Step 4: Defining My Ultimate Goal
In Step 3, we looked at your purpose and why it’s an important step for your new business. In Step 2 we learnt that Core Values are the foundation of your purpose. Your code of ethics in life and business. Values help define the culture of the business you are going to build. Purpose defines why your business exists and the direction your business is going to take. Defining your Ultimate Goal tells you where you want to take your business, the tangible measure between your current state and your desired state.
For those just joining us at this point, you can continue and learn about the ultimate goal, but it’s worth starting at step 1, My Current State, to give you better context. And its the starting point of this adventure.
Let’s get started. In our Happy Path Flight Plan illustration, we are touching on Purpose, in orange and bold below.
When you have an idea that can have the potential to change your life, the natural inclination is to think about how it will impact your present. After all, there’s no point in contemplating a different future if it’s not going to impact your life as you know it now.
But what many people don’t think about is how this idea will affect their future. What does this idea mean for your life five years from now? Ten years from now? What does this mean for the rest of your life after that? How can you live that future today?
Defining Your Ultimate Goal
Thinking about your future, do you have an ultimate goal that you would like to achieve in your life? Have you heard about the saying, “If you want something, set a particular time and divide it into smaller parts.”? It is true, and we are going to tell you why. The Happy Path has done just that, broken the path to your ultimate goal into manageable parts.
The definition we’ll use for our meaning of the ultimate goal is the most challenging objective that you want to achieve but will also be the most rewarding.
You can think of goals as falling into different time periods:
- An immediate goal is something you want to achieve today or within a few days.
- A short-term goal is something to be done in a few weeks or months.
- A long-term goal is something you want to do in years.
- An ultimate goal is the thing that you want to do in the end. Your Desired Future State. This can be the end of your life, or in the end of some other period. This state is linked to self-actualization, meaning “becoming everything you are capable of becoming”.
Self-actualization doesn’t involve perfection or things always going smoothly. You can become self-actualized and still face difficulties, that’s life and that’s how it should be. Progress is achieved by recognizing your limitations and focusing on your strengths so that you can develop your limitations into skills or manage them effectively using your strengths.
The key is living creatively and fully using your knowledge and abilities to reach your full cognitive potential.
What is important to note is that everyone must find their own unique way to explore and use their inner wisdom and channel that towards their ultimate goal. Only you can determine what your desired future state means to you and your ultimate goal helps define this for you so that it becomes achievable.
To achieve your ultimate goal, first, you must know what that goal is. Your ultimate goal shapes Your Desired Future State. This is ultimately what it is, a state of feeling and being fulfilled.
Once you clearly identify what that goal is, then it becomes easier for you to attain it. Many people think that by setting goals they become more motivated, but this is not always the case. The idea behind this step is that if we understand how things work and fit them together accordingly, we can make better use of our time to achieve your Desired Future.
Your Ultimate Goal must be motivating, meaningful, challenging, achievable, specific, have a deadline and be related to your Purpose and Core Values. Which we have covered in previous steps.
To help get answers, we will work together towards identifying Your Desired Future State. Let’s first look at why discovering your desired future state is important.
Why is knowing your desired future state important?
When you think about what you want your life to look like, how do you know if it’s what you really want? How do you know if you’re being honest with yourself about what you really want for your future?
While your desires might change as you grow and learn more about yourself, it’s important to start with a clear picture of what you want your future to look like. When you’re clear about your desires, you can get laser focused on making them happen.
You can put all your energy into moving towards your desired future instead of being distracted by all the other shiny things that come along your path. When you know what you want, you can better make decisions that are in alignment with your goals, values, and dreams.
And when you know what you want, you can also make better choices about what you don’t want in your life. This will help you make conscious and informed decisions about what you want to stay away from and what you want to move towards. This kind of clarity also enables you to create better boundaries and set more appropriate expectations for yourself and others.
Why is discovering your desired future state hard?
If knowing your desired future state is important, then why is it difficult to discover this information? Most people can have a clear picture of what they want their future to look like in theory. The difficulty lies in transferring this desired future state into a real and tangible form.
It’s easy to say, “I want to run my own business” or “I want to travel the world.” But how do you get there? What does that even mean? When you think about your desired future state, it’s easy to get stuck in the “what if” scenarios and stay there. What if I can’t do it? What if it doesn’t work out? What if I fail? What if I’m not good enough? What if I’m not the right person for the job? What if someone is better than me?
