Keep your goals in view, don't let your telescope become a kaleidescope

Yesterday I got a phone call from a guy that I have known for 15 years.  For whatever reason our work lives really never came up.  He knew I did something in technology and I knew he did something in business with a shop.  Through a third party he got my name, so he gave me a call.

He called because his business was not doing well and he needed help getting some new customers.  It was difficult at first for him to talk since we had a social relationship already.  After listening to him for over an hour, I could see that he had no focus at all in his business or personal life, he was just running scared.  Listening to him was like picking up a telescope and looking through it to see a kaleidoscope.  All the little bits of color swirling around with very little rhyme, reason or connection.


You can't run like this for long without breaking down, and you can't do well in a job or running a business like this either.  The change from the telescope to the kaleidoscope is very insidious and effects all of us, some more than others.  Most of you at some point in your lives were idealists and had great goals.  Like most people, you eventually had some event happen that caused you to lose sight of your goals, you might have just caved in to the demands of society, family or friends.  Think of this first event as the first crack in the lens of the telescope that lets you focus on your goals.  That crack has a little angle to it so like a prism, a little rainbow of color appears in your telescope.  Your goals and dreams become just a little occluded by the crack, and the rainbow gives you something inside the telescope to focus on instead of looking through it at your goals.

Next some “emergency” comes up and you drop your telescope causing another crack, another occlusion and a little more color to leak in and wash out the image of your dreams and goals.  Maybe like me you have a talent or skill, you don't really like to use but some one says “Hey can you build me that Home Theater?”.  You might have responded like I did several years ago,  instead of saying “Yes I can, but I am not going too.” you replied “Sure, I can help you with that.” and there is another crack blocking your view and a little more color to focus on inside the telescope.
 

Slowly instead of trying to focus on the goals and dreams that are way ahead of you, and using that telescope to keep them in sight, you start looking at all the little chips of glass and the rainbow of colors inside the telescope that has turned into a kaleidoscope.  Every little chip has unique facet that appears to be important to what is inside the device that is your life.  What those little chips are doing is keeping you busy, and preventing you from moving towards your goals.

I have met business owners that list 20 or 30 skills on their websites and all I can do is laugh.  How can anyone get really good at all of that stuff?  How can you get to the goal lines in your life if you do every job on the team.  Have you ever met someone that seemed to be able to do anything and do it effortlessly?  Did they seem to have a lot of time on their hands?  Truly successful people make sure their telescope is a telescope.  They care for it, clean it and maintain it so they can keep their goals clearly in view.

Just like looking through a telescope, once you reach a goal, you really can't see it anymore, it is too close, so you have to look out on the horizon and look to the next goal.  This process never stops, it is the crazy rule of this thing we call life.

Once you get all your little glass chips built back into a telescope and start heading towards a goal, there is another danger of starting the process all over again.  After you clear your view of where you are going, you end up with a lot more time, energy and happiness.  You will start attracting new attention to yourself.  Other people will try and take that time from you and start the whole process over.  For some reason after we get through the “terrible two's” we stop saying no to things that we don't want to do.  No is one of the most powerful tools to achieving a goal if used correctly, as in “No, I am sorry while I have the skills to build a home theater for you, it isn't going to help me get to my goal of finishing my next book or saving the red headed flush faced beetle.”

Every Day you need to keep your telescope focused, don't let anyone else take it off your view of your goal.  After all this life is only lived once, so you only have one chance to make it great.