Thinking about all of the things you want to do in life can be exciting.  You imagine yourself laying on the beach in Aruba or visiting Stonehenge, the pyramids, the Great Wall.  You imagine a life working for a company you have true passion for, your own company, or volunteering for a cause that is important to you.  You imagine a life which you know can be infinately better than the one you have now…

It goes no further than that.  Imagination.

Instead of saying to ourselves “I can do that if I try,” we say, “I wish.”  Just a passing daydream.  We are the first person to tell ourselves that “No, you can’t do that.”  “It’s crazy.” “It’s too hard.”  We have a constant inner-dialogue of self-defeating phrases.  The first step to accomplishing your goals is to convince yourself that anything is possible, you just need to figure out how you are going to get there from here.

If you want to climb a mountain, get off of the couch and start exercising.  I promise you, even if you someday find yourself at the bottom of a mountain, but haven’t prepared for the journey to the top, you will stay at the bottom of that mountain, wishing your life away.  Wishing isn’t going to cut it.  You need a plan.

After you get past the inner-dialogue of self-defeat there are some steps you can take in order to get your plan in motion.  The first is to define exactly what your goal is.  Be specific!  If you want to climb a mountain, which mountain?  Mount Whitney.  Okay, you live in Kansas, how are you going to get there?  Drive.  Do you have the appropriate gear you need to climb Mount Whitney?  You’re not sure?  Figure it out.

As you can see, once you’ve defined your goal, there are many hurdles that stand before you and successful completion of your goal.  Don’t be discouraged, hurdles are meant to be jumped over.  Just one problem, if you’re lying down, you’re not moving any closer to these hurdles.  You can’t expect to succeed if you do nothing to work towards your goal.  There is work involved.

The next step is to set a deadline.  You know that Mount Whitney is located in California, you know that you don’t need any special equipment to climb to the top.  You need to figure out when you are going to do it.  Set a date that works for you, and not 10 years from now.  Do it soon, while you’ve still got the burning desire inside of you.   Setting a deadline helps eliminate the mindset of “I’ll get around to it someday.”  It creates a clear timeframe in which you have to hammer out the details, resolve any doubts and to share your goals with another person.

Sharing your goals with someone else is an important step on your path to success.  When you tell someone else what you intend to do, you are more likely to follow-through with those plans.  You hold yourself more accountable.  Better yet, include someone else in your plan.  Wouldn’t your best friend want to climb Mount Whitney with you?  Share your excitment about it.  Passion is contagious!  Your best friend might not ever have given any thought of climbing the highest peak in the continental United States, but after you get done sharing your goal with them, they will wonder why they never thought of it!

You are well on your way to success, but until you have actually succeeded there are plenty of chances for failure.  Remember that just wishing won’t get you anywhere.  You need to do something.  Find a way to work towards your goal everyday.  If you aren’t in the best of shape and you want to see the view from the top of the mountain, exercise regularly.  It brings you that much closer to the goal, and it keeps the goal fresh in your mind.

Achieving your goals is simple.  It may not always be easy, but you can do it if you believe you can, and you are working towards success.  Dream on, but have a plan, and put that plan to action, or your goals will simply be just another daydream.

“Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I’ll give you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals and I’ll give you a stock clerk.”

     -J.C. Penney

What power the written word can possess.  While reading a post on Get Rich Slowly, I was inspired to create my own list of 100 goals.  Currently I am at number 53, “Adopt a Highway.”  By starting this website, I have successfully completed number 42.

Goals are as unique as the individual dreaming them.  My own list of goals is quite varied.  I will use this website to share my experiences of working towards my goals and especially of accomplishing them.

Here is my list of 100:

1) Zero credit card debt
2) $5,000 emergency fund by December 31, 2009
3) Bungee jump
4) Sky dive
5) Volunteer time with an environmental group
6) Sponsor a child (such as Christian Children’s Network)
7) Become fluent in Spanish
8) Travel to Iceland
9) Learn how to surf
10) Climb a mountain
11) Adopt a child
12) Buy 10 acres of land
13) Photograph a wild tiger
14) Give away $100 to a complete stranger
15) Sleep on a park bench in a big city
16) Hitchhike
17) Drive a car until it breaks down
18) Sleep under the stars
19) Bike the west coast
20) Cut down a tree with an axe
21) Build a skate park
22) Land an airplane
23) Skinny dip
24) Publish a book
25) Eat native food in a foreign country
26) Meet a world leader
27) Get a sphynx cat
28) Eat less junk food
29) Get “Spa Treatment”
30) Go on a rollercoaster that goes upside down
31) Go deepsea fishing
32) Run in a marathon
33) See a Broadway show in Manhatten
34) Hit a homerun
35) Play 18 holes of golf, under par
36) Build a house to my blueprints
37) Shoot a machine gun
38) Save someone’s life
39) See penguins in their natural habitat
40) Drive a truck through a mudhole
41) Ride in a hot air balloon
42) Start a website
43) Take Trigonometry & Calculus classes
44) Go backpacking
45) Base jump Devil’s Tower
46) Kayak at the Apostle Islands
47) Buy a bike
48) Take guitar lessons
49) Eat sushi
50) Take yoga classes
51) Witness the monarch migration
52) Teach a child how to do something
53) Adopt a highway
54) Visit Eldon, Iowa
55) Take a photography class
56) Go whitewater rafting in the Grand Canyon
57) Visit the Galapagos Islands
58) Stop drinking soda
59) Exercise
60) Tour Europe
61) Swim with sharks
62) Finish Associate Degree
63) Attend college in another state
64) Study for a semester in a foreign country
65) Finish Bachelor Degree
66) Study a religion in great detail
67) Own an Armani suit
68) Tour the White House
69) Drive a race car

Obviously some of these goals are very easy to accomplish and others are far-fetched.  That’s the beauty of goals and dreams; they don’t have to be so difficult as to be impossible yet they can be a challenge to acheive.

As time passes, so will ambitions, goals and dreams.  As such, I will continue to update the list as goals are accomplished or new goals are uncovered.  Setting goals and dreaming is a lesson in soul-searching and self-discovery.  I challenge everyone who reads this blog to define 100 goals for themselves.  Dream on!

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”
     Henry David Thoreau