My Goals List and the Mapquest of my Life

Most of my life I just drifted from day to day and year to year. I went through the motions like going to school, finding a job, and working. I just recently woke up and realized how much time has gone by and I don’t have anything financially to show for it. I want to retire one day, maybe when I’m 65 but preferably when I’m much younger and I have nothing saved up. I have been saving money regularly but that goes into my savings account that gets peanuts in interest and always seems to find expenses to pay for. I bought a car, I’d love to buy a house to live in, and I’d like to take some vacations over the next few years. Every time I save any money, it’s gone.

I realized that if you are traveling, you need a starting point and a destination and then a map of how you are going to get from point A to point B. The same goes for life, if you don’t have any goals, you’re not going to get anywhere, mainly because you won’t know where to go. After this discovery, I used an entire 70 minute commute home from work to jot down some goals. I made five separate lists of goals for short term, 1 year, 5 years, 10 years and 20 years. I made sure that each list paved the path to the next set of goals. Most of the goals have something financial to do with them but I also put down losing 40 pounds this year. I know it is a lot but I am only so overweight because I eat like a pig late at night and always push off exercising. In my short term goals, I just put down to exercise and in my 5 year list I put to stay under 190 pounds. I put the same for the 10 and 20 year lists.

I plan on using these goals as a road map for my life. I placed the lists in my wallet and plan on looking at them every day to make sure I stay on path, just like I would look at the mapquest directions when I’m on a road trip.

Note: Writing these blog articles are on my lists and that is why they are getting done.