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“I reached the stage when I needed to see the link between my daily work and my life-goals,” explained one person. “For years I had succeeded in reframing activities - even when I was stuck in traffic on the M 25. Being an ‘achiever’, I always made ‘to do’ lists and got a kick from crossing-off each item. But during my mid-thirties I needed to regain a sense of meaning. The first part was relatively simple – defining what I wanted to achieve in life. The second part was more difficult – making the necessary changes. But now I feel that every day I am doing something towards achieving my long-term goals.”

Perhaps you have already taken this step. If not, let’s explore how you can take it in your own way.

1) You can clarify your life-compass.

There are many ways to define your life-compass. You may want to begin by tackling one of the many exercises that invite you to clarify your overall life-goals. Start from this destination and working backwards, you can then relate your daily actions towards achieving this picture of success.

“That is what I did when I was 39, because it was a good time to take stock,” explained one person. “Looking back, I listed my achievements in life. These included having a reasonable sporting career, building our marriage and raising a happy family. Obviously there had been ups-and-downs - especially when caring for our daughter who had a life-threatening illness. On the whole, however, my wife and I had been happily blessed. Looking forwards, I listed my future aims. Encouraging my family took pride of place, but I also wanted to share my knowledge as a sports coach. I always admired John Wooden, the great basketball coach. His wisdom could be applied to life as well as sports. So I planned to run more sports seminars - particularly focusing on the mental aspects – plus publish a book. Being somebody who likes to set goals, I now feel more on track in my life.”

Different people set their compass in different ways. If you wish, however, try tackling the following exercise that invites you to clarify your life-goals.

The three key goals I want to achieve in my life are:

*

*

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2) You can clarify how your daily actions connect to your life-compass.

“Every day I do something that contributes to achieving my long-term aims,” explained one person. “Preferably I do something early in the day – whether it is exercising to stay healthy, writing a page for my book, encouraging my wife or whatever. It then feels like I am setting the agenda for the day. Otherwise other people’s agendas flood my own and it takes time to get back on course. It takes discipline to set aside time to get some ‘early wins’ – but it is highly beneficial. Providing I do this, I feel on-course to achieve my long-term goals.”

How can you make this happen in your own way? It often involves three steps. First, clarifying the specific thing you can do towards achieving your overall life-goals. Second, setting aside the time to do it properly. Third, actually doing it and getting a sense of success. Try completing the following sentence.

The specific things I can do each day to
work towards achieving my life-goals are:

*

*

*

3) You can keep making the connection between your daily actions and your life-compass.

“My challenge was maintaining the big picture,” explained one person. “Like after returning to daily life after a workshop, I began with good intentions, but soon found myself blown off-course. Feeling empty and ‘back to the grind’, I created some quiet time each Sunday to revisit my life-goals, then listed how I could work towards achieving these in the next week. Developing this habit took time, but it worked. Nowadays I can even find meaning in relaxing and ‘doing nothing’, because it recharges my batteries. I then have more energy for achieving my long-term aims.”

How can you maintain the big picture? How can you stay ‘on-course’? Try completing the following sentence.

The specific things I can do keep seeing the connection
between my daily actions and my overall life-compass are:

*

*

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Plato said that Man is: “a being in search of meaning.” This rule applies as much now as then. People who are working towards their life-goals often enjoy a sense of meaning in their daily lives.