Living Consciously
Source: (nutmeg) at flickr
It is sometimes said that the difference between someone who has a goal but doesn’t achieve it, and someone who has a goal and achieves it, is focus. Being consciously aware of everything you do, everything you spend your time and money on, and not just letting it slip through your fingers like sand.
Even a goal like mine – spending 6 months a year in a warm locale – requires daily focus to make sure what I am doing is allowing me to stay on track to the goal.
When I find myself with the opportunity to buy a new sexy gadget, before I pull my wallet out I ask myself how is buying this going to help me achieve my goal? If not, will not buying this help me achieve my goal? More often than not, not buying something is more likely to help me achieve my goal in the form of saving money.
Does this mean I don’t buy anything? No. Today I bought a soft drink and potato chips from the variety store that cost me $4. But I did that consciously. Is it going to help me achieve my goal? No. Is it going to hurt me in achieving my goal? No. It’s not about removing all personal pleasures from your life, although some people do that.
When I spend a night on the computer, and find myself surfing mindless web sites, I have to ask myself how this is helping me as well. Again, more often than not it isn’t. And so I stop my mindless surfing and write a blog post, or work on my book, or read a book instead.
Financially, you need to make some sacrafices. Downsizing your lifestyle is a big step. Selling the house you can’t afford, staying away from new cars, doing your best to reduce your regular monthly expenses like cell phone bills, credit card interest, subscriptions, gym memberships, and such. Those are the big brush strokes – saving you hundreds or perhaps thousands of dollars a month. Having your life burdened with payments such that every penny you make goes out the door as soon as you make it is a surefire way to failure in achieving your goals. So you make sacrafices to win.
But its not just important to stop digging holes for yourself – you need to start building ladders. Being conscious about what you are doing on a daily basis is about making a plan to get from A to B, and implementing that plan daily.
If you come home from work and decide to spend the night watching television, you are not making progress to your goal. I’m not saying you need to spend every waking moment thinking about this and working on it, but you need to do ONE THING once per day. As you make your plan to achieve a big goal, identify what it is you always need to be doing to get you there faster. Do you need to be building your business? Do you need to be researching locations?
Whatever it is, do at least one thing per day to achieve it.
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