Goal setting and direction can be difficult—especially if you don’t feel like you are in an environment that aligns with your vision, skill set, and passions.

I grew up in a big city that was all about money. No mountains, no beauty. This led to being a late bloomer as a creative. That can also skew your perception of what success looks like.

As we try to identify what we want our lives to look like, our upbringing can both help and hinder us. This is where the “comfort zone” comes from and why it takes effort to break out of it.

There are 5 steps I think can help direct your goal setting into an achievable roadmap.

5 Steps to a Better Life

1. Set Values

This sounds cliché, but it will really help you narrow down things like industry and location. Values may be something like family, religion, career, or something that will be an area where you will not compromise.

Knowing where you will not compromise will help cut out several options. This will also help direct you towards the right community.

2. Decide Parameters

Parameters are a mix of preferences that help align with your goals and values. An example would be: “I don’t work on the weekends so that I can spend time with my family.”

With that parameter in place, we can now identify areas of your life that you probably need to work on. This may also determine the type of work you do.

I didn’t want to coach full-time anymore because of the schedule. It was an easy way to determine I needed a change.

3. Set One Goal

I’ll go more into this in an upcoming YouTube video and newsletter, but you need to have a singular goal as a professional that will get you to where you want to go.

The way we do that is list out 10 statements that you want to be true in one year from now.

Write them on a page. It can look like this:

– “I make $XX per year”

– “I am married”

– “I don’t drink”

…and so on.

They don’t need to be related, they just need to be true for you.

Then go pick the one that stands out on the page. It will be the one you know deep down is your primary desire. This will also likely be something that fixes several other items on the page.

Then create a list of steps that will get you there. Only do that.

4. “One Thing”

Gary Keller, the founder of Keller Williams Realty, wrote a book that can be summed up in one line: 

What’s the ONE Thing I can do, such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?

Think of it as treating the disease, not the symptom.

We often need to take a step back to be further ahead in the coming weeks instead of treading water every day.

5. MVP – “Minimum Viable Product”

This term is well known in the startup world. The concept is to get to market as fast as possible with as little risk as possible. You will then get the feedback you need to know if your idea is good or not.

This will save you a lot of time and money.

This applies to things like van life.

You don’t have to quit your job to start a more adventurous lifestyle.

It’s fine to watch a couple of YouTube videos to plan out your adventure and setup, but don’t put off adventure until you have the “perfect” setup.

Go camp in your vehicle this weekend—with what you have.

Feel it.

You might hate it.

You might realize the one thing you optimized for doesn’t matter.

You may realize it is much better than you ever imagined, and now is the time.

MVP can apply to many things, like shadowing someone in a profession before switching careers.

In Summary

If you break things down into simple steps, you may find that changing your life is more in your control than you realize.

It won’t come without some difficult choices, though.

You can’t have it all, but you can have more than you realize.