My Spin on the Goals Meme

What Drives YouI’m always a little apprehensive about these memes

Not that I don’t think they’re interesting – on other blogs. See, as I say pretty often here, this place is more about you than it is about me. My words and little drawings are there strictly to get you inspired, thinking, and taking action.

So when it comes to a meme that’s focused on me, it’s a little weird.

Don’t get me wrong. I love talking about me. But a good guide does very little of that. Virgil didn’t prattle on about himself too much.

On Alex Shalman’s Gotta Have It Goals meme, I was tagged by Nneka and Ponn Sabra. Then way back on March 7th, I was tagged on a similar meme by Aaron Potts (which I just found out about via the other tags today). Got all that?

I’m a big proponent of goals and habits. They are the basis for success, and one feeds the other. So I decided to combine the 2 memes, and focus this post on master goals – my Drivers.

The Goals and Habits that Drive All Others

As an entrepreneur, my goals change pretty frequently – but the underlying master goals that drive all my projects and objectives rarely change. I call them Drivers. They are key elements for an ideal life. These Drivers can be values, passions, habits, desires, or a bunch of other things.

The one important factor is that they are integral. They are things you need to have in your life for it to be complete. Goals come and go. Drivers are constant.

The best way to find your Drivers is to complete the sentence, “My life would be incomplete without ______.” Or better yet “Life would totally suck if I didn’t have ______.”

Your Drivers are the underlying framework on which you build your goals, hopes, and dreams.

Some of My Drivers

To get you thinking about your own drivers, I’m going to list my main ones (and because this meme is supposed to be about my goals, I didn’t want to avoid it completely :) ).

  • Freedom – I want to live my life on my own terms.
  • Family – A close-knit family life is one of the reasons I have always worked from home.
  • Abundance – Focusing on abundance brings abundance. Focusing on lack, brings lack.
  • Opportunity – New and exciting ways to utilize my talents and work on purpose, while providing something of value to others.
  • Creativity – Expressing myself and sharing my perspective of life.
  • Humor – I take humor very seriously.
  • Fun – Life can be fun or it can be work. I never really liked work much.

Passing It On

Following Mike’s idea which I borrowed on one of the last memes, I’m not tagging specific people. Instead I am encouraging you to pick up this meme because you want to.

This is an important exercise, and if you want to participate, don’t wait for a tag. Even if you don’t blog it, do it. Knowing your goals, your success habits, and your Drivers is one of the surest ways to get what you want out of life.

You’ll never get anywhere if you don’t know what you want, or what drives you to get there.

22 comments

  1. Hi Tony, thanks for picking up the baton. I like your take on the whole exercise and I’m echoing Alex: I love your design. There’s not another blog like it 🙂

  2. Hi Tony!
    Thanks for sharing! I like your analogy to “drivers” and your cartoon, as with others, matches your post perfectly! Your crafty with your art and writing, and I look forward to sticking around much more! As with Alex & Nneka, your design is awesome!
    To our success & empowerment,
    Ponn

  3. Memes have some really nice effects on search engine placement… the linking as well as the repetitive linking both provide good coverage. I look at it this way… if the blogosphere is a conversation and you’re responding, you should be rewarded!

    And if it weren’t for the meme, we wouldn’t have gotten this fantastic post from you!

  4. Alex – I’ll use any excuse to write about goal setting 🙂

    Nneka & Ponn – Thanks for the tag and the kind words.

    Doug – Great way of putting it. As long as I can make it on topic and about inspiring success, I’m in 😉

  5. Tony,

    As is usually the case with your posts, you managed to say a lot, but without using a lot of words!

    I loved your “fill in the blank” exercise because it definitely helps to create focus on the things that are really important. I’m proud to say that the answers for me that immediately came to mind are the things that I am already working on! 😉

    Also, major props to you for encouraging people to do the exercise, even if they weren’t going to blog about it. That’s good advice, and you show your selflessness by giving it.

    Thanks for your insights and your participation, Tony!

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