NickVenturella.com 10-12-14

Getting to your long term goals

October 12, 2014

Hi ,how far down the road are looking when you plan various goals?  One year out, two years or even five years ahead?I know I often have these big sweeping ideas that are going to take a while to achieve, and because I want instant gratification, as that seems to be the way of our society these days, I have a hard time remaining disciplined in the right way to put the kind of time and effort in that is truly necessary to achieve my grand plans.So I've gotten into the habit of tricking myself so I can enjoy treats later. (See what I did there with Halloween around the corner?)Essentially, what I'm talking about is creating a framework that helps identify shorter term goals that provide the kind of instant gratification feeling we crave now, while building upon those successes to eventually achieve bigger, longer term goals later.The easiest framework I know is to question whether what you're doing energizes you or drains you.  If it energizes you, pursue it. If not, don't.The things that you choose to put your time into to earn an income (whether part-time or full-time) should energize you far more than they drain you.If you pursue things you're passionate about, or things that you generally have a strong interest in, even if the pursuit is a short term initiative or activity, you'll be more likely to maintain the motivation needed to see it through to completion.If you continually choose to pursue things that interest you, you will always reach your goals. I say this because if you choose to pursue things, even if you're successful at it, but they drain you, you will not find positive meaning in that achievement and it will feel empty.On the other hand, achieving things that energize you provides a much more meaningful and positive sense of accomplishment that motivates you to pursue the next thing.String enough of those together over time and you've accomplished some big things.Music is probably the best example I can provide to illustrate this.I love music. Mostly, I love writing, recording and performing my music. Doing so energizes me, which makes it easy for me to keep interest in what I do with music.Writing songs is how I tend to make sense of my emotions as I interact with the world around me.  I often have short term goals of finishing the little bits of poetry I periodically write down in my journal and add it to a musical tune to create a song.As I complete each song over time (short term goals in and of themselves), I begin to accumulate a collection of songs.Another set of short term goals is then to record each individual song.  Again, over time those recorded songs make up whole albums.Since 2001, I now have 10 solo albums of my music written and recorded and available to the world...my energizing short term goals help to build up my larger goal of being a professional musician, which has provided income and experiences for me and my family that we would never have had otherwise.Hit reply and tell me about you get from your short term to your long term goals.----------SALE...You may have read in one of my blog posts from earlier this week that I'll be having a Halloween sale on some of my ebooks and music.Several of my products will be on sale for the spooky low price of $6.66, which will provide discounts on my products ranging from 41% - 66% off their regular prices (sale won't include affiliate products).The sale will last from Sunday Oct. 19, 2014 through Friday Oct. 31, 2014.The link to the discounted items will only be made available to you because you're on my email list.  I will share that link beginning on Sunday Oct. 19th.----------