How To Set Achievable Goals | Begin With The End In Mind | Design Life

Hello and welcome to the Design Life blog, where we discuss Holistic Beauty, Personal Development and a little bit of magic.

'Begin with the end in mind' is a phrase that was made popular through Stephen R. Covey's book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I applied this phrase to my life once I could see, clearly in my mind, exactly what I wanted my life to look like. I told myself, if I can begin with the end (my vision) in mind, I will have a clear direction to guide my daily activities. What you choose to do every day, is creating your future. So if you know where you want to go, and you adjust your daily activities according to that, it is inevitable that you will eventually reach your desired destination. It is through this process that I feel like I have been able to take control of my life. I may not be able to control the wind, but with a clear destination, I can always adjust my sails, so that I am always moving towards where I want to be.

All things are created twice. When you begin with the end in mind, you are letting your inner vision guide you from your vision to it's physical manifestation. As Stephen Covey puts it, "The exercise of imagination is based on the principle that all things are created twice: first mentally and then the actual physical creation, with the physical following the mental in the same way a building follows a blueprint. By taking control of our own first creation, we can write or re-write our own scripts, thus taking some control and responsibility for the outcome." Taking control of your own first creation, means clarifying your vision, keeping it in mind and using it to guide your actions every day. If you do this, it's eventual manifestation is inevitable.

Let's say you are living in a small town and you want to go on a road trip with your friends to a big city, and there are lots of experiences you would like to have on the way. The best way to approach this journey is to choose an end destination and put it into your GPS. Even if you go off-course, your GPS will just recalculate and will always direct you towards your desired destination, regardless of how many places you stop to see along the way. You can plan, ahead of time, where the best places would be to sleep and stop for gas, which restaurants you'd want to try out along the way and whether you want to take longer or shorter routes (depending on whether you want to get there faster or do something on a specific route that you wouldn't be able to do otherwise).

In the same way, when you have a clear vision of what you want your life to be like (when you begin with the end in mind), it is much easier to plan how you will get there.

How To Set Goals

Once you have a clear vision in your mind, you are ready to start setting goals that will act as stepping stones to get you from where you are to where you want to be.

1. Begin with the end in mind: Set your long-term goals first. Be specific about what you want to do and by when you want to do it. Examples:

- I want to self-publish a book and sell 100 000 copies in 3 years.
- I want to start a Beauty Channel on YouTube and have one million subscribers in 5 years.
- I want to get my Bachelor's degree in English and go to Thailand to teach in 4 years.

Be sure to include things like how many (books you want to sell for example) and by when. You could even write an exact date! Then you are going to work backwards from there.

2. Set medium-term goals next. Ask yourself, what big steps will you need to take to achieve your long-term goal. Here are some examples of medium-term goals based on one of the long-term goals above:

- I am going to write my book and self-publish it within one year.
- I am going to create my own website as a means to represent myself and the book, and I will launch it two months before I publish the book.
- I am going to invest X amount every month, once the book is published, to advertise it so the people who would love to read it, can find it.

3. Set short-term goals last. Examples:

- I will create my own website within the next 6 months.
- I will plan the content of my book and begin writing in the next two weeks (you could even set out how many pages you need to write every week to be able to finish within a year).
- In six months I'll be done with more than half of my book. Even if it's just one page more.
- I will research the best ways to self-publish my book and decide which method I am going to use within three months.
- I will save X amount every month that will go towards the publishing of my book.

Important Things To Take Note Of

Nothing is set in stone. Maybe you finish your book three months early, maybe one month you aren't able to put some money away. Maybe setting up a website was more difficult than you thought. That's okay! Remain flexible. Change up your short-term and medium-term goals, but never change your destination. Remember, if your GPS is set to California, it doesn't matter how many wrong turns you make, or which way the wind is blowing, adjust your sails and KEEP MOVING FORWARD.

I know this blog is getting really long, but if you're serious  about setting and achieving your goals, keep on  reading. Another valuable tool to include in your goal-setting strategy is a daily to-do list. This is a list of  small, easy to do, action steps that will help you achieve you short-term goals. Keep this list with you at all times and make sure it has four or five things on it that you are able to do every day.

Example Of A Daily To-Do List

1. Take ten minutes to plan what I want to accomplish tomorrow to feel like it was a productive day (do in the evening)
2. Do 20 minutes of research about how to design my own website
3. Do 20 minutes of research about how to self-publish a book
4. Tell at least one person about the book I am publishing on (,insert exact date)
5. Read at least 3 pages of self-help/personal development book

These can be things to motivate you or move you closer to your short-term goals. As long as they are easy to do every day. Once short term goals are accomplished, these might develop and change.

The most important thing to remember in this whole adventure is just get started from wherever you are, with whatever you have and DON'T GIVE UP!