AlexShalman.comPractical Personal Development

This is a guest article from Glen Allsopp.

I’ve always been a fan of quick wins and quick results, and as I’ll soon cover, so is the rest of society. With that in mind, not that many of us have long term goals, of if we do, we’re not working towards them. Up until about a year ago of my two-decade existence, there wasn’t really anything I was working for.

I was in and out of college, I was working on various websites, I was in a dead-end job and I even did freelance marketing work on the side. Nothing was set in stone, and life wasn’t really going in the direction I wanted it to.

Just over a year ago I started a blog which was to become my first real long-term goal. I had a topic idea in mind, I had coded a unique design, and I was ready to go. Now, 13 months on, the blog has been a huge success and the rest of my life is getting on track as well.

In fact, I recently started a gym regime around my health related goals and I’m already seeing some great results. The reason I’m telling you this is because having long term goals are often underrated, and now I want to share three reasons to have them.

Breakthrough the Lie of Society

Marketers know what we as a society want, and they offer it to us from every angle. The guide on how to make $10,000 online in a fortnight, how to lose 10lbs in one week and how to cure acne in as little as 48 hours. We want a quick fix and we want it now, so that’s what people “offer”.

If these claims are possible, then show me one person who went from nothing to $10k in two weeks by following one of these courses. Or show me someone who popped a tiny pill each morning, without changing their diet or exercise, and healthily shed weight. No matter how hard you look, you won’t find anyone.

Instead, having long term goals helps you break past all these marketing ploys and gimmicks and see that real results and real hard work are what it takes to achieve results that matter. Although the journey won’t be easy, it will actually get you somewhere and won’t leave wondering where your money went.

Learn the Art of Patience

Anyone who knows me will tell you that up until recently, I was probably the most impatient guy on the planet. If I wanted a new laptop, I couldn’t wait until the January sales, I had to have it now. If I wanted a new design for my website, I didn’t want to wait weeks for it to be coded, I wanted it now.

In fact, if I wanted anything in life, I wanted it instantly. Probably a trait those pesky marketers have instilled in me.

Anyways, these days, I’ve changed a lot. Since working on projects that take 6 months or more to blossom, I realise that things worth having are worth waiting (or working) for. I no longer expect instant results and realise things take time. I’m even desperate to purchase a Macbook before I go travelling and instead I’m going to wait until I really need it and will probably save money for doing so.

Have Something to Wake Up For

Dale Carnegie, in his book How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, found that many people were ‘cured’ of their severe depression simply by keeping themselves busy. If they did enough tasks and didn’t allow themselves to dwell on their issues, their health, happiness, and appreciation for life started to improve.

I can relate to this when looking at many of my friends and family members. They simply don’t have anything else going on in their lives apart from survival. That is simply living their lives around their jobs and receiving a pay packet at the end of each month. They rarely love what they do, and their mood levels often show it.

Instead, if you have a long term goal around something you’re passionate about, there’s a reason to get out of bed each day and make the most of this opportunity. There’s a reason to keep going and this enables you to even push your own limits.

Set a Goal, Right Now

Before you close this page or browse to other areas of the site, I want you to set a long term goal if you don’t have one already. It could be:

• Learning a new language
• Building a successful website
• Getting a promotion at work
• Learning a new skill or trade
• Losing weight or building muscle…

…or any other long term goal that you can think of. Find something you care about and would like to work on regularly, and you’ll soon start seeing the benefits in all areas of your life.

Glen Allsopp is the author of PluginID, a blog on Personal Development. Glen covers topics such as Personality Development and How to Make Friends.