When France ran Algeria, they needed a way to make roads across the trackless desert. The distances are too great and traffic too rare for asphalt or concrete, or even road grading equipment. The French took oil drums and filled them with dirt and rocks. They placed them every 5 kilometers.
Travelers could see from one drum to another. The wind may blow away the tracks but it won’t budge the oil drums. If a sandstorm comes, time to hunker down and hope you can still see out of the windshield when it is over. Then drive off to the next oil drum on the horizon. It will still be there. Eventually you will get to your destination. Just follow the oil drums.
Choose where you want to be in 6 months, 1 year and 5 years. The goals can change later. For now, start working towards something concrete. Then figure out what you can actually get done in the short term as you work towards the goals you can’t really see. Don’t stop working towards that next goal. Get to the next oil drum in your life.
Working towards a goal, even as it shifts and changes, you will get farther than someone with no goal at all. Set goals for your career, job change and the next month. Go somewhere interesting.
Something to do today
I miss a lot of my goals. I hit a lot of intermediate points. The way I know is that I write my goals on paper. I discuss a short term goal with my wife and my business coach almost every week. This week that short term goal, although not about work, was about eating more healthily to get my blood pressure back down. I met that weekly goal, and my blood pressure dropped.
Write down a short term goal for this week and share it’s setting and accomplishment.