At the end of every rainbow there’s a pot of gold.
What’s your pot of gold, and are you willing to climb the rainbow to get it? You see, there’s a steep path up that rainbow before you can slide down the other side and claim your reward.
Do you have a plan for the rainbow journey? Have you laid out your journey on paper, listing all the challenges you may face, and how you’ll overcome them?
Have you defined what’s in your pot of gold? Is it a new car, a new home, a debt-free life, or maybe a vacation. Maybe your pot of gold is a decent college fund for your child, or maybe your pot of gold is a sizable donation to your favorite cause.
Whether your pot of gold is a 50 pound weight loss, or a house by the ocean, there’s a little more involved than just proclaiming it. Andrew Carnegie said “If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.” And he should know, being the richest man in America back in the early 1900′s – you can bet he had a plan!
Let’s take the weight loss goal as an example. “I want to lose 50 pounds” is a good place to start, however, it’s not yet a goal. Put a date on it, put it into the present, give it a “final weigh-in” number, now that’s a goal. “It’s December 25, 2012 and I weigh 170 pounds.”
Now, take your goal and work backwards to today. “Chunk it down”, as Jack Canfield says. Today is January 25th, 2012 – which means I have eleven months to hit my goal. Fifty pounds in eleven months equates to a little over a pound each week. Now that sounds more achievable than “lose 50 pounds”! At this point, it may be worth it to hit up google and find one of those charts that tells you exactly how many calories you should eat – given your weight – to shed that pound per week. Any tools you can use to help you achieve your goal should be embraced – check out apps, build a vision board on Pinterest, use an online task list to remind you of deadlines, leave a comment on this post to share the tools you use to stay on track to reaching your pot of gold.
Maybe you need something you can hang on your wall – a visual reminder of where your pot of rainbow is and the milestones you need to check off along the way. If this visual prop is in the form of a graph, then take a different colored marker and plot your actual progress. You may find yourself way ahead of the curve, or you may notice that you’re not quite where you want to be, and that puts you in a position to step up the game.
It’s a great idea to have a goal that stretches you, but not so much of a stretch that it’s impossible to reach. If you’re starting out your business from a position of “in the unemployment line”, your goal of a vacation home on the French Riviera with a goal date six months into the future, is hardly realistic. Add a couple of years to the goal date, and you have something more achievable.
It’s the milestones along the way that will keep you energized. Every pound you check off that chart, every new client you acquire, every time you deposit another $100 in your savings account, you get the warm and fuzzies, a sense of accomplishment, and – depending on how “mini” your steps are, you may choose to reward yourself for each milestone, or every few milestones. Let’s look at that weight loss goal again. You may decide to reward yourself for every 5 pounds lost, or every 10 pounds lost. And I’m not saying go out and eat a huge piece of cheesecake! Your reward should be something that makes you feel better about yourself – a mani/pedi, get your hair done, buy a new hat, new shoes. However you choose to celebrate, remember you’re not necessarily celebrating the milestone, you’re celebrating yourself – your achievement.
Don’t jump on someone else’s pot of gold, get your own. Visualize your goal – what you’ll look like in size 2 jeans, the shape of your swimming pool, the color of your car, the number of bedrooms in your new home, the color of the desk you’ll be sitting behind. Your goal, your journey, your pot of gold. Enjoy the rainbow ride!
My closest goal? Taking my daughters to Chicago over spring break to visit Navy Pier, the Museum of Science and Industry and the Field Museum.
photo credit: Ignacio Conejo via photopin cc
