Where are you today?
Where are you in relation to your yearly goals? Your self storage goals?
Are you mindful of them in the present? Are they a driving force in your daily life?
As I write this we are half way through the calendar year 2016. Where are you on the path to achieving your self storage goals for this year?
Are you past half way there?
As I reflect on my own goals, I realize I am behind. I have a lot of reasons for being behind, but that’s just what they are – reason and excuses. As I plan out what is required for me to win at the game I created, I realize I need to restore my power to win.
Luckily, I know how to do that.
Do you?
Let me share A (not THE) way.
I have found over the years that the difference between people who are successful and fulfilled in their lives, as opposed to those that are not, is their relationship to goals. They know how to set and achieve goals that move them forward, towards a created life.
It’s easy to feel powerless or paralyzed when we have a conversation with ourselves like, “I am not a goal type person” or, as in my case earlier this week, “I failed again to be where I said I was going to be by July.”
Remember, these are just conversations in our heads. Smart people don’t believe all the stuff that rattles around in their head. Those are just thoughts, not truth.
And a thought can be changed.
Here is a way to gain power and align yourself with a created future; a future you are creating every day.
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Take time to really create your WHY. Why do you want to have or grow your self storage business?
Actually close your eyes and see/feel yourself in the future you are creating. If you are seeking financial freedom and the ability to work in your own business you need to see it, feel it, get present to it.
In many ways the WHY is the most important step. When everything is breaking down, and it will at times, it is often this WHY that is the only thing that can keep us moving forward.
All successful people know how to keep this front and center for themselves.
I wear it on my right wrist in the form of a band with a goal on it that instantly makes me present to my WHY.
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On Dec. 31, 2016, what needs to have happened for you to have significantly moved towards the created future in step one.
Place yourself on Dec. 31 (or any significant benchmark time period in the future), and create what needs to have happened.
My experience is most people overestimate what they can do the short term: in a week a month or even a quarter. They underestimate what can be done in the long term: a year, five years, or a decade.
Stretch yourself, but not pie in the sky stretching. Create a goal or benchmark that will significantly move you towards or get you to your created future. I like to have it so large that today I can’t see how it will happen, but it is not so far fetched it appears impossible.
Have what needs to happen inspire you. Have what you are creating as where you will be something that makes you proud.
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Now standing on Dec. 31, move backwards and create benchmark occurrences monthly until you reach today.
Sometimes I need to take a few runs at this. If you are going to Miami, you’re going to drive through different states and cities. That’s how I relate to this. If I am going to be in Miami on Thursday, I need to be through Atlanta by Wednesday.
Don’t try to figure out exactly how anything is going to happen at this point. Just what.
Put these benchmarks on your calendar. Put them in places that you will see to remind you of what the game is and why you are playing it.
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Play full out, like your life depends on it, but make it fun.
Most people never have the experience of being able to live into a created future. But you do. Be grateful for that.
Whatever happens, if you have the experience of playing hard at a game you created, you will feel fulfilled. Even if you don’t win at the created game! Yes, I hate to lose, but losing at a game I created is way more fun and fulfilling than winning at someone else’s game.
Hints and Tips:
- Don’t judge on appearances. When I saw I was not where I wanted to be, or said I would be, by June 30th, it didn’t mean I had failed. It just meant I was not where I wanted to be.
- Always have goals that exist in time and can be measured. I never have a goal like “I feel successful”. Some days I do and some days I don’t. That can’t be measured. Closing on and owning $11 million in self storage by Dec. 31 is different. Anyone can see if that happened or not.
- Practicing gratitude daily for the ability to play at a game you created makes a huge difference.
- Finally, it’s just a game. A made up game. Winning doesn’t make you a good person, just someone who wins and achieves goals. Losing doesn’t make you a bad person. Just someone who moved further towards a created future than they would have with no goals.
So where are you in relation to your goals?
Empower yourself and have fun!
