What happens when you set a goal and stray from it?

Now this is for everyone who's ever felt they've strayed from their goals or perhaps questioned their progress. No, you're not a failure, and yes, your goals can, indeed, shift. This episode of Buy Time is a deep dive into the fluidity of goal setting and achieving, drawing parallels to a video game quest. We unravel the concept of progression, emphasizing that every small step, even something as mundane as replying to emails, is a stride towards your end goal. 

But that's not all; we also venture into the fascinating realm of networking in business, stressing the need to do it passionately and pool in the power of collective progress. Hear me as I share personal insights and nuggets of wisdom on how to navigate the twists and turns of your goal journey. As a bonus, I'll also be recommending a podcast specifically tailored for those just graduating high school. So gear up, allow yourself to adapt, and let's explore this exciting journey to our goals together!

Until next time... Follow on Instagram @buytimepodcast
Follow Jacob K. Mead on all the socials @jacobkmead

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hey everybody, this is Jacob K Mead and this is the Buy Time podcast, where we discuss everything there is to know about buying back your time. Be sure to like and follow and share with somebody who needs to buy back their time. Enjoy today's episode. Welcome back to another episode of the Buy Time podcast. I'm your host, jacob K Mead, and I'm so excited that you're here to listen to today's episode as we dive in and talk about goals, goal setting and why goals sometimes change. So let's go ahead and get started. And actually this episode is kind of good for someone who's maybe just graduating high school or just trying to figure out what they want to do in life, because I want to dive into really why it's important to set goals, but also why it's important to understand that goals can change, because they can. They have in my life and it's kind of a weird feeling when it happens. So let's talk about that.

Speaker 1: 0:54

And if you remember back in high school you might be older listening to this, but when you're graduating high school, you're almost told like, hey, what are you going to do? People are always asking like, what's it going to be about or what you want to do, and it's really hard to sometimes have that all figured out. And the big thing is they may ask you what are some of your goals? And so you list out your goals. Now, in my mind I actually had a whole bunch of goals and I would list out a bunch of my goals and what I wanted to do, but I found myself changing those goals as seasons changed in my life. Things came up, goals might have come in my path where I couldn't quite overcome right at the moment that I actually had to take a step back and deviate from that goal in order to focus on something else. And that actually almost discouraged me a little bit, because everyone kept saying, well, you have this goal in place. Like what, are you getting close to completing your goal? And those questions would bother me because I'm like, no, I had to deviate from the path, like I can't get to my goal right now. And then it's trying to explain to them and obviously a lot of them didn't understand. So has there ever been a time in your life that you felt that way? Because I have. I don't know, maybe I'm the only one, but I know I've definitely felt that way and it's not a good feeling. So I got me to thinking that you know, really, we might have this goal in life.

Speaker 1: 2:13

Let's say we have a goal and we may end up changing that goal several times based on our scenarios, based on life events or where we're at in our season of life. You know, it could be, for instance, opening a business that you absolutely love and running that business for five or 10 years and then saying, hey, listen, I think there's something else out there for me and you set a new goal. You set a new goal to actually go out there and achieve that, and there's nothing wrong with that. It doesn't make you a failure. It doesn't mean that you have to do what you decided you wanted to do a long time ago. Forever.

Speaker 1: 2:45

You can change courses and there's actually a podcast out there called the decision day podcast for people that are just graduating high school. It really talks about how you know you can choose the path that you want after high school. You don't have to have it all figured out, and I love the podcast. In fact, I wish it was out there when I first graduated high school, but it wasn't. But it is. It's out there now. So if you're a high schooler or somebody that's getting ready to graduate school. Even if you're getting ready to graduate college, you don't know what you want to do. It's really great podcast, go check it out, and anyway.

Speaker 1: 3:16

So I think when you're, when you're setting that goal, it's also important to remember that goal could change. It could change, you may have to deviate from it, you may have to take a temporary path. That's not the easiest path, but a different path that actually sets you apart from that goal. But as long as you stay focused, as long as you know that this is something you wanna do, you will always get to your goal, as long as you keep putting work forward to it, and that's one of the other things that I like talking about. When it comes to goal setting. A lot of the times I'll get people that'll set this giant goal and it's so far out of reach they don't even know how to go about achieving it, and so I like to picture it like this In a video game, for instance, if you're playing a video game, there's obviously a goal at the very end.

Speaker 1: 4:06

Or there's a goal or there's quests, and during these quests they have little different steps that you go through to actually achieve the end goal. So I like to look at it almost like a video game, almost like your goal is like a quest that you're trying to accomplish. And in the video games you get so much XP if you're playing a character and you start to build up. And if you play every single day even if you play 30 minutes, 20 minutes or even an hour right, if you play every single day and you do something small in that video game, you're going to accomplish your goal in the game, whether that be leveling up your character or whether it be doing more quests, but you'll be gaining something to get closer to your goal. And so I look at life in that way.

