In the busy world in which we live in, it is increasingly difficult to achieve everything that we need to do let alone everything we want to do. It is therefore important, but rather, necessary, to have clear set goals and methodology to work with in order to get to a place that we want to.
You may find going to sleep at night determined to get up early in the morning to get a fresh start, break old habits and make new breakthroughs in your life, only to wake up in the morning to perform the very habit you intended to break first thing. It could be to snooze, check your social media on the phone, have a smoke, or not have breakfast. Whatever it may be, you have already broken your will, demotivated your soul, and hoped back in to the Ferris wheel of the rat race. A rat race to which there is no end in sight unless the wheel falls off or you drop dead.
And what a wasted life this would be.
In a series of short articles, a discussion will be made as to what it is that we might need to do, can do, should do and must do in order to navigate the seas of life and manage the ever-dwindling asset we have called time. For every minute that passes, is a minute lost forever. And anyone that loses that minute in waste is one that has lost. Lost an opportunity that has sailed through the seas of time just as the clouds pass through the skies, never taking a second look at what or who was left behind.
To start, we will look at the three D’s needed to start on this journey. Decision, Discipline, Determination.
Decision
The first thing that is needed is to make a decision. Yes. Decide. Be your own boss. Decide what it is that is your goal in life.
This may be one major goal, such as, by age so and so I will be a master in the art of <<insert what you like here>>, or another example may be, when I pass, this is the legacy I will leave behind.
It could be also broken down in to smaller goals in different streams of life. Parenthood, marriage, work, education, health and wellbeing, spiritual… whatever the case may be… each of these topics can have their own goals and sub-goals to achieve in the short, medium and long term.
The important thing here, is to make that decision.
Then write it.
Yes, write it. To think on paper is one of the most powerful tools to motivate one to action. The mind suddenly moves one gear up as it sees the visualisation of what is written on paper and is triggered towards that target.
Too many goals? Cannot decide what to do or what you want to achieve? Then write them all down, and then decide which ones will make the most significant impact on your life, or get you closer to the one major goal you have in your life. And pick that one. You should not discard the others! Keep them for a later time. You may find that after applying some of these ideas, you will have so much time left and have achieved so much, you will be looking for things to do. Here, you can go back to what you wrote and review them, apply them, or write other ideas to go for.
Once you have chosen what it is that you want to achieve in each stream of your life, write everything you can do in order achieve that goal…. everything and anything. Prioritise which are more important and will have the greatest weighing on achieving that goal – and start working on it today. Start while you are motivated, leaving it even for one extra night can have devastating effects the next morning. The risk is, starting your day with a bad habit and back on that Ferris wheel.
Discipline
Once decided, once you have written and chosen your goals, and once you have a list of things you need to achieve, be disciplined and start working on that list. Even if it is just one small step every day, do not let a day go by if you have not at least accomplished a small step, or even, part of a step, in going forwards.
Determination
Like discipline, this is also important. Will power is your most important capital in ensuring that once you have decided, that you become disciplined and determined in pushing through with that decision.
Never allow whims and desires to control and rule over your intellect. That simply deteriorates the power of the will. The more you allow this to happen the weaker the will becomes. If this is what has been happening all your life, then this will be a difficult task, but not an impossible one. It will take time, determination, discipline, will power, and the goal written before you, checked on a daily basis and more often if needed, to guide yourself towards the destination in the rough seas you may find yourself in. The stars are only but one glance up in to the night skies, and they will guide you to your destination.
Setting deadlines will also help you focus on the task at hand. The determination to finish a task will be catalysed by the line drawn in the sands on the shores of time, and even if washed away, your determination will mean you will set another dead line to complete the task. Your life is dynamic, it will change and you need to change and flow with it like water flows through an everchanging network of pipelines.
Conclusion
Decide what your goals are in each stream of your life, be it personal, career, education, health, family, spiritual etc. Once you have made that decision, write it down. Something written is something committed to. Next to the goals you have and tasks to do to achieve those goals, add deadlines and work towards them with discipline and determination.
Look out for the next article on planning, “Plan your day for success”, for the next instalment of this series.
(Last Updated on September 1, 2022)