Monday, August 6, 2007

Goals

My wife and I are obsessive goal setters. Her because she has always been a successful overachiever, me because if I don't have a plan, nothing will happen.

I grew up in a very poor, uneducated family. When I was in my early twenties working a corporate job I got hooked on self improvement seminars, books and audio courses. Goal setting and positive thinking was a completely new concept to me that no one I knew ever talked about. I loved it. I was (and still am) inspired by it. Now that I'm writing about it I'm thinking I need to start updating my collection since it's mostly tapes and I no longer own a tape player. I really want to teach my kids about it so that they can clarify for themselves what they would like to do with their lives early on. I always think about Tiger woods and wonder what it would have been like to find something I loved and been able to hone that skill my entire life.

We regularly have discussions about what we really want out of life, how to plan for it and what we can do now to get there later. A new financial tool I've been using is a great online site called Wesabe it's really helped me see exactly where our money goes.

One of my lofty lifetime goals is to live waterfront. I would love to wake up every morning to the sunrise playing off the water.

What are some of your goals?

3 comments:

fostermama said...

This was getting to long for a comment, so I turned it into a post. Thanks for the inspiration...

Anonymous said...

I found goal setting is useful, but it's only part of the picture. I recommend the teachings of esther and jerry hicks. They have free mp3s that teach the basics which is enough to go on for a long time actually.
http://www.abraham-hicks.com/teachings.php

Basically, this is the stuff that really changed my life. Give it a listen sometime. :-)

starevelina said...

I put my goals up on a "vision board" (just a white memo board in the dining room). That way I see them and think about them often (an idea from "The Secret"). Right now there are three on it: a picture of J and I in front of a house (because we want to buy), a picture of myself as a DSS worker (because I just applied), and $150,000 (because my-oh-my could we ever use a windfall!) Long range? A beautiful old farmhouse in the country, a published book, and a gaggle of kids! -Kate-