The Lifetime Goals Priority Matrix
To ensure we do the things in life that are important to us, we must prioritize our time and effort. Welcome to the lifetime goals priority matrix.
Introduction
We’ve previously used the priority matrix for financial, professional, and personal goals. That is, we’ve defined the things in life that are important to use in each of these categories. It’s now time to take a holistic approach to our goals and combine them into a single priority matrix. The lifetime goals priority matrix. And you know the reason we are doing this, correct? Yes! So we can achieve our dreams and live our best lives!
Preamble
I’m going to ask you to indulge me for a little bit as we walk through this process. The exercises I’m going to ask you to perform in the following sessions may seem simplistic, but by the time we're finished, you will see the point quite clearly.
A part of developing category goals, that is, financial, professional, and personal, was to figure out what resources you would need to attain those goals. You then determined a timeline to acquire those resources and have listed both on the template for each category. Taken together, this is what we call a lifetime goal AND accomplishment plan. This is another example of the Afterburner Success Partners’ differentiator, which I discussed earlier.
Many books and courses readily tell you to set goals, but I’m not aware of any that ask you to figure out how to get there in enough detail to actually do them. By this point in the course, you should not only have listed each goal and assigned it a completion date, but also determined the resources needed to complete that goal, along with a detailed plan and a timeline to get there. As I’ve said before, you may need professional help with this portion, and I urge you to seek that before you proceed. This is a key step to having a viable plan.
I am available to help you should you desire. Just email me, and we can go from there.
We are just about ready to complete your lifetime goal template, but before we can do that, we need to determine the priority of these individual, categorized goals. You have already determined what resources you need for each goal in each category and the timeline in which you wish to accomplish each. Ideally, they will lie nicely over each other. If they don’t, you may need to consider making some adjustments.
Now, let me just say, that it’s quite possible, and even desirable, for some of our goals to overlap such that we accomplish more than one thing at a time. Here’s one example. If you have a goal to set aside a sum of money for retirement and have a goal to be promoted, they will both be completed in parallel, that is, at the same time. Also, the time periods will be different to complete each goal. This concept is obvious, so I’m not going to spend any more time on it.
It’s difficult when we realize we can’t do it all. But that’s life, isn’t it? Sometimes, if a particular goal is important enough to you, you may decide to shuffle some around, that is, prioritize them.
Completing the lifetime goals priority matrix
I’d like you to take each of your goals, all of them you listed in your lifetime goals template, and list them in the priority order you would like to accomplish them in, in boxes 1-4 of the priority matrix. Now, at this advanced stage of your goal development, you probably had some goals to drop out. If that is the case, then we don’t need to deal with them. Remember, I have said in the past not to delete any goals that came about during our brainstorming session? That is still the case, and although we are not going to list them in the priority matrix or lifetime goal template, you will still have them documented. At some point in the future, you may want to revisit these and add them.
Let’s take some time to overlay each of your goals into your own priority matrix. Insert each of your goals in boxes 1-4. Remember that you used letters or numbers so each would fit on the priority matrix? You may need to renumber them so each goal has a unique number. Go ahead and list each of your goals from each of the three categories into the lifetime goal matrix now. If you have a lot, you may need to redraw the priority matrix on a larger piece of paper. That’s fine if you do. I’d rather you have a lot and have to scale some back than have too little and risk not doing all the things you really want to do by not listing them at all.
Whew! That was a lot of work! We still have work to do, and it may even look like a jumbled mess at the moment, but just stay with me.
When you are complete, we are done for this week, and it’s at that point that you will see how they should look in the big picture. Remember, I’ve asked you to indulge me for a few minutes, and we are just in the middle of these two exercises.
That’s all for this week!
The Lifetime Goals Priority Matrix
Afterburner Success Partners
http://absuccesspartners.com/
What’s in it for me?
If you want to get ahead in life, if you want to achieve your dreams and live your best life, you must take meaningful, deliberate action that follows a proven path. Getting ahead is about learning what to do and then doing it over time.
Call to Action
Just. Do. Something. Make a decision on what you want or need to do, define the path, and get after it. Do it today.
Recommended Resources
See notes below for either of my books.
Up Next
The life goals continuum.
Notes
Please note that as an Amazon Affiliate, I may earn a small commission on the sale of any of these recommended resources.
Achieve Your Dreams: A Complete Guide to Live Your Best Life, by David Giustozzi: https://amzn.to/3IxEFgy
Everyday Cooking for Everyday People Like Us, by David Giustozzi: https://amzn.to/437OhVQ