If I ask you what you want to achieve in your life -- your dream goal -- your first answer will probably have something to do with money -- lots of money. You want to win big at the casino. You want to hit the lottery when the jackpot is at $200,000,000. You want to be a multi-millionaire! Right?

Wrong!

Think about it. If your ultimate goal in life is to be rich, what are you going to do when you achieve that goal? Remember -- a goal is the final destination of a journey. When you reach your goal, you're at the end of your journey.

Example: Right now you're in an ongoing dispute with your next-door neighbor. You dislike her with a passion. She makes your home life miserable. You win a lottery jackpot of $132,000,000. Remember -- that was your goal. You've reached the end of your journey. Only there's still a problem. You're surrounded with stacks of green paper but you still have the same neighbor.

Example: Right now you're struggling to keep food on the table for you and your family. Many nights dinner is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Your goal is money. You think that will fix everything. A distant relative dies and leaves you a bundle. Since you've reached the end of your journey -- your goal to be rich -- everything should miraculously be perfect. But wait. Your goal was just to have money, so unless you and your family can acquire a taste for raw green paper, you're still going to be eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

You thought your goal was to be rich. If you had enough money, all of your life's problems would disappear.

That's not the way life works.

If you can't stand your next-door neighbor, your goal isn't to be rich. Your goal is to move. Sure, you may need a lot of money to move to the perfect house in the neighborhood of your dreams and furnish it with the best of everything. So, yes, you need money. But you don't plan to get the money and sit around looking at it.

You plan to spend it.

And what you plan to buy with that money is your real goal.

If you're hungry, your goal isn't money -- your goal is food.

If your car stops running, your goal isn't money -- your goal is a new car.

If your roof is leaking, your goal isn't money -- your goal is a new roof.

So before you start mapping out your life's journey, make sure you know where you're trying to go. Uncover what you really want out of life and how to get it.

Don't put it off -- get started today!

2005 by Brenda Lewis. All rights reserved