How To Set Your Long-Term Goals

One thing that has always fascinated me is how so many people never seem to have any long-term goals. Of course, it’s possible some have found a life they are delighted with and no longer wish to grow or achieve anything else. But that’s unlikely, as humans are growing machines. It’s what we do. We grow, we develop, and we become better.

That’s why we read the news; it’s why we ask people questions and read books. Whether we are aware of it or not, we love learning because learning is how we grow. First, we learn something, then do something new based on what we learned, and boom! We’ve developed a little more.

Where do long-term goals come from?

Your long term-goals come from a mix of two things that are unique to you: your experience and your imagination. When you experience something, a beautiful scenery, a luxury car or a delicious meal at a fabulous restaurant, that experience gets locked away in your subconscious mind.

When you apply your imagination to those experiences, you discover things you would love to do or have. For example, you may want to learn how to cook that delicious meal, leading you to think about building your own restaurant.

Unfortunately, there is a third part of your mind acting on these two: your identity. Suppose you identify yourself as an office-based accountant, for instance. In that case, you will quickly close down any possibility of learning to be a chef and owning your own restaurant — it’s not who you are — you are an accountant working in an office: We are reminded of ridiculous comments we may have received from other people such as “don’t get ideas above your station” or “that’s not who you are”.

It’s not that building your restaurant is impossible — it’s not. It’s just you identify yourself as something very different, so your conscious brain will not entertain anything alien to how you see yourself.

But if you want to grow and improve, you are going to have to change. That is the only way. You may not need to change a lot, but you will still need to change.

You could start by asking yourself, “what if…?” For instance, you could ask: “What if I started my own restaurant?” How would it make you feel? Where would your restaurant be? What would it look like? To answer questions like these, you need to summon up your imagination. You will be forced to imagine yourself with a different identity. That’s how you break free from your self-imposed identity prison.

Once you know your identity and how it is limiting your future, you can open up your imagination and let it go wild. The wilder, the better. It’s from your wild, crazy ideas that a seed can sprout.

Here is an exercise you can use to help you. This is an exercise I use in my Time And Life Mastery course, and it’s designed to open your imagination and externalise your ideas. Getting these ideas out of your head is a great place to start.

The five questions:

1 What do you want to do?

This relates to your career, hobbies, sports and other pastimes.

2 Who do you want to be?

We all have people who we admire. What is it about those people you admire? What characteristics would you like to model and emulate?

3 What do you want to see?

Are there any concerts you would like to go to or places you’d like to see?

4 What do you want to have?

This is the material question. What things would you like to have?

5 Where do you want to go?

Are there any places or countries you would like to visit?

These five questions will open up your mind and will bring up all sorts of wonderful ideas. Resist the urge to dismiss anything at this stage. Remember, your self-imposed identity will baulk at some of the things you write. Ignore that inner voice. This is not about who you are today; it’s about the person you want to be in the future.

Take your time with them. You can do this exercise over a few days or weeks. It might take a while for your imagination to open up, and eventually, you will find you have a rather exciting list.

All you need to do now is choose one or two you can start working on today. Spending a week at the Goldeneye Resort in Jamaica has been on my list for a few years now. When I first thought of the idea, I thought, “no way! Impossible”, and squeezed it out of my thoughts. But it kept coming back.

So, I wrote it down and underneath began a list of what I would have to do to make it happen. Within a few minutes, I was surprised how easy it would be and to make it happen; I needed to begin saving. The sooner I started that, the sooner I would be able to go. So, I acted and opened a special bank account just for this purpose and started putting some money in there every month.

Whatever you decide you would like to do or become, all you can do is take the first step. That could be to remove unhealthy foods from your diet, start going for a twenty-minute walk in the evening, or to go out and buy a book so that you can learn a foreign language. That’s it. Just do the first step.

There is always something you could be striving towards, and all you need to do is give yourself a few days to think about what you would like to do and then plan to turn whatever that is into reality. That’s where your long-term goals come from.

Thank you for reading my stories! 😊

My purpose is to help as many people as I can live the lives they desire. To help people find happiness and become better organised and more productive so they can do more of the important things in life.

If you would like to learn more about the work I do, and how I can help you become better organised and more productive, you can visit my website or say hello on Twitter, YouTube or Facebook and subscribe to my weekly newsletter right here.