Setting Goals

You don’t have a plan until you have a deadline. The purpose of a deadline is to make you feel a sense of urgency. It lets you know how serious you are about making your wish come true. It switches the light at the end of the tunnel, so you quicken your pace to reach it.

Set reasonable deadlines. If you want to get a new job, give yourself at least six months, not six weeks. If you want to achieve financial independence and you’re starting from scratch, give yourself a decade, not a year. A deadline is designed to make you focus, not to make you panic.

The advantage of setting a deadline is that you fix your wish in time, not just in your mind. You begin to plan your life around it, the same way you plan around any other important event. Your wish becomes real, like an appointment, or a holiday, or a business trip you’ve scheduled for next month. The more real your wish becomes; the more convinced you become that you can make your wish come true.