Imagine yourself a year from now. What have you spent your year doing and are you happy with your accomplishments in one year? Because the reality is that you can’t get back the 8,760 hours that you spent in a year. There are two different decisions you can make right now; you can either start setting up goals and planning your life staring today OR do nothing and regret wasting your time in future. In addition, studies have shown that the pain of regret is more painful than the pain of failure. Your time is passing by no matter what, it’s better to try something you’ve always wanted to try and fail, rather than letting years pass by without doing anything about your goals and dreams.

The purpose of a goal is not to get to the end result only, but the purpose is who we become in the process of getting to that result. It’s so important to understand the role of goals. It’s not goals that are very important but it’s the experience and the root to achieving those goals that matters. Without goals, it’s easy to give up when hardship arises. It’s the image of the goals being reached that keeps us going regardless.

Whatever you want to accomplish, there is a price tag on it. For you to get something, you got to give up something else. If you haven’t heard about how Arnold Schwarzenegger became who he is, go and search his story.  Arnold had a dream, he had a goal. He wanted to go to America and be rich. He set that goal, next he was willing to go through whatever it took to get to his goal.  He had a plan: Bodybuilding, win Mr. Universe, go to America, make movies, then invest in a business. Everyone in his family and friends thought that he was out of his mind and told him it couldn’t be done. But Arnold had his mind set to reach his goals. Every painful set and extra reps were nothing but a step towards his goals.

You can get clear on the things they want in life. But let’s not question what it is in life that you want, but rather what pain are you willing to have in life? Or what are you willing to struggle for in life? Because happiness requires struggle. You might be in love with the result but if you are not in love with the process then you are not going to follow through.

Life is a never-ending uphill with many observations point along the way. You can take a break and enjoy the view and what you have accomplished. But If you think at any point you can stop moving up, I’m afraid you are missing the point; because the joy is in the climb itself.

I suggest that you carry goal cards to remind yourself of your goals every day. People succeed achieving their goals because they know where they are going, and they have a very detailed plan of how to get to their goals. So many people never bother writing their goals down or question their dreams because they think they have the whole time in the world to figure it out. Nonetheless, the saddest part of a funeral is not the death of the body, but it is the death of dreams. You don’t want to go to the grave with still having the music in you.