This is why we spoke earlier about self-actualization, and how its linked to your ultimate goal, this helps you to articulate what the desire future you seek looks like. The purpose of @LightSpeed is to facilitate this way of thinking and provide you the knowledge and tools needed to transform your idea and goal, be they personal or business, into a reality. So that your dream doesn’t stay a dream.
We will cover principles and beliefs in the next step but for now self-actualization has range of characteristics that are markers that you are progressing in the right direction towards achieving this positive state of mind. These characteristics are:
- Live independently. Not swayed by the opinions of others.
- Have a sense for reality and truth. In touch with actual possibilities and use fact-based information.
- Are comfortable with the unknown.
- Have compassion, kindness, acceptance, and sense of justice. These are strong core values.
- Have a good-natured sense of humor. Laugh at themselves and guide others to see humor in challenging situations.
- Enjoy meaningful friendships. Tend to build lasting relationships with a few people.
- Have a sense of spontaneity.
- Are creative. Creativity isn’t just artistic but a frame of mind in seeing the world from varying perspectives such as having a knack for looking at problems in new ways or simply lack inhibition to try new things.
- Focus on things bigger than themselves. They tend to see the big picture instead of only considering their own lives, and may dedicate their lives to a mission, cause, or deeper purpose.
What Is Your Desired Future State?
You may say ‘I want to make a million dollars’, this however is a very poor frame of mind as it has no purpose, isn’t specific, isn’t meaningful, etc., etc. and everyone says this so it’s a cliché. It needs to be specific such as ‘I want to be independent by being of service to others that brings me freedom on my own terms.’ Whatever it is, it should be specific and something that you are truly passionate about that’s driven by purpose and your core values.
Your idea for starting your business needs to be linked to your purpose and core values these help construct what your ultimate goal will look like and how you envisage your desired future state. It must take your dream and shape it into something more tangible that can then be mapped with a clear path in how to achieve it. This is what these steps are about and why they are so important. Let’s continue by understanding what desired future state means.
The next question is, “Why is it important to set a desired future state for yourself?” We understand that your ultimate goal is to achieve something, but why is it important to set a desired future state?
First, setting a desired future state helps you to identify what you want in life. When you know what you want, it is easier for you to identify what is lacking, and what you need to improve. This future state is the state of mind you want to find yourself in, where you feel you have reached self-actualization.
You might not realize that you want to improve certain things, but once you set this ultimate goal, you know where you need to focus. Setting up your desired future state makes you happier and healthier. Focused.
When you are in a state of constant change, it is very important to have a goal that you can always hold on to. Having a goal in life can help you stay grounded and focused.
If you have a specific goal in mind, you are more likely to stay consistent in completing a daily task. And progress along the Happy Path towards that desired future. This can also help you to stay motivated and stuck less because you have an end date that you keep pushing yourself towards.
Finding your Purpose is key to setting your Desired Future State.
Why are we doing anything in the first place? Why do we set an ultimate goal? The main reason behind setting a desired future state is to achieve your Purpose. Why do you want to achieve this goal? What is the true meaning behind that goal for you?
We urge you to write down your desired future state, and your reasons behind setting it. This will help you to formulate a clearer idea and identify what you need to improve and get better at in your life. So let’s now talk about how to define your desired future.
The Steps to finding Your Desired Future State
If you’re not sure how you want your future to look, these steps will help you find out. When you get clear on what you want, you can make better decisions about what you don’t want in your life. This will help you put your energy toward what you want to create in your life instead of dealing with the things that keep you stuck and unhappy. You can use this creative exercise to answer the following questions: What do you want your life to look like five years from now? Ten years from now? What do you want your life to look like 20 or 30 years from now?
1. Discovering what you want and don’t want in your life
Let’s start by focusing on what you want in your life.
This might include things like: I want to run my own business. I want to travel more. I want to volunteer more. I want to spend more time with my family and friends. I want to make more money. I want to own a home.
I encourage you to be very specific with these desires. Get clear on what it looks like and how you want to feel. @LightSpeed specifically focuses on people who want to start and run their own business. My focus is wanting to educate people and provide them the tools to eventually leave their full-time jobs and start their own business with the goal of having full control of their time.
Other reasons for this could be wanting to be your own boss and set your own hours. You may want any of these:
I want to feel free and empowered doing something that I love.
I want to feel like I’m making a difference in people’s lives.
I see a problem and an opportunity to solve it using my talent and experience.
Journaling is a fantastic way to capture these thoughts, desires, needs and wants. This method will be covered in detail in an upcoming step.
2. Discovering What’s Most Important to You
Next, let’s focus on what’s most important to you.
