On April 21, 2003, while living in our San Francisco apartment, Jen and I each wrote down ten personal goals. During our recent spring cleaning, I came across the sealed envelope at the back of my top dresser drawer. We decided to open the envelope. Some of the goals were funny and were stretches, but all were real things that we wanted to achieve.
Two years later, we had both achieved more than 50% of our goals.
At least one of my goals was very specific: “Own a 2-bedroom, 2-bath house with private, southern-facing yard, hardwood floors, and gas stove.” You know what? Add a bedroom to that description, and that’s our house. I might have had a San Francisco house in mind when I wrote that down, but I didn’t actually specify, and our life course changed in such a way that we were able to achieve that goal.
I’ve been an extreme optimist my entire life. My parents always told me that I could achieve anything I set my mind to. I believed them and still do. When I was young, my mom always told me the importance of writing down goals. I haven’t always done it — usually I just envision something or make up my mind that I will achieve it — but now I have proof that it really does work.
So write down those goals. What do you want out of life? What do you want to achieve for yourself and your loved ones? As much as we all hate that age-old interview question, where do you see yourself in five years?
