try new things and explore them fully. Loved the video of the motorcyclists. You’re so high-tech 🙂
Hansi’s last Blog Post ..Alternative Advice
Hansi,
I wonder if you are being fair to yourself. Surely you set goals for yourself many times in your life. When you started out in law enforcement, when you kept doing your art, when you had your kids, when you started your blog. Denying the goals doesn’t mean that you have no expectations or wishes. And you are going to do work anyway. Isn’t it better to work from a plan?
Maybe you are nothing but a happy go lucky slackard but somehow you fail to convince me.
Ralph. You are probably right. But I just don’t like the pressure or deadlines that goals seem to generate (at least for me), let alone the emptiness of ‘what’s next?’ after they’ve been attained. Intent, is the word I prefer, as it implies more of a direction than destination.
Hansi’s last Blog Post ..Alternative Advice
So what’s your goal for HH – and BI?
I don’t really have any goals anymore Ralph. If my family and I are happy and content that’s all I care about now.
Bill
Goalless, Ashton-under-Lyne, UK
Bill Murney’s last Blog Post ..Chuggers
Bill,
Might I suggest that that sounds like a goal to me?
You are probably correct Ralph.
Bill
Ashton-under-Lyne, UK
Bill Murney’s last Blog Post ..Chuggers
And a very good one at that!