On Defining Goals – Am I losing Clarity?

This morning, I was watching the interview of David Letterman of Tina Fey on Netflix. Tina Fey is someone I look up to. What she does is not easy, and clearly, you need to be smart to create funny and (yet) deep comedy sketches that would serve a purpose. I would say that it would take me leaps and bounds before I could accomplish what she has accomplished. This is most definitely true also for the other entrepreneurs that I look up to. Looking at their lives, it seems so unfathomable to accomplish what they have accomplished.

So, i’ll just go back to my own little shell and strive to accomplish what I can accomplish. Looking at my life, and basing it on my own standards, I think I have done quite well for myself. I have a life that I love, businesses that give me the feeling of fulfilment and of course, a family that I love being with every single day.

This weekend, I was tasked by the CEO (coincidentally my husband; we are all tasked to come up with this) to come up with my life/career goals for the next 5 years. As I stared at my laptop and while trying to create columns to prettify my presentation, I couldn’t think of anything to place inside the table I created. I don’t know why I’m having such a hard time. I usually just dash away and write goals for myself like crazy.

All I could think of were two things — one is to save up for Zeeka’s tuition fee for next year and the other was to pay off my credit card debt. Both of these things were certainly goals, but they weren’t goals for myself. Well, okay, obviously these are responsibilities that I had, but it bothered me why I couldn’t think of goals that were specifically for myself.

I used to be so sure of what I wanted 3, 5 or 10 years from now. Now, I feel that I just want to get by and survive the year.

It may be because now, I’m more mature. MAYBE. I know that success doesn’t come overnight or even in a year. Success for me is doing small things that lead up to small changes that lead to bigger responsibilities that lead to a higher purpose.

I always wanted to help people create their own businesses. I always wanted to help people realize their full potential and be happy with how their life and careers or businesses are going. And based on personal experience, it takes time for this to happen. We (all including me) just have to be patient. Going back to my purpose of helping, that will take even a longer time for me to achieve.

And in terms of success, I don’t even know how to define that for me. My personal definition of success is happiness. So since this is my definition of success, can I write down continue to be happy as a personal goal? The businesswoman inside of me is urging me to write more SMART goals. Specific – how do I become more specific when it comes to happiness? Measurable – do we have levels of happiness? Actionable – Yes, I think this is actionable! Being happy is a choice. Realistic – it is! Time Bound – I need to constantly choose to be happy every single day!

I apologize for rambling. But I’m not sure if I should create more goals for myself. Or is it okay to be content with this kind of life that I have? Is being happy everyday an “enough” goal? 🙂

How about you? Are you clear with what your goals are?