This might include things like: I want to be happy. I want to be healthy. I want to have loving relationships. I want to be financially stable. I want to be a good parent. I want to help people. I want to have time to explore my creative side. I want to make a positive difference in the world. I want to leave a legacy.
I encourage you to focus on the bigger themes and values that are most important to you. What qualities do you want to embody? What qualities do you want to cultivate in your life? What do you want to give to the world? What do you want to stand for? What do you want to be known for? What kind of person do you want to be? What do you want to be remembered for? What do you want your legacy to be?
Again, journaling is fantastic for this.
3. Discovering who you want to be and how you want to feel
Next, let’s focus on who you want to be.
What do you want to be known for? What do you want your legacy to be? What do you want to stand for? What qualities do you want to embody? What are your strengths and talents? What are your weaknesses that you want to improve? What do you want to give to the world? What do you want to offer people? What do you want to be known for? What do you want to be remembered for?
Start journaling. The type of journaling that I propose will be discussed below, called Desired Future Journaling
4. Discovering Your Strengths and Talents
Next, let’s focus on your strengths and talents.
What do you do well? What are you uniquely talented at? What are your strengths? What do you love to do? What energizes you? What do you feel most passionate about? What do you feel gifted at? What do you have a natural knack for?
What do you want to spend your time focusing on? Where do you want to put your energy? What do you want to spend your time doing?
What do you want to be known for? What do you want to be remembered for? What do you want to be known for? What do you want to offer the world? What do you want to give? What do you want to be known for?
Do a brain dump initially and then re-read these thoughts and prioritise them. Put the priority list into your journal and spend some time understanding these prioritise. This is an organic process so these priorities may change.
5. Discovering where you want to be in 5 years, 10 years, and beyond
Next, let’s focus on where you want to be in the future.
Where do you want to be in 5 years? 10 years? How do you want your life to look like in 5 years? 10 years?
What do you want to be doing? Where do you want to be living? Who do you want to be with? What do you want your relationship to be like?
What does your finances look like? How do you want to be feeling? What is your health like? What is your relationship with your parents like? What is your relationship with your partner like?
Continue journaling or writing your answers down. Then fine-tune them and make them specific to you.
6. How can you use this information?
Before you set your desired future state, make sure you ask the following three important questions:
- What is the ultimate goal? – The desired future state that you want should be specific. If you want to start a side hustle, then you need to decide on the date that you are going to start that side hustle.
- What are the steps to achieve your desired future state? – This is about setting your deadlines and the milestones that you need to achieve for you to reach your ultimate goal.
- Who is going to help you achieve your desired future state? – When you set a ultimate goal, it is also important to identify who is going to help you achieve it. Who are the people in your life, who are important to you, and who are supportive towards you in this goal-setting adventure?
Once you’ve completed these steps and you’ve found your desired future state, you can use this information to make better and more informed decisions in your life.
You can use this information to ground yourself when you’re feeling off-kilter and uncertain. You can use this information to know what you need in your life to be happy and fulfilled.
You can use this information to know what you want and don’t want in your life. You can use this information to set better boundaries for yourself and others.
You can use this information to make decisions that are in alignment with your values.
Four ways to help you achieve your Desired Future State faster.
Here are some great ways that you can help you to achieve your ultimate goal faster.
- Visualize and Create Mini Goals Using a Roadmap: This is a great way in which you can create vivid images and visualizations in your mind related to your desired future state. This will help you to set a clear vision of the ultimate goal you want to achieve, and it will also help you to create a roadmap with mini goals of how you need to go about it. Our Happy Path Flight Plan is what we use at @LightSpeed.
- Create a Daily Plan: This is another great way in which you can help guide you towards your desired state by breaking done your mini goals into repetitive daily tasks/actions. This is covered in a future step.
- Identify and Solve the Obstacles: This is one of the most important keys in terms of achieving your ultimate goal. If you don’t know what is stopping you from achieving your desired future, then you will never know how to overcome it.
- Stay Positive and Keep Moving Forward: This will help you to achieve your desired future faster because if you are positive and motivated, you will reach your ultimate goal faster than most people.
Desired Future Journaling
Start here……
Bottom-line
There are many ways to set your ultimate goal, but one thing is for sure, if you don’t have a goal, then you will not be able to move forward towards the desired future you desire and deserve. Setting your desired future state is the first step to achieving your dreams. It will be challenging and hard, but if you really want it, then you need to do it. To set your ultimate goal, you first you need to find your why. Next, you need to identify what it is. You need to plan and set a deadline and finally, you need to get started.