When people are asked to list their top 10 or top 5 goals, it’s not uncommon to see a list of great, exciting goals, but they are not prioritized and so they remain wishes and dreams. With all of that marvelousness looming ahead, how do you choose? How do you decide which personal and business goals to fit into your life? While it’s really tempting to want it all, and to try to achieve multiple goals at once, you’ll have much better success if you only chase one rabbit at a time and if you make sure that rabbit is going in the same direction as your values.
Look at your goals list and see how each one of them fits into your life (because right now, as you are living your current life, is when you are designing and working on your future life). For each goal, ask: What is the driving force behind this goal? What fires you up about it? What makes it worth fitting into your life?
Adding goals (the act of bringing new things and experiences into your life) to a busy schedule means you have to be ruthless about choosing only goals that are meaningful – the ones imbued with a sense of urgency and need; the ones that make you come alive when you think about them; the ones that feel non-negotiable. Goals mean a redirect of time and energy that can’t go to something else so don’t waste your personal resources on minor goals.
Your greatest goals (the “must-haves”) are closely aligned with your values and priorities. How do you know what your values and priorities are? Look at your life. If you value time, you probably chose a career that allows you the maximum amount of leisure time (and/or time spent doing what you love). If you value money, you probably focus on investing, savings and you avoid excess consumerism. If you value relationships, you spend as much time and energy as you can on your loved ones. Of course in reality, life is a soup of compromises and sometimes seemingly opposing values; but in general, you are what you repeatedly do. Your values are clearly represented in your lifestyle and your choices.
How do your top 10 or top 5 goals fit into that scenario? You won’t. But by examining your goals to see how aligned they are with your values, you’ll quickly cull the herd. Are there goals that will immediately get the axe because they don’t fit in with your values? Hopefully so! That will help narrow your focus to the one that mean the most to you. The rabbit that’s most worth the chase.
Inspired by Jill Koenig’s blog on www.goalguru.com