Did you ever think that your goals conflicted?  I was brought up with a dichotomy that I could either have a career or have a family.  I went to college and had to choose a major and felt like I had to give up a lot of other interests in order to pursue it.  While I think it’s important to have concrete goals and to pursue them ruthlessly, I think that we can, actually pursue more than one goal in a great way.

The title of this blog is “achieve everything,” and while I think that achieving everything isn’t actually possible, I think that we can redefine everything to be our top 10 and achieve to be our best at those top 10. My top 10 are: God, volunteering, fiance, church, school, career, family, general health, investing and friends.

While I do get the best of the things I really want in life, there are many things I have given up.  I also don’t do all of these priorities all the time, and I know they aren’t of all equal priority.  When it comes to goals, people tend to fall into two categories.

1. Goal-less.  These are people who have goals in the back of their heads with no deadlines and no requirements.  They wander around and aren’t sure exactly what they want.  Or they want too much and too many goals.  Or they can’t picture their goals or are afraid to go after them.  Or they want to be a renaissance person without defining what, exactly, that means and without setting clear priorities for themselves.  Here’s the problem with this: you can’t achieve a goal that you don’t have, and you can’t achieve every single goal there is to achieve.  Instead, try establishing clear, concrete goals or images of what you want your life to look like.  Then go after them.
2. Ruthlessly single goal-oriented.  I used to fall into this category.  I wouldn’t hang out with friends, and I would try to get my goals regardless of who it hurt and what was coming by way.  This can work for a while, say, when you’re studying for finals or meeting a deadline, but it’s not a way of life because you are off-balanced.  Instead, try establishing goals for every area of your life that is important to you, and ruthlessly be goal-oriented in all of these.  It’s cool to be a little off-balanced but only if it actually reflects your real values.

How about you?  In what ways are your goal-oriented?  What new goals do you need to establish, visualize and accomplish?