You’re Getting Warmer: Are Your Choices Bringing You Closer to Your Goals?
Everyone knows that you can’t reach your goals overnight.
Unless you win the lottery, in which case—cool! Send me a postcard from your private island paradise.
We make billions of choices in our lives, and it’s these choices (sometimes seemingly insignificant choices) that determine when, how, and if ever we achieve our goals.
Here’s an easy exercise to get you thinking about your goals even when you’re doing the mundane tasks of everyday life.
When you make a decision—any decision—ask yourself, “Is this bringing me closer to or further away from my goal?”
That’s it. A or B. Closer or further.
Some choices are easy. Leaving the house early when the weather is bad so you can get to work on time will bring you CLOSER to your goal of being a valuable employee.
Some choices are a little blurry. True, eating brown rice is better than white rice if you’re trying to eat healthier. But eating 5 cups of brown rice and all the calories than come with it will move you FURTHER away from your goal.
In this case, determine if your choice overall moves you closer to or further from your goal.
What choices have you made so far today?
What did you eat for breakfast?
What work task did you do first?
Did you make time for “me time”?
Here’s your challenge for this week: when you make a choice, ask yourself if it brings you closer to or further away from your goal.
Aim to make choices that support your goals at least most of the time (hey, no one’s perfect).
What did you do today that moved you closer to your goal?
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My colleague and I were actually having a very similar conversation the other day about whether or not what we do in our daily lives is working towards our goals. My goal for 2013 is to define these goals so I know if I am going the right way or not!
Awesome! I’m always refining my goals and figuring out my direction for the future. I have my “big picture” goals for the rest of the year, and I have monthly goals that break down my larger ones. Good luck with your goals!
I am such a bad decision maker. Meaning it takes me FOREVER to make a decision. I think that asking myself this question will definitely help me make decisions in the future!
Sometimes I can’t decide either! That’s normal. I just try to remember my goals when I get stuck.
I started asking myself this all the time a little over a year ago when we became determined to pay off all of our non-mortgage debt. It’s helped a lot so far!
We have some…OK a lot…of debt that we’re working on paying down. We ask ourselves this question every time we’re faced with another large purchase. Most of the time, we don’t need whatever it is.