A friend of mind was recently doing some consulting for my company and he asked me a very important question: “Do you have all your long term goals for your company written out?”
I had to admit the honest answer was no. Even though I’m a long term strategic thinker, his question motivated me to add clarity and specifics to my goals for my personal life and for my business ventures.
What is the purpose of long term thinking? When you build a wall, you build it one brick at a time. Make sure every brick is straight so you end up with the wall you planned for when you started the project. If you don’t start with a specific plan for the wall you intend to build, then by the time it’s finished that wall may look nothing like what you vaguely had in mind when you started. You don’t want your life to turn out like a bad construction project that was built from a sketch on a napkin.
As you clarify your life’s goals, start by writing down your “why.” Why do you want to build wealth? Why do you want to have the financial freedom it will provide? Why will your goals support your purpose in life?
Make sure all the financial strategies you are pursuing today are in pursuit of your goals for tomorrow. If there’s something on your to-do list today that doesn’t build toward your goals for the future, then maybe it shouldn’t be on your list.
You know how old you’ll be in 10 years, so you know what kind of lifestyle you’ll want to have. You know what things you’ll want to have time to enjoy. Set your goals today to build the life you want to be living ten years from now.
Do a gut check today to make sure everything you’re doing is building the life you’ve always dreamed of in the future.
That, my friends, is how dreams become reality.
