For many people, life – both professionally and personally – still resembles that same stressful, grueling, unsatisfying experience the oldtimers call “the rat race.” Too much time taken up working for “the Man,” and nothing on the horizon that offers any hope of real joy and accomplishment. Why do some people seem to hate their jobs (and their lives) while others in the same situation have the ability to thrive and grow?
One important difference has to do with something as mundane as setting and reaching goals. Stop for a moment and imagine a hockey game in progress. Two teams are scrambling up and down the rink, smashing into each other, whacking each other with sticks, all of them fighting over the possession and direction of a tiny little puck. The effort is tremendous, yet the players join the battle ferociously right down to bitter end of the final period, when at least half of the players on the ice erupt in displays of jubilant emotion. Why? Because they have achieved their goal; they have put the puck into the net more times than their opponent, and that is worth something to them.
Now, imagine that same hockey game without the nets at each end of the court. People still push themselves to the limit for three periods. The same amount of slamming and whacking goes on. However, there is no way to tell who won, or if anybody won, because there are no goals to aim for! When the final buzzer sounds, all you have is a rink full of exhausted, frustrated people. This, my friends, is a perfect example of the rat race many people endure every day. They push themselves to the limit, but for what? Where there are no goals, there can be no sense of victory or accomplishment or joy. Without a meaningful purpose, there is nothing left but exhaustion and frustration.
Life without meaningful, measurable achievable goals is nothing more than a rat race. At work, at home, in your family life, in your personal growth, in your spiritual life, in your community involvements, goals make life worth living. Goals bring shape and definition and value to what you are doing. However, these days, many people rely on someone else to define their goals – schools, the military, the government, even the Man – are all too willing to set goals for us. These goals may serve the institutions, but they may have little meaning for us as individuals. Pursuing someone else’s goals is just a glorified version of the same old rat race. We have to learn to set and pursue goals that mean something on a personal level.
Here are some tips for losing the rat race and getting your life back:
1. Begin by developing your own mission statement. What things in life are really important to you? What do want to stand for? What good would you like to accomplish for those that you love? What do you want your life to be like ten years from now? List everything. Use simple sentences like: “I want to be able to help send my grandkids to college.” No matter how old you are, it is never too late to develop your own mission statement.
2. Now it is time to set goals. The mission statement defines WHAT you want to accomplish. Your goals begin to shape HOW you will get there. If you want to help pay for your grandkids to go to college, one important goal would be to open some sort of investment account and start putting something into it every month. Of course, goals come in different sizes and shapes. Where do you want to be in 6 months? One year? Five years? Write those down, too.
3. To achieve these various goals, you must now break those goals down into daily tasks. What do you have to do tomorrow to begin saving for your grandkid’s college? How about making an appointment with an investment counselor who can advise you on a savings plan that is right for you? Write down on your schedule for tomorrow: 10 am – Call XYZ Brokerage Firm to set appointment for consultation.
Notice that I stipulated a specific time to make this call. Scheduling a time makes it a real commitment. Simply putting it on a to-do list only says you are thinking about doing it. Scheduling it as a part of your day’s activities makes it much more likely that you will get it done.
This is the other secret weapon you have for losing the rat race and becoming a winner in a race of your own choosing. A lot of people have good intentions, but the get so caught up in zooming up and down the ice, smashing into things and whacking each other that they never follow through. Make your mission statement, your goals and your tasks a part of your daily planning process. The only way to get them done is to set aside time every day to do them.
Remember this: if you don’t fill your life with goals and priorities that have value for you, someone else will come along and fill your life with their priorities. You don’t really have the option of choosing “none of the above.” Every minute of your life is going to be consumed with something, and if you don’t take charge of it, someone else will. If you don’t want to get stuck living someone else’s life and running in the rat race over and over, day after day, do something about it now. Define your life’s mission; set real, achievable, measurable goals; and schedule tasks tomorrow that will get you headed in the right direction. Even if it takes years to reach the goals you set for yourself, there is no time like right now to escape the rat race and start heading for the winners circle.
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