What do you want out of life?

Developing systems to achieve goals starts with understanding where it is that you want to go.  This is the larger direction, not necessarily the specific goals that you would like to reach.  You will eventually develop goals but initially you want to just focus on direction.  there are several ways to do this.  Here are a few ways to get started.  Remember to have fun with this process!  You will develop the systems to achieve your goals later so right now just focus on what direction you would like to go.

1. Ask yourself what do you want and then ask why do you want it.  This helps to get passed quick answers like "I want a BMW" and gets to the root of why you want that.  This will provide insight into your motivation and may even reveal a desire that you never realized existed.

2. If failure was impossible, what would you do?  I discuss this in my book, You Can't Surf from the Shore.  This helps to ignore limitations for a moment and dream of what you have always been told is impossible.  I really like to do this to determine what areas of my life I would focus on if I knew that I could achieve my goals.

3. What areas of life do you struggle with and wish there was an easier way?  This question helps to determine what limiting factors there are in your life.  In order to truly succeed you will need to address this limiting areas and find systematic ways to overcome them.  

4. What has always been important to you but you ignored?  Use this question to understand if there is something that you always wanted to do but let others talk you out of.  Maybe you always dreamed of starting a business or writing a book.  Regardless of what it is, try to use this question to get a better understanding of what you truly want out of life.

Building systems in your personal life can drastically improve your life, but only if you know what you truly want.  Start here and let yourself dream a little of your perfect life.  Determine how far off your life actually is from what you want it to be.  You will set goals and develop systems to move you the direction of your dreams but you will also determine if the sacrifice to achieve this ideal vision is something that you are willing to do.  Having a million dollars is great, but would you be willing to work 60 hours per week and never see your family for the next 30 years?  Probably not, yet many people that have achieved that level of financial success have made that sacrifice.  Whatever it is that you want, make sure to start by truly exploring yourself and what makes you happy.