What To Do When You Lose Sight Of A Goal
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We all have goals and dreams about where we want to go in business and in life. My #1 goal is to develop my business in a way that allows me to be location independent. I want to be able to pick up and go anywhere I please which is why all of my offerings are going to be delivered online. It’s something I discovered through reading the blogs of Natalie Sisson and Chris Guillebeau and I think it’s amazing that we live in a time that makes this possible. This has been a goal of mine for awhile but recently I feel like I haven’t had the same focus as I once had on that goal…until this past Saturday.
My dad was diagnosed with cancer recently and it was a big fat reminder that parents don’t live forever. He’s okay at the moment but I want to spend some time with him while he still has the energy to get out and do things. Of course, I don’t know what is going to happen, but I do know that if things take a turn for the worse I want to be able to say that even though he lives over 4000 miles away, I took the opportunity I had to go spend time with him. From the beginning of April, I know I won’t have this flexibility due to my workload so I decided to seize the moment and just go.
On Saturday, I sat down to arrange a flight and noticed that all of them seemed to connect through Detroit which is where I’m from. I called Delta and arranged a stopover so that I could essentially have a 4 day layover in Detroit. Needless to say, calling my mom and saying I needed a place to crash from Wednesday-Saturday surprised her and that felt great. I arranged my flight from Detroit to Knoxville and noticed that going from Knoxville back to London will result in a 13 hour layover. At first I got annoyed, but then I realised the layover was in New York City. Not only do I have friends there, but left to my own devices I could easily entertain myself in NYC for a day. So now this very simple idea to go to my dad’s house in rural East Tennessee has resulted in the opportunity to go to 3 cities for the same price. I just booked tickets to travel to 3 cities over 9 days, less than a week before I’m due to leave. That gave me a taste of the dream that I had lost focus on.
The ability and freedom to just go anywhere and go with the flow while still being able to run my business is very real and tangible over these 9 days. Instead of focusing on this conceptual goal, I’m (unintentionally) giving myself a taste of it. I don’t know why this never occurred to me before but I feel so reenergised and renewed because of it. And watching someone I love face their own mortality is a reminder that we only get so long to achieve what we want in this life. I want to be as content as my dad is with this when the time comes.
So how does this apply to you? Simple. If you are feeling like you’re losing focus or motivation, figure out a way to give yourself a little taste of the goal you’re working toward. It is easy to lose sight of a goal, but it’s imperative to recognise that and remind yourself of why you wanted this to begin with. It’s like when your computer starts acting weird and you just restart it. This is a goal restart button. You don’t have to travel to another country or anything like that, you could do something really small for yourself, but do something. If your goal is never having to work another Monday again, bust your booty this week and take next Monday off. You’ll feel so good when you’re relaxing on Monday and that little taste of what achieving your goal is like will shift your mindset in way you wouldn’t believe.
If you decide to do this, please share your results in the comments below!
