If you don't know where you're going, you'll never get there, right? That's why your very first step in getting to where you want to be is deciding right here and right now what it is that you want. What is your next big goal? Maybe it's $10,000 a month income. Maybe it's more. Maybe it's something else entirely. Whatever it is, I challenge you to write it down right now.
Good. Now then, it's truth time: Where are you right now? That is, what are your work habits? What are you pleased with? What are you disappointed about? How are you feeling about your life right now? You are you in this moment?
Go ahead and write that all down. Just write down whatever comes to mind, because it's going to help you in your quest to get what you want.
You've just made a list of where you are right now, so you might guess what comes next – is this what you want? Or are there things you want to change? Where is it that you want to be in life? What things, joys, desires, etc.? Make a list.
Now compare your two lists – the one of you now, and the one of what you want in your life. This is a visual representation of the gap that lies between where you are now and where you want to be. Congratulations, you now have clarity on what you need to do to get to the life you want. Anytime you want to make a profound shift of any kind, write down where you are now and where you want to be so you can visually experience what needs to change.
Your next step is to write down what you need to do to get to where you want to go. What habits do you need? What changes do you need to make in your life to be the person you want to be? Write those down and then decide if you're ready to commit to them. This is the bridge from where you are to where you want to be.
Remember that big goal we talked about in the beginning? Getting clear on where you are now, where you want to be and what you need to do to get there lays the foundation that allows you to reach for your goal.
Whatever plans you have, they are useless unless you can execute them. Taking real stock of where you are versus where you want to be allows you to see exactly the new habits and skills you need to become the kind of person who can reach your lofty goal.
The problem with typical goal setting is you set a goal and then you try to reach it. But that doesn't take into account that you might not be ready to reach that goal. You might not have the habits, the skills, the confidence, the knowledge, etc.
Once you start doing what you need to be doing, it becomes far easier to reach that goal. For example, if you want to work a 4 hour work day but right now you spend 4 hours just surfing the Internet, you know what change you need to make.
In order to reach your goal you've got to first become the kind of person who can reach your goal. Most people get it backwards – they think they will become the person they need to be to reach the goal once they have the goal. That's like thinking you won't put fuel into the stove until after the stove heats the room. It just doesn't work like that. You become the kind of person who can reach your goal - whatever your goal might be – and then you can reach it.
So if, for example, right now you try to go it alone in your business, then you know that you need to learn how to reach out and make connections as well as learning how to outsource some of your work to reach that next level of success.
If you lack skills, tools or confidence needed to reach your goal, then you need to get the skills – either by learning them or hiring someone else. You need to get the tools. And you need to develop the confidence. None of this needs to take long. You can find the right person with the right skills in just days, maybe even hours. An afternoon of Google searching will provide the right tools. A quick course on confidence will get you moving in the right direction, making progress each day. You might only need a tiny boost in confidence to get to the next step, which will then fuel your confidence even further.
That was of course just an example. I don't know what you need to become the person who can achieve your big goal. Only you know that – and you do know it, you just have to be willing to look within to find the answers.
Until I started looking at where I am in life versus where I want to be, goals were a difficult, tiring thing to reach. But now that I focus my efforts on always becoming and then being the person who achieves these goals easily, the goals are naturally much easier to attain.