Success begins with clear goals. Goal setting is analogous to driving to an unknown city to start a fresh life--one that offers a higher quality of life. You must identify where you want to go, why you want to go, and how you will get there. Without a clear destination, you’re merely on a road trip.
When you don’t have a goal, you can’t correct your course because you have no guidance system. Unfortunately, most people shy away from goal-setting. They meander through life, then wonder why their life never turned out how they wanted.
Since life is complex, we need to set multiple goals to live a full life. Fortunately, they all fall under three broad categories: wealth, health, and relationships.
Let’s look at some realistic goals you can set to improve in these three categories.
We can break the pursuit of wealth up into four primary areas: earning, spending, saving and investing. While earning and spending will keep you solvent, only saving and investing will make you wealthy.
The purpose of saving is not just to have enough money for an emergency, but to also have enough money to invest. However, while earning, spending and saving are important, it is only when you invest that your journey to wealth begins.
The safest way to invest is to create a service that everyone needs. One thing that everyone needs is housing. Because many people can’t afford to buy their own home, investing in rental real estate is a reliable investment. Demand always exceeds supply.
However, if you manage your own properties, then you have merely bought yourself a job. You are earning, not investing. An investment is something that puts your money to work for you. So, when you buy a residential rental property, hire a property management company familiar with the neighborhood. If, say, you buy a property in Austin, Texas, but live in Los Angeles, California, it makes sense to hire an Austin property management company to look after your property as they will be able to show the property to tenants and take care of the tenancy.
While wealth is important, don’t forget to look after your health, too. Review what you eat, how much you exercise, and how much sleep you get every night.
If you don’t know where to start, get medical advice, nutritional counseling, and personal training. Connect with professionals who can help you figure out how to improve essential areas of your life.
While physical health is important, don’t forget about your mental and emotional health, too. One powerful way to improve your mental and emotional health is to learn how to feel empowered. Consider working with a therapist to learn how to empower yourself.
If you don’t feel empowered, then you will feel agitated or distraught most of the time.
After you learn how to empower yourself, you will find it easier to do the following things:
- Stand up for yourself
- Think positive thoughts.
- Say “no” when necessary.
- Take care of yourself.
- Think outside the box.
Relationships are hard because people are complex. In fact, they are so complex that they rarely understand themselves well. What’s more, few people are like you while most people are dissimilar to you. This makes it difficult to get along with everyone.
While you may be able to get love and attention from family and friends who share your values and beliefs, you must also learn how to build trust with people outside your immediate circle. This is especially important in the workplace.
Here are two things you can do to build:
- Do allow other people to have their own opinions.
- Do allow other people to learn from their mistakes.
Here are two things you should not do to disrupt trust:
- Don’t gossip about other people,
- Don’t talk about someone behind their back
Overall, the keys to success are to set logical goals so that you can live a purpose-filled life. By focusing on wealth, health, and relationships, you will be able to design your ideal life.