Setting Goals

(FIRST DRAFT - the below has yet to be Proofed & edited)

I subscribe to the principle that the best way to move forward in life, is to define your goals and prepare a plan to achieve them. No matter if your goals are financial, education, love, family, personal achievement or a combination of all – you should have three types of goals defined.

They should be Immediate, Mid-Range, and Long Term goals. Immediate goals should be those that you would like to see achieved in the next 12 months or less. Mid-Range are the goals you would like to see achieved within the next five years, and Long Term goals are those planned for the next ten years.

These goals are like a business’ Mission Statement. Sit down and think hard about where you want to be at the end of a year, at the end of five years, and at the end of ten years – and then write it down. Aim High – but be realistic too. Then take the paper you wrote the goals on – and put it somewhere private, but where you will read it each day at about the same time for self-motivation.

In 1981, I was living in rental duplex house in Batavia, New York; working at a computer store during the day; going to a community college at night; and driving a rusty 1975 Pinto station wagon. I was just starting a family and had grown up in poverty – so the bigger components of my goals were financially related then. While I had family, health, personal achievement and the like in these goals – the Immediate goal included going into business for myself, the Mid-Range included owning a home and earning $100,000 a year, and the Long Term was to has a net worth exceeding $1 million. The goals were actually more complex than that – but this is an example of at least one of the components in each of my goals back then. I wrote these goals down and kept the paper in my night stand. Each morning I would open the drawer to the night stand and take the two minutes required to reread my three categories of goals. This was a great way to start my day pumped and motivated.

Years later, when I was about 40, my Immediate Goal included selling a business for a home run. Mid-Range was for the wife and I to visit dozens of Caribbean Islands, and my Long Term included playing competitive softball until I was 50. As I was more comfortable financially – my goals turned more to quality of life than financially related.

Now as I write this with less than two months away from turning 50, my Immediate Goal includes completing our foster child’s adoption and to make the 6 weeks left to play softball until 50 (despite injuries always taking 10 times longer to heal). My Mid-Range includes seeing all of my kids through college and into business; and my Long Term goals includes taking better care of myself and enter into business partnerships with any of my five children interested in doing so.

I am currently a Drag Racer now -- along with my eldest daughter and son who both race too. I now spend most of my Semi-Retirement preparing for races and traveling to and from them. Included in my personal achievement goals are the racing goals of 8-second ¼ miles before hitting 50, a 7-second ¼ mile for my Mid-Range goal; and to be competitive in the fastest class of Nostalgia Super Stock until I’m at least 60 for my Long Term goal.

As you can see, my goals have not just been a financial, a business, or a personal achievement goal – but the complex combination of everything I have wanted to achieve for those periods. In the past my goals have included wanting a nice lake house, a motorhome, and a Viper GTS; having more time for the kids; learning to fly an airplane; etc.

Figure out where you would really like to be in 1, 5, and 10 years, and then memorialize it in writing. Once a day reread your goals to remind yourself of them – and formulate a reasonable plan to achieve these goals. You have to know where you want to be, and in what time frame you want to be there – before you can begin to work on the plan to get there.