I need you to use your imagination for this visualization. Think about a clean field of snow and imagine it is your life's journey. In order to make the most efficient path through the field are you going to pick a tree on the other side? Or are you going to cross the field looking at your feet? Picking a tree is the correct answer. Yet, when I inquire about people having that tree chosen for their life, the majority are looking at their feet as they make their way through life. They tend to focus on short term fires and gains at the expense of their long-term dreams.
Most people understand why we set goals in business. This gives everyone a target to hit, a way to measure success, and failure. Why does that logic not transfer over to their personal lives? It does take a lot of personal reflection time to create the path towards the tree up front. Then a lot of collaboration, rewrites, and focus on details. But, it literally will grant you years of returns when you do it right.
Here is my story. In 1994 I attended a workshop where we created a vision for our lives. I drew a simple picture of a family living in the mountains, surrounded by love. Then we had a series of self-reflection questions we answered to create a Personal Mission Statement (I will call this a P.M.S. going forward). The week after that, I followed a more left-brained approach from Steven Covey to clarify my P.M.S. It became "To provide an environment to promote my family's happiness and health." That single sentence gives me the guide for making decisions I know will help me achieve my lifelong dreams. If the decision I am facing will help me achieve my P.M.S., then I do it. If it takes away from my P.M.S., I decide against it.
From there I flushed out a long-term plan using my Goal Setting Recipe:
1) Determine a long-term goal for my professional life and long-term goal for my personal life. At that time I set them for 10 years down the road. I wanted to have my own training business in the mountains of Colorado by 2004.
2) Then I broke each of those goals down into smaller goals that would be achieved annually, monthly, and finally weekly. This took a lot of time to determine priorities, specific strategies, and skills I needed to master.
3) All of the plans for the first year were entered into my planner and given a B priority. Once I accomplished all the tasks that were important and urgent (A), I moved to those that were important, but not urgent (B). Every month end I would check on my progress against the plan and modify next month's plan if needed. I did not want to fall too far behind. Even though we had 10 years to accomplish the long-term goals, I did not want to procrastinate and risk the end goal.
When I came home from finishing my master plan, I excitedly shared this with my wife Minnie and son Stephan. We did not involve my daughter Jessica yet because she was 1 year old. I knew they enjoyed our vacations to Colorado as much as I did, so I expected them to be just as ecstatic about the plan. What I didn't take into consideration is that they had dreams also. My wife had just started her own business and that business base was in Michigan. My son had made good friends and enjoyed his school and neighborhood. At first, I was mad that this plan I spent so much time on was being refuted. Once I settled down I revisited my P.M.S. -"To provide an environment to promote my family's happiness and health." The message was clear- it was important to incorporate their desires into my long-term plans. I could have continued forward and coerced them to go with my plan, but that is not what I claimed as my guiding principle, governing value, or P.M.S.
So we sat down and modified the plan to add room for their goals. It actually did not change many of the specifics of my plan, just extended out some of the deadlines, moving the goal to 15 years from 10. I could live with that to have my family committed to achieving this lifelong goal. As the years progressed we faced many attractive options and some we said yes to, others we ignored. My wife's business flourished with a base of clients she developed in West Michigan. My son and daughter received a solid education and support from the schools, community of friends, and family that all lived in Michigan.
Life also happens and we extended our life goal out even further, because we wanted to, not because we had to. In 2012 my son, Stephan moved out to Colorado to get his Master's degree at CSU. He met Jillian, now his wife, and settled in Colorado. At their 2017 mountainside wedding, my aging parents gave us the last push we needed. "Don't wait for us to go to realize your dreams. We had our children and grandchildren near us for all our life. Now it is your turn."
In 2019 the Long-term personal and professional goals were achieved. The sacrifices, difficult choices, and will power to stay true to our goals paid off. We are truly living our dream.
The bonus came as our first Grandchild was born in Colorado in 2020.
If this is appealing to you, I can help you create a strategy for you to get more of what you want out of life. We can bring that tree across the field into focus.
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