Habit 2: Begin With The End in Mind When

You’ve probably heard people talk about cramming the night before an exam or presentation, working well under pressure, and meeting tight deadlines. Deadlines? They can be stressful at times, but they mean business, and people respond to them. So what about your goals? Why can’t your dreams have deadlines? What if you took your goals as seriously as, let’s say, a project at work or a job for a client? Aren’t your aspirations just as important, if not more important?

You know where you’re at right now, and you know where you want to go. Now, when do you want to be there? It’s time to give your long-term goals a deadline.

Set a deadline for each of your long-term goals.

Now that you have a deadline set for your three long-term goals, let’s dig a little deeper. Let’s narrow your focus to the goal you selected for the “how” game. Before you set out on a journey, you need to know what the path looks like. Are there many steps involved with this goal, or does it require a few major milestones? Start brainstorming all the steps involved. This means everything from phone calls to budgets to delegating tasks. You may need to purchase things, talk to advisors, or do some networking. What is it going to take to get you from here to there? Take a look back at your “how” list. You may have identified some of the steps already!

What are the steps that will take me to my goal?