There was an old man who spent his entire life dreaming of seeing the ocean.
He lived in a small landlocked village, but he loved listening to the merchants passing through his town who would tell great tales of the deep waters.
At night he would replay the stories in his head while he laid in bed listening to the sound of the waves out of an old seashell he bought off a passing merchant.
He could imagine the sun glistening off the waves and beautiful fish swimming all around him. “One day” he said to himself, “I will go and see the ocean”.
Well the days turned to years and the years turned to decades and before long the old man got sick.
When the doctor came in to tell the old man his fate he asked the man if he could bring him anything to help make his last few days more comfortable. The man looked at the doctor and said, “Yes, can you please bring me my seashell?”
The doctor was surprised at the request, but he sent someone to retrieve the shell.
Immediately the man put the shell up to his ear and as he listened to the sound of the crashing waves tears began to flow down his cheeks.
The doctor asked the man what was wrong and the old man replied, “I never saw the ocean”.
Busy with the Wrong Things
It is so easy to get caught up in the daily stresses of life that we don’t make time for the things that matter most.
Stop for a minute and ask yourself:
If you were to keep living the exact same way as you do right now for the rest of your life, would you have seen your ocean by the time you die?
Would you have reached your financial goals? Would your health be where you want it to be? Would you have lived your purpose and reached your full potential?
Are you getting closer to your goals each day or are you in the same place today that you were last week, last month or even last year?
Believe it or not, you can actually meet your goals in the midst of your crazy busy life.
You can lose that weight.
You can save for your future.
You can have more time with your kids.
So What Are We Missing?
Intention
If you want a life that is full of purpose you must be intentional. You need to make your days work for you rather than letting your days work you over.
When is the last time you woke up with a game plan for your day? A road map with step-by-step directions that will get you to your destination?
I am not talking about a wishlist or to-do list that you know will never get finished. I am talking about a real set of plans that will help you achieve a goal that you want to reach in the future.
What are the things that have been tugging at your heart that you know you should be doing, but are not making happen?
Are you wanting to spend more time with your family? Lose some weight, spend more time reading?
You can’t expect to arrive at the destination of “financial security” upon your retirement by just winging it and doing whatever feels right in the moment with your money for 40 years.
Likewise, you can't expect to just wing it with your 24 hours each day doing whatever comes to you in the moment and expect to have a purpose filled life and reach your goals.
You have to plan and then follow the plan to succeed.
The Power of 24 Hours
The same 24 hours lived with focus and purpose can yield completely different results as the same hours without focus. Then multiply those 24 hour days over years and you have two entirely different lives.
That's how life slips away from us, one minute at a time.
I understand what it feels like to have a thousand things pulling at you all day long. I know the stress, fatigue and pressures of life intimately and I am in no way belittling those, nor am I asking you to push them all aside and pretend that they are not there.
I am asking you to stop allowing the stress and pressure to keep you from living the life you were born to live by committing to make a few small changes.
Not a major change or an overwhelming change, but a change that if multiplied by 6 months or 6 years could have a drastic impact on your life for the better.
If you don't stop now and make a small change, you will look back later with major regret.
Everyone can live purposeful lives…yes even you! You can live a life focused on the most important things and you can reach your goals.
So how do you start making these small changes?
3 Ways to Start Getting Busy with the Right Things
Write your goals down.
Think about what your end goal is and write it down. You may have already written your goals down a hundred times only to have completely abandoned them weeks later. That’s ok, brush off the past and sit down and write them out again.
If you aren't sure how to get started, check out Wise Goals for some great Free Templates on goal setting.
2. Read your goals EVERY day.
One of the number one reasons we don’t accomplish our goals is because we get so busy that we actually forget all about them.
We spend a long time meticulously setting our goals and then… the messy house, grocery shopping and work presentations quickly take over and the next thing we know we can’t even remember what our goals were.
You MUST review your goals every single day.
I believe in this step of reviewing your goals daily so much that I am telling you to not even bother writing down your goals if you don’t intend on reading them every single day.
Whether you pin them up on a board in your room, write them on your bathroom window or carry them on 3x5 cards in your purse it doesn’t matter.
All that matters is that you read through them every day.
3. Schedule your goals into your daily routine.
The last step is equally important.
You can set goals and read through them, but if you haven’t made the time to actually work on them then they will always remain a pipe dream.
Look at your calendar and schedule a date between yourself and each of your goals consistently.
This is a date that you cannot miss. It is as important as brushing your teeth.
Your Turn
Life is short, we can’t afford to waste it. We need to be purposeful with our time each day.
Thankfully it is not difficult to make this course correction.
Below are a few steps to get you started. So what are you waiting for, grab a pencil and get started now.
