(5 min read)
"If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time."
“A man was traveling on a deserted road and stopped at an intersection. He looked around and saw an elderly man seated on a rocking chair by the entrance of an old building playing a harmonic. The traveler asked the elderly man: Where does this road take me? The elderly man asked: Where do you want to go? The traveler replied: I don’t know. The elderly man then said: Then take any road. What difference does it make?”
Would you hop in on a train without knowing where it is headed? Would you board a plane that has no destination, and that is only intended to be on the air indefinitely? Most people would agree that these scenarios do not make any sense, and their answers to these questions would be a certain “no”. Then, why would anyone go through life without having any intended goal or destination?
Goals. They provide us with a sense of meaning, purpose and direction. Without them, we would never get anywhere and would be indefinitely stuck in where we are, wherever that is.
My point is: when you want to be successful in life, productivity and hard work alone are not enough. You need to know where you want to go. You need a clear and defined target. Clarity is power. This is the fundamental. You need to envision in your mind the future you want for yourself and your loved ones.
Create your Future
“The best way to predict the future is to create it”
Begin designing your goals with the desired end result in mind, and from that point, you then go backwards and determine the plans and the actions you need to take to achieve that goal, and to reach your desired destination.
Once you have decided what you want, you need to develop a plan of action for its attainment. The easiest and quickest way to develop your plan is to model the success of someone who already has achieved what you want to achieve. Do your research. Ask yourself the following questions: who has already done it? What are the beliefs and mindset of these people? Which were their actions? In what sequence? Which were their mistakes, so you can avoid them? Which were their lessons learned from their mistakes?
Based on the answers to these questions, you can then develop your written action plan for your goal. It is very important that you write it down because this will create in your mind the initial momentum you need to get started on your goal at once. By writing down your goals and your action plan, you are communicating to your subconscious mind that this is important, that you are very serious about it and are fully committed to its attainment.
Goals and the Operation of your Brain
When you write down your goals, something very interesting is triggered on your brain. There is something called the Reticular Activation System (RAS), which is a bundle of nerves at our brainstem that filters out unnecessary information, so the important stuff gets through to our nervous system and into our subconscious mind. The RAS teaches your brain what to notice.
It is the reason why you learn a new word and then start hearing it everywhere. It is also the reason why you get fixated on a car and start seeing that car everywhere. It is the reason why you think of a beautiful outfit, and then you start seeing it everywhere.
Your RAS takes what you focus on and creates a filter for it. It then sorts through the data and presents only the pieces that are important to you.
For purposes of illustration, let’s do a quick exercise. Look around you right now, and search for any items that are red. Look for red, look for red…. Ok now, close your eyes, and try to remember any item that was blue. Most probably, you won’t be able to remember any blue items, because you were not looking for it. Your physical eyes saw them, but the information was filtered out through the RAS.
In this same way, your RAS will get you to notice those things that are important for the achievement of your goals. And the best part is that this happens automatically, without any effort from your part. This is why it is so important to write down your goals and review them periodically. By doing so, you condition your brain to notice anything that will take you closer to the achievement of your goals.
Once you have your goals and action plans written down, you then use the right tactics to get there, one of which is having the best time management tools and practices. If you want to learn more about a great tool that will help you to be more productive and achieve the success that you desire and deserve, click on the link at the end of this article.
One thing is certain: in five years from now, YOU will get to one of two DESTINATIONS. One destination may be a DESIGNED DESTINATION, one which you designed with your dreams and goals, and put the time and effort to achieve, or, it could be an UNDESIGNED DESTINATION, one which you did not designed, did not plan for it, totally unfulfilling and far away from your dream life. The choice is yours. Choose well.
“We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.”
“Pay the price now, so you can pay ANY PRICE tomorrow."