By Andrew Yusko
“I have a dream…” said Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., there are no words more famous or instantly recognizable in history. Dr. King had a great dream and his ideology, speeches, and life have impacted countless people and brought about great change in the world.
The dreams that you have may not be as grandiose as the ones that Dr. King had, but I know that you have them. Maybe, your dreams have to do with the number of kids you want to have, the size of your house, your career, or the people that you want to impact. All of those dreams are great. You might even have really big dreams, like being the POTUS, being an astronaut, a professional athlete, or actor. Those are great dreams as well. But there is something better than dreams… Goals.
Many people, I would even say all people, have dreams like the ones I described above. Few people have goals. Goals are better than dreams because goals put action behind your dreams. Goals make your dreams attainable.
Dreams don’t come true, goals do.
Over the weekend one of our contributors, Anissa Walker, shared an article on values (you can find it here). She stressed the importance of having values and how they should guide your organization in every area.
This week I wanted to continue on a similar topic and talk about goal setting. In business you should always start out with values first, then develop a mission statement based on your values, after that you develop your vision, lastly you develop your strategy. I have a diagram on this topic that I will share in a later post, but I wanted to outline that information so that you understand that your goals should reflect your values and your mission.
I could write multiple articles on how to cast proper vision for your company, but today I want to talk about and share with you how to apply this to your life. In the same way I coach organizations on developing their values, mission, vision, and strategy is how you as an individual should develop them for yourself. You should start with your core values, develop a personal mission statement, cast a vision (set goals), and then build a strategy.
I know that can be a lot to ask, so for today we will focus on the “vision” or “goal setting” phase since Anissa covered values.
In my single life I was a big-time goal setter. I would write down my personal goals, spiritual goals, and professional goals for 1 year, 5 years, and 10 years. I did all of this before I ever developed the diagram above. I truly believed what Tony Robbins said, “Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into visible.” For me if it wasn’t written down it wasn’t real, and I couldn’t count on it ever coming true. I believe that goals that aren’t written down are nothing more than dreams.
Now that I am married, my wife and I are starting to take goals seriously together. I still have my individual goals, she has hers, but now we are setting goals together. Not just frivolous and materialistic goals, but true partnership goals.
What I’m about to do is going to be extremely vulnerable, but I’m doing so in order to help you with setting your own goals.
Here is a copy of my personal goals and our goals as a couple:
As you can see, we are still a work in progress. Setting goals isn’t about being perfect it’s about making progress. Anissa quoted a Chinese proverb that said “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” Well I want to use that again in this article to say that the best time for you as an individual or couple to set your goals was years ago, but the second best time is now. Don’t waste any time setting your goals.
The process doesn’t have to be painful and it doesn’t have to be time consuming. My suggestion is that you set out some time with no distractions and you think about what you really want, what your passionate about, and what your dreams are. If you are married do this as a couple. As you begin to write those things down you will start to see your goals materialize. During this phase don’t be concerned about how big they are or how crazy they are. Also, don’t be concerned about how you will make them happen. For now, just focus on writing down your dreams and passions as an individual and a couple.
During this phase, don’t forget to write down the fun stuff as well. Melissa and I love vacationing together, so we wrote down about 20 dream vacations and then did an NCAA bracket to help us decide which ones we were going to plan as goals for our anniversary trips (as you can see above). No, I’m not kidding we really did a bracket haha.
This process shouldn’t be torture, it should be fun, and it should be something that helps you focus as a couple or an individual on the future. Don’t waste time not focusing on your future, the future will be here before you know it.
Once you’ve got all of your crazy, fun, and outlandish “dreams” down on a piece of paper start to organize them. (If you would like a copy of the spreadsheet seen above contact us through the website or through social media and I will email you it). Decide which of the crazy dreams you have can be accomplished in a year and write those down in the appropriate area. Then decide which ones can be accomplished in 5 years, write them down. Lastly, you guessed it, talk about what can be accomplished in 10 years and write them down.
If you stop and think about it for a second, there is nothing, I mean NOTHING, that you can’t do if given 10 years to do it, if you are focused. The problem is, we rarely focus. We get distracted, we focus on frivolously and fleeting things, like social media or Netflix, rather than focusing on accomplishing our dreams. To put it bluntly we are too lazy to turn our dreams into goals or we are too afraid of failing. We would rather leave our goals as dreams so that we can have an excuse for why they never came true.
Dreams don’t come true, but goals do.
Don’t be like everyone else. Don’t just spend your life paying bills and going to work with the highlight of your life being the 2 weeks of vacation you get and being able to afford your Netflix account every month. Dream big, read, explore, write down your dreams and make them goals. That way at the end of your life you can see that dreams can come true.
Andrew T. Yusko Jr. M.A.
Director of Sales
Campany Roof Maintenance
&
Managing Consultant
Yusko Consulting Services LLC
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