Setting clear, specific personal goals is the key to living the life of your dreams. As easy as this may sound, it can often be truly challenging. It can be easier to think of what you don’t want rather than what you do want in your life. However, if you don’t set yourself goals, you can easily end up living your life without clear direction and purpose. This can result in you finding yourself responding to circumstances and being a passenger in your own life rather than being in the driving seat. So, where do you start?
Sit down with a blank piece of paper and a pen and start writing your list. Answer the following