Good dreams don’t come cheap,
You have to pay for them.
But if you just dream while you’re asleep,
There is no way for them,
To come alive,
To survive!
- Harry Chapin.
Your business is a journey, but without an inspirational dream, you have no destination, and a that means you’ll simply wander off and get lost.
Before you can succeed at anything, you need to have a goal, a dream. I am not talking about a wild fantasy, but you have to have something to strive for, something that keeps you motivated.
Your dream has be more than “make a lot of money”. That is not a real goal. What you want to achieve with that money is what you need to think about.
Firstly, money is just something that was invented to make trade easier than bartering. Just look at anything, the price tag is different now to what it was a few years ago and it will be different again in the future and in the Forex markets you’ll see the value of currencies changing by the minute!Money has no real value until you trade it for something else!
Real goals are things that you can visualize and will change your life!
Of course people will think of the obvious material things such as a fine house, car, boat, jewelry, but there are other things that are as, or even more important! Think about your lifestyle now, and the one that you would like to have!
If you think about lifestyle, you can add in things like travel, reduced stress by being debt free, and then there is the most valuable thing of all….. time!
Every day, hour, minute and second is a precious fleeting thing that you cannot buy and that you can never get back. Do you want those moments spent slaving, or would you like more of them spent enjoying yourself, fulfilling yourself with your loved ones, etc?
My general, long term goals include:
- to be independent with my time, able to spend whatever time I wish on what is important to me. I have been a wage earner, where others determine where and when I spend my time and I’ve been enslaved by my own business, unable to see the forest for the trees, and they are not situations I wish to revisit! I want to be able to be there for my family whenever they need me!
- to be financially independent, debt free and able to cover not only the costs of my own comfort, but any expenses I need to, such as medical expenses for me and my family, the costs of educating my kids, the ability for my wife to travel overseas to visit her family in the Philippines when she needs to!
- to build a “green home” that is not only comfortable (even luxurious) but is energy efficient, etc, and I’d also like an electric car, in fact, I’d like to invest in and even get involved at some level, in the development of such technologies! Remember, I have a technical background, so it as much to satisfy that “geeky” side of me as anything else, but I don’t want to do it as “job”, I’d like to be able to do it “on my terms”.
- to have a home music studio of sorts and a collection of guitars and amps to complement what I have already!
Just do a mind dump!
Once you have these, print out pictures or statements and put them where they will remind you constantly what you are aiming for in your life. This stuff is the “secret” of the The Secret. Motivate yourself with your dreams.
From there you can work backwards and eke out a 12 month plan, a 90 day plan, monthly, weekly, daily, hourly tasks. You can use mind maps to make this a lot easier! Here is some free software I use to help with that… Freemind
I know you have probably heard it “Fail to plan and you plan to fail”. It might sound a bit “yada yada” after a while, but those that fob it off as worthless are those that have not done it. The world is full of mockers, and they all have one thing in common – a lack of success and no hope of finding it. Their ridicule is more about their own insecurities and doubts than anything else.
So, what are your dreams? Please share them below!
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