Source: Robin J Psychic at flickr
Chris Guillebeau, who I hope to meet one day in some exotic foreign locale, runs a very successful blog called The Art of Nonconfomity. He has a very ambitious personal goal – to visit every country in the world in the next four years. He’s well on his way, having already visited 117 countries out of a total of 197. Of course some places are going to be very difficult to visit – such as Cuba, North Korea and Iran. So my personal opinion is that he’ll easily come very close to his goal – say 190 countries – but be stopped from attaining the whole thing by political and military unrest in some places. He’ll do the whole list eventually. It’s fascinating to watch.
Chris makes me want to dream big though. Bigger than I have been dreaming. My goal is to be able to spend 6 months a year in a warm country such as Spain, and still live a comfortable life back in Canada for the other 6 months. That’s not exactly reaching for the stars when compared to “visit every country in the world in 4 years”.
Read more…
Source: Heart of Oak at flickr
I don’t know if this has happened to you, but it’s happening to me.
In order to achieve my goal of 6 months a year in a warm locale, I’ve decided the biggest hurdle to me doing that is financial. To many others, it may be family relationships, or career, or health, or a multitude of other hurdles. But for me, the biggest hurdle is financial and so that’s what I’m focusing on fixing.
I’ve downsized my life, significantly reduced my monthly expenses, and as discussed in the last post am finally conscious about what I spend my money on. It is a lot harder (I hope!) for me to needlessly waste money than it once was. I feel like I am awake after not paying much attention to it before.
Read more…
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.
Read more…
Source: Vlastula at flickr
“Life takes on meaning when you become motivated, set goals and charge after them in an unstoppable manner.” – Les Brown
“Many people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains or even courage but simply because they have never organized their energies around a goal.” – Elbert Hubbard
“Nothing worth having comes without sacrifice.” – Unknown
One of the reasons most people are content to work 40 hours a week with 2 weeks of vacations a year is that it’s easy. As long as you make a respectible income and can afford to pay the house and the car, you can just keep doing that week after week, month after month, for 40 years. And at some point down the road, you can safely retire on your $1,000 a month pension as long as you don’t expect to live too extravigantly.
Read more…
Like
