Goal Setter Blog

You may be so focused that you will indeed reach your goal no worries - and screw-up your life in the process.

What is the point of increasing sales by 15% if that cost you your marriage? You can always make more money next year if that's what you're good at - where you spend your time right now is what will shape your future. Relationships should be valued above all. Every divorce casualty will tell you that if they had known they would have paid attention to those early warning signs and extinguish the fire before the whole house was ablaze...

Goals do compete with each other for our limited resources of time and money. A dejected spouse will remark: "My partner does this and that - I know I'm not number one anymore..."

Therefore having business goals without family goals and spiritual goals is quite short-sighted. Yet all around you the clamour is all about doing more with less, increasing productivity, reducing costs, beating the competition, increasing market share...

Better to be poor together than rich alone. That's not exactly the message Madison Avenue would print in bold on the back of a bus. Yet if you have a close look at it you will realise that if you invested so many years of your life with your partner this is something you can never replace. When a relationship is broken something inside of you dies. The joys and hardships you went through together belong to both of you. If you are no longer together that legacy is lost forever. You will never get it back by getting involved with someone else. You can never press the reset button of your mind. Those memories will haunt you. You can only live your life once.

The reason we give up easily on family goals is that you cannot change somebody else. You have to love people how they are - warts and all. But if you are able to do that then they might return the compliment and let you know you are also accepted and loved as you are. This in turn releases us to be our best. Notice the boomerang effect when you choose to be unselfish. Working on your family goals first will in turn enlist their support for your business goals because they appreciate you are doing it for them. It's no longer your idol you worship at the pedestal of success no matter what. You have become real - not a phoney stereotype who has lost self-identity.

Corporate cultures are notorious for wanting to own you body and soul without leaving anything left for your relationship. Some of us have to make a hard choice - work or family - why can't I have both?

Spiritual goals are even starker in consequences. What is the point of amassing wealth since you will leave it all behind when you depart this world? There is nothing wrong with having wealth - it gives you the power to do good in your sphere of influence. So after you're gone (I can assure you you're not eternal) what do you want to be remembered for? How do you want to make your life count? Are you just a passing vapour or do you have some substance you can pass on for posterity?

Think about those things when you set your goals. Some goals are worth everything - others may not be that important next year...

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