@chrisbrogan was asking how to focus on life goals. Is this an issue you have, too? How come? What gets in the way?
It seems to me two important aspects to focusing your life on your goals are:
- Know what your goals are.
- Say ‘No’ to time uses that aren’t aligned with those goals.
What are your obstacles? How have you overcome them? (Or if not, what’s gone wrong?)
7 responses so far ↓
1 Pewari // Apr 9, 2008 at 3:27 am
What gets in the way for me is that I have LOADS of goals and all of them I love very very much… for a short period of time. I’m a serial flitter, or what Barbara Sher would call a Scanner.
In some ways the thought of only sticking to one or two things absolutely terrifies me (how boring!) but the simplicity of being able to say “I would like to be [insert cool life goal here] when I grow up” would be lovely. As would occasionally finishing a project sometime.
Anyway, back to your question for me is identifying things that aren’t aligned with my goals… my goals are so diverse that you could argue EVERYTHING is aligned with them, but there’s just not enough time in the day. I think I need to make some sort of hierarchy just to stay sane, but change my mind daily which ones are more important…
2 Susan Payton, The Marketing Eggspert // Apr 9, 2008 at 9:24 am
For my business, I THINK I’m very organized but as the cliche goes, it’s a lot easier to work IN my business than ON it. I find talking to others helps me regain my focus on my goals
3 Tracy Lee // Apr 9, 2008 at 9:41 am
Pewari, I think you and I are in the same boat. My greatest frustration is defining a single direction or goal to follow. I am a jack of many trades and as such wear many hats. To pigeonhole myself onto one path would disservice the others.
So why not define several goals and prioritize them? Because there is always something new that comes up. Attention deficit? Or perhaps staying open the life’s opportunities as they present themselves?
I would say a great frustration is that I have found that I am a reactionary person who seldom addresses things in a proactive manner, but as a mother of four and a wife of a man with a volatile and intense travel schedule, I need to be reactionary in order to be the support that I need to be for those who depend on me.
4 Jeff LeBlanc // Apr 9, 2008 at 10:26 am
Tim Burton (creative genius and one of my favorite filmmakers) had an interesting thing to say about life goals and professions in the “What I’ve Learned” issue of Esquire recently:
“I sometimes meet people who say, I’m going to be this and I’m going to be that. You feel kind of bad for them because they’re limiting themselves. It’s different from having an enthusiasm for something and seeing where life takes you. I feel lucky to never have planned to go into what I did. I always just said, ‘All I want to do is make things, whether it’s drawing or writing.’ If I’d said, ‘I’m going to be a director,’ it probably wouldn’t have happened.”
Perhaps we should spend less time planning and more time living from the heart. Passion could be our best guide to fulfillment.
5 Candis // Apr 9, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Work, making dinner, cleaning the house, and then being too pooped to do anything else. For me, it’s the day to day routine that gets in the way of pursuing my goals. However, I haven’t given up yet… still looking for my “out”.
6 TMcG // Apr 9, 2008 at 1:25 pm
It’s tough finding a balance between being kickass in the daily 9-5, giving back to the community and working on defining what my future goals are.
I think it’s all about a sense of priority and sometimes it’s hard to focus in on taking the time to prioritize and see where one may be working on things which may take us further away from our goals.
Great thread.
7 Mignon // Apr 11, 2008 at 1:12 pm
I’m so busy putting out fires all day and all night (and all weekend) that I can’t find time for anything else. I occasionally take a short breather and ask if these are problems that *really* need attention, but the answer is almost always yes.
I just confirmed that my assistant can work more hours soon, so I’m hopeful that things will get better (although I fear this just means I’ll be able to get to the two-alarm fires instead of just the three-alarm fires).
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