Contemplation for the day: Does my life just happen to me? Or am I steering the ship? How do I get to the life I dream of?

I’ve been listening to Lindsay Teague Moreno again. This time talking about setting goals. She has some interesting facts from the Harvard Business Review:

• 83% of people in our population never set goals
• 14% have a plan but don’t write it down
• 3% have a plan they write down and map out

This blew my mind. 83% of the people out there are walking around with no idea where they want to go or what they want to do, just waiting for something to happen to them. They’re reacting to stimulus rather than gathering information
and choosing a direction. I’ve been there, I mean, shit happens and we really only have control of ourselves and our actions. But this is my 20s in a nutshell, reacting to life rather than making conscious choices, bumping from job to job and partner to partner in one crazy situation after another and surprised to find
myself there. The thing is, if you’re not steering the ship, you’ll end up in the last place you thought you would, doing things you never thought you would, just to survive, all the while wondering how in the hell you ended up here.

 

So here’s how those statistics break down:

• People who have a plan of some kind are 10 times more successful than people who don’t have a plan.

How will you know if you’ve arrived if you don’t know where you’re going? How will you get there in a reasonable time if you don’t know what you want. Even if this means something simple like I want out of debt. Making a plan, even if it’s just in your head means you are 10 times more likely to achieve your goals.

Here’s the kicker:

• People who write that plan down are 3 times more successful than the people who keep it in their heads!

This means thinking about your goals and writing them down can give you a 13 times higher percentage advantage than the average person who doesn’t do this. Success takes focus.

I sincerely believe that our unconscious mind is listening actively at all times, without a filter to qualify anything, to hear what we believe is true and where we plan to go. What you say to yourself, it believes as truth and helps you get more of that. What the people around you say repeatedly, it believes without reservation and uses that information to help shape how you see the world. What your mind consumes is just as important as what your body does.  Just writing down your goals tells your mind and the universe you’re serious about them and makes you more attractive to your goals. Writing down your dreams in an organized manner and mapping out the steps, with dates and deadlines to get there is what turns dreams into achievable goals.

Nearly every truly successful person does this. It organizes their minds and also helps them manifest the changes they are working toward. This means when opportunities present themselves they are easier to see, the unconscious mind is filtering with an eye toward moving toward what they focus on. Kind of like when you buy a new car and suddenly that kind and color of car is everywhere you look. Until you brought it into your awareness, you didn’t see it. If I want success like someone I admire has, I have to look at what they’ve done to succeed and model my actions after what is working. What I have been doing up til now, got me where I’m at, if that’s not where I want to be I have to do something different.

The more we focus on our goals the easier it is to see the steps and resources in front of us. This helps make big, pie in the sky ideas become actionable plans. This process also helps us understand what work will be involved and if we are truly willing to do what it takes to get to where we want to go or if we just enjoy the dream. It makes the choices we must make more obvious, and allows us to take responsibility for where our ships are headed. Sometimes that’s terrifying, other times exhilarating, often, it’s exhausting, but, I will tell you now, that for me, it always feels better than drifting.

I realized at some point, for me to live my best life I have to have a plan. So, I started writing things down, got myself a mentor, am listening to their advice about focusing on daily personal development, setting my intentions, daily meditations and am mapping out the steps to create the life I dream of rather than the one I stumbled into. The plan is ongoing, ever changing and malleable
but I understand now that those steps are part of what fills life with meaning and purpose, the journey to create our best life. Living intentionally changes everything. Thank you all for being a part of this journey, and thank you for including me in yours.
If you’d like a copy of the basic goal setting worksheet I use to map out where I’m going, fill out the contact form below and make a note that you’d like it so I can email it to you.  Remember: You’re 13 times more likely to succeed at anything if you write down your goals and make a plan. You’ve already go a leg up by starting with this! I’m proud of you!