Throughout your life you will have faced many decision points and forks in the road, with many more to come. The fork occurring at your mid-point in life can seem more fundamental, so spending time to understand how you’ve made decisions in the past and which worked best can prove useful.
Knowing where you’re heading will have a massive impact on how easily you can decide your direction of travel.
Every day you have decisions and choices to make. Do I have breakfast, and if I do is it cereal or the sausage sandwich I really fancy? Shall I get up now or spend another 10 minutes in bed? These may seem like shallow choices but they add up to a lifestyle over time. They can become habits and affect every aspect of your life. A sausage sandwich as an occasional treat is tasty but every morning it would lead to negative impacts on your health. That extra 10 minutes in bed could mean that when you get up you feel fully refreshed, happier and ready for the day, or it could mean you miss an important meeting because you got stuck in traffic or caught a later train that runs late. For you to make the best choices, you first need to know your direction of travel and which will take you closer to your final destination.
- Have you considered your final destination before now?
- Has it changed now you’re at the mid-point of life?
- What do you want to look back on when you’re 60, 70, or 100 years old?
Research shows that when you write down a goal you are significantly more likely to achieve it. The very act of writing down your goals makes them more specific and clearer for you. So grab a pen and an A4 sheet of paper to follow the steps below:
Begin by describing your current situation considering:
- Your environment: Where you live, where you work, the atmosphere and cultural vibe
- Your skills and capabilities: What you currently do, what you know
- What are the behaviours in your current situation, both yours and those around you at work and at home? How do people act? What’s currently important to you? What do you believe now?
- Who are you? What do you stand for?
- Now you have your description of today, allow yourself to consider:
- What’s your desired future? What is a compelling vision for you? Use the same questions as you did for the current situation. This time though, work through them backwards so you consider your environment last.
Now choose a timeframe in which you wish to achieve your goals, and chunk it down into shorter timelines so that you can ask yourself, ‘By this stage how will I know I’m on track? What will be true for me now?’
Once you’ve chunked the timeframe down and considered the questions, it’s time to invite your analytical brain back into the driving seat and get busy with action planning. What are the actions you need to take to get you on the road to the life you want?