Productive! Magazine #11 with Gretchen Rubin

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magazine

made sure the new one was better than the current one. Sometimes the pay was good but sometimes it was lousy. The pay (short–term gain) didn’t matter, her goal was to make sure each new job was better in terms of her personal development than the past one and she did get to the top eventually. Short–term gains didn’t stop her from the long–term goal.

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Goals help you think big and steer your decisions

better than other jobs... but they don’t think about the long term effects such jobs will have on them.

Goal–less means short–term thinking, no big picture That’s what I’m getting at. Habits are long–term changes but going goal–less is short–term thinking. I prefer to have long term thinking. Sometimes you have to pay your dues to arrive at a better life. Going goal–less means you don’t pay any dues. I was always dreaming of running a successful startup company and now

I do... but to get there I failed several times, had to work quite a few years doing consulting gigs to many customers (and some of them I didn’t like) in the morning and working on my startup ideas at night, but it paid off. My goal was clear and was long term. So I stuck to it, persevered and achieved it... and now I have new, bigger goals. Wasn’t easy, but hey, it was worth it. Another example – a person I know had a goal to be a lawyer in a top–law firm. To get there she went through internships in many law firms, but always

Possibly the biggest benefit of having goals is that your thinking begins to align with your true desires. You begin making decisions according to your goals and soon enough you’re on a path of personal development. You begin to plan your career the way you want it to be and start to feel a sense of control in life. Even if your goals change or you don’t achieve some of them, you can re-calibrate them later. The goals simply help you stay on your long-term course. I like building habits and I like doing what excites me today, but I can’t imagine my life without goals. Remember, even though the course may change, you’ll never get where you want to go without a developing your sense of direction... through goals. a

!!Michael Sliwinski Michael Sliwinski is your chief editor of the Productive! Magazine and a host of

Sometimes you have to pay your dues to arrive at a better life. Going goal–less means you don’t pay any dues.

the magazine’s Productive! Show. Every day he’s trying to help people get more done with his web application Nozbe – now also available as a native Android, iPhone and iPad app, as well as for a desktop PC and a Mac.

! Links: Michael on Twitter | Nozbe – Simply Get It Done! | Michael Sliwinski’s Blog

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