Speaker 1: 4:51

I look at it as it doesn't matter if I didn't do something major one day or if I did something just super small. As long as I did something, it got me closer to my goal. And sometimes I'm gonna be honest with you sometimes that something is checking three emails and replying back to three emails that are business related, because I don't always have it in me. I know that I show up every single day, whether I'm feeling like it or I'm not, but there is days that I don't work as hard as I probably should, but I still do something to get closer to my goal and it shows in the long run. It shows that, hey, by doing these little tasks, by just doing something that you need to do to get closer to that goal, does make a difference, just like in a video game it makes a difference. It gets you closer to whatever you wanna do, whether that's leveling your character or going on more quests or getting armor, I don't know. Whatever it is in a video game, it helps you get closer to accomplishing that.

Speaker 1: 5:51

So stay focused on that. Stay focused on finding little things that you can do each and every day to get closer to your goals. And remember that it doesn't have to be big tasks, it really doesn't. And don't feel discouraged if it's not because we're not gonna feel like doing things every single day, right, sometimes it's like, oh, I don't wanna do this again. I get that way myself. Oh, I don't wanna do this again, but I do it anyways because it's important, but I may just do something small, and then I have that sense of accomplishment hey, I did something small to get me closer to my goal.

Speaker 1: 6:26

Now, with that, I have goals that I set, and once I achieve those goals, it's sometimes hard for me to figure out what's next. I struggle a lot. My wife actually blames me for this. She says, hey, you can never just sit there relaxed and acknowledge what you've accomplished. You're always looking for the next platform, you're always looking to move forward, and so I am guilty at that.

Speaker 1: 6:48

I'm actually trying to take a second to actually look around and actually enjoy where I'm at in life and enjoy that I've accomplished a current goal, before just instantly setting another goal and going for it. Because I know that's important I've been told it several times. I need to enjoy those moments that hey, I've made it, I've accomplished this goal, and take time to actually enjoy where I'm at, versus just looking for that next platform. So I wanna encourage you guys to do the same, and this is more as a do, as a say, and as a do because I'm still struggling with this myself. I'm being open with you guys because that's my policy. I'm always gonna be open with you guys on something. I'm not gonna say I do something perfectly if I don't.

Speaker 1: 7:28

And I struggle with this right. I struggle with knowing hey, I can enjoy where I'm currently at. I don't have to push for the next goal right after I achieve my original goal and that's honestly tough. But if you're in that same predicament and maybe you have some advice for me, I'd love to hear it. If you have some advice that you're like, hey, here's how you can enjoy, kind of where you're at, but I'll feel like you have to push for that next goal, pass that information along, I'd love to hear it. I'm always looking to take people's advice and better myself. Thank you, I love helping other people, but then I love being able to help myself too when it comes to knowledge, because knowledge is power.

Speaker 1: 8:07

And so, going back to the goals, goals can change. Your goals can change, and they can change sometimes a yearly, they can change sometimes every few years, they can change based on life events, but they can change and that's okay. It's okay for your goals to change. You have a goal of going to college, graduating college and getting a job in a corporate world, and maybe you go to the college, you find out that you don't like what you're doing and you're feeling miserable. Don't feel obligated to complete whatever you're doing if you're not going to join it. Change your goal, change what you want to do and don't let money determine your goal either. That's. Another thing is don't say I have to complete this for your degree because I have so much money in it, or I have to keep this business going because I have so much money in it. If you're not enjoying it and it's not something you are truly passionate about, then change goals. Change goals. It's so important Goals.

Speaker 1: 9:04

You want to make sure that your goal is something that you want, you truly want. Sometimes it's hard to figure that out. So take some time, sit down, think about what your goals are and remember that doing something small each and every day can help you get to that goal. It doesn't have to be something big, something small. You actually feel accomplished too. Sometimes it'll be like a snowball effect. You'll feel accomplished and you'll do something bigger and bigger to get you closer and closer to that goal until you finally have made it. And then, once you've made it to that goal, don't do what I do, which is automatically set another goal and strive for it. Don't do that. You'll stress yourself out. Take time and enjoy the accomplishment. Look around and realize that you've made your goal, you've done what you said you were going to do, and actually enjoy where you're at. I'm working on it Again, I'm working on that, but definitely do that. Take time, enjoy where you're at, especially when you made it to that goal.

Speaker 1: 10:06

So is there any of my audience out there that are struggling with goal setting? Is anybody struggling with coming up with what they want to do in life? I'm actually curious to hear from you. So feel free to reach out to me. You can find me on all the social medias. At Jacob K Meade I'm on Facebook, instagram. Send me a message, just say hey, heard your podcast about goals. I wanted to touch base on one of my goals. Maybe I can help you out to help you achieve that.

Speaker 1: 10:34

I love connecting and just networking with other business owners or people that are in business and just helping them out. That's what I'm passionate about. I've always been passionate about helping people. I've always been in a career of helping people and that's what I'm doing is I'm trying to help people and I'm helping them through my real life experiences, and I'm not perfect. I make a lot of mistakes, but if I can help someone else avoid those mistakes, I'm going to try and do that. Well, remember, stay focused on your goals. Goals can change. Don't stress it. And enjoy where you're at Jacob K Meade, and until next time. Thanks for listening to today's episode. My name is Jacob K Meade, and until next time.