goals. Your family, religious leaders, boss, neighbors, close friends, and so on. Each person reading this book has a different list of who she thinks is appropriate to consult with. Who is on your list?
In preparation for writing down your goals, take a moment to think about your values . What do you see as your personal mission? Do you believe in helping others or letting others help themselves? Do you want to be rich or happy (or can both be achieved)? Do you value independence or cooperation? Do you value community or self-interest?
Your work-life and home-life values may differ. At home, you may be the nurturing parent, loving all your children equally and helping them to succeed. At work, things may be more competitive or role-oriented.
Setting Goals
Let's do just that.
Take a big sheet of paper and divide it into six sections, as shown in Figure 7-1 (people with lots of goals or large handwriting might want to use multiple sheets of paper).
You're going to fill in each box with a list of life goals in that category. You can add additional timeframes if you feel your goals are grouped differently.
Now spend some time listing your goals. To help you get started, here are some guidelines:
Typically these are the smaller projects on your mind. Completing projects that have started, replacing a piece of equipment, and so on.
These are the bigger projects. Often they include various reorganizations you'd like to make, both technical ('replace current directory service with a single-sign-on system') or organizational ('reorganize group into customer-focused teams').
These are the biggest projects, often including life-changing goals such as career moves ('get an MBA and move into management') or life changes ('get married').
Don't worry about their order or whether your goals are good enough for anyone else to see. Just list them. I'll wait.
Really. I'll wait. Don't continue to the next paragraph until you've completed your chart. Not in your head, but on real paper.
You didn't list them did you? You figured you'd come back to this chapter some other time and fill out the table. All the exercises in this book have one thing in common: they don't work unless you do them. So now pull out a sheet of paper and start writing!
I'll wait....
Really....
Are you back? Good.
Now go back and make sure each goal is measurable. Could another person examine the situation and determine that the goal has been met? Can you use numbers or tangible results as evidence of completion? Review your list now and make sure. Again, I'll wait.
Next, for each goal, work out which are As, which are Bs, and which are Cs. As you absolutely must do, Bs are the next most important, and Cs are the good ideas or 'would be nice' items that are low priority. This is similar to the priority scheme used in Chapter 4.
Go mark them now. I can't stress enough the importance of doing these exercises as you come across them.
That wasn't as easy as you thought, was it? Did you want to mark everything with an A? I know I did. Prioritization can take as long as, or longer, than writing the initial list.
Tip
You might also want to write 'lifetime goals,' such as where you want to be when you retire (both geographically and financially). Due to the way compound interest boosts investments, the sooner you start your financial planning, the better.
