I learned recently that only 3% of the world’s population actually write down their goals.
When I stepped back and thought about it, I realized I was part of the 97% who didn’t. I know there’s power in setting goals—in setting a vision for your life. But I had never taken the time to do it.
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Taking some inspiration from my friend Casey, I asked myself these questions:
- What do I want to do?
- What do I want to see?
- What do I want to be?
- What do I want to have?
- Where do I want to go?
- What do I want to share?
So I fired up the Pomodoro app, set it for 25 minutes, and wrote down as many goals as I could in the given time. As you can see, the list is not well-organized, but that wasn’t the point. I was surprised, encouraged, and delighted at what came out.
Here are life goals I’d like to accomplish in the next 10 years:
- Make $240,000/year net ($20,000/month) being self-employed.
- Retire being self-employed.
- Go to a Superbowl.
- Celebrate my 50th wedding anniversary. [As some have graciously pointed out, this would be impossible to accomplish in the next 10 years. Point? I want to be married for a very long time =)]
- Take my wife to Maui for our 10th anniversary.
- Go to a Summer Olympics.
- Have the college education expenses for my kids set aside before they go to school ($40,000 each).
- Launch a product that makes over $10,000 in one day.
- Build a stand-alone office in my backyard, complete with a tunnel leading to the main house.
- Have a five-bedroom house in the country with a movie theatre, mudroom, walk-in pantry, home office, dining room, professional kitchen, 3-car garage, a prayer chapel w/stained glass windows.
- Have a converted barn for events on my property.
- Build a recording studio in my house with podcasting bay and green screen for video recording.
- Speak at least twice per month.
- Work with at least 24 churches, nonprofits, small businesses per year to go through the Think Digital Strategy Session.
- Drop Finn off at least three days per week at elementary school.
- Drop Evie off at least three days per week at elementary school.
- Find a cure for Finny’s food allergies.
- Give Finn & Evie each $25,000 the day they graduate college.
- Open up a juice bar in Des Moines with my own recipes serving as the menu.
- Fully fund two Roth IRAs every year starting in 2014.
- Teach my children how to make at least $5,000 online before they graduate high school.
- Build an online course for Kerry’s blog, MyWiseMom.com.
- Tip a server at least $5,000.
- Go to culinary school.
- Build a product with my sister.
- Make the “40 Under 40” list here in Des Moines.
- See Sade in concert. Go backstage.
- Eat a meal cooked by Gordon Ramsay.
- Write a book by the time I’m 40.
- Have a podcast that pulls in 25K monthly listeners.
- Have over 100K followers on Twitter.
- Have a newsletter subscription list of over 25K.
- Have a staff of at least three people, each who make more money working for/with me than they ever dreamed of (they will have to write a number down and we will smash it together).
- Go to Ireland with Kerry for two weeks.
- Buy a rental home in Maui.
- Hire a cleaning lady, get a quote for weekly cleaning services, and then pay her double the quote–every week.
- Spend at least two hours 3-5 times per week reading at a coffee shop, taking notes, and enjoying the morning.
- Go to at least two UNI Men’s Basketball games every season with Christian.
- Build an organic garden that can sustain our family for at least one month out of the year.
- Earn my MBA.
- Have a net worth of 1 MM or more.
- Make the Inc. 5000 list.
- Become the Infusionsoft Marketer of the Year by the time I turn 40.
- Make sure Kerry never has to work outside of the home unless she chooses to.
- Learn bass guitar.
- Fly first class on 66% of my flights (airlines hate tall people like me, first class is my only respite).
Like Casey, not everything I wrote down made the list. There are some goals that are just too personal to share with the entire world =)