Modern Approach to Living Your Dream Life

I love goals and it’s been a passion of mine ever since I got past my childhood trauma of goal-setting.

All jokes aside, I actually really do love goal-setting and I do have some memories from elementary school that set the stage for me to dislike goal-setting from a young age. Here’s the thing… I grew up with “S.M.A.R.T.” goals and if you’re not familiar with this acronym, here’s what it stands for…

S: Specific

M: Measurable

A: Attainable

R: Relatable

T: Time-Bound

Back to my days in elementary school and my PTSD around goal-setting. I remember the classroom setting quite clearly and I also remember most of us in the class getting goals “wrong” (or so we were led to believe).

Papers bleeding with red marker for all the mistakes of how we wrote out our goals because the goals didn’t carry every letter of the acronym. While, I get this in theory; I don’t believe this is the way to educate our youth. This aside though, in this post my intention is to teach you a thing or two about goal-setting…

A GOAL IS A GOAL IF IT IS RELATABLE TO YOU

No need to stress about if your goal is a “SMART” goal or not, there’s no test. The only objective is to act on your goals and I’ve talked with far too many professionals that are resistant to goal-setting so they simply don’t write out their goals. 

The reason I bring up the story of my days in elementary school goal-setting is because when I talk with other professionals about goal-setting and get to the root of their resistance it’s often because the “SMART” strategy doesn’t align with them. Why does it not align with them? Because they were “scarred” from their youth.

The most important thing about goal-setting is to write down your goal. If you understand your goal, then that’s all that matters. No one other than you needs to know what to do to achieve your goal.

GOAL-SETTING STATS

According to a Harvard MBA Business School Study… only 3% of people write down their goals. Furthermore, the 3% that actually write down their goals (with a plan) make 10 times as much as the other 97%.

So, I ask you why would you not write down your goals?

GOAL-SETTING MADE EASY

Did you know that I wrote a book a couple years ago called “The Written Goal”?

As you might have guessed from the title the book is about the importance of writing down your goals and the mindset that follows by reading your goals daily.

The book is in truth more of a workbook than your classical narrative and if you would like to check it out, it’s on sale for just $8.88 (I make next to nothing on this book. I wrote this book because I’m truly passionate about helping others). Click here to read more about “The Written Goal”.

Here’s another, much easier route to take… I recently went through all the worksheets in my book, “The Written Goal'' and condensed them to an actionable (and editable) Goal-Setting Guide. You can snag this guide for FREE by clicking here :)

GETTING STARTED

The key to any successful venture is to just get started. I have suffered from impostor syndrome, procrastination and lack of motivation. I truly understand the hurdles to even get started. But, take it from me… someone who was named to Silicon Valley’s 40 Under 40 List and PPB’s Rising Stars… the key to success is to get started. You can tweak and repeat as needed, but you’ll never get to where you want to go if you don’t get started.

WHAT THEY DON’T WARN YOU ABOUT GOAL-SETTING

The final thing I’ll leave you with is that you had better be sure you want what you’re chasing. There’s no worse feeling than accomplishing your goal and feeling empty. Trust me, this is a common experience for many high achievers. The more I’ve explored my own spirituality and what truly drives me, the more I’ve realized that most of what I’ve been chasing in the professional world was what I thought I was supposed to strive for; rather than going down the path that truly calls to me.

If you can relate to any questioning of your motives, then be sure to check out the pilot podcast episode of SOUL SEEKR (a podcast I started last fall) - click here to listen.

To Getting Started,

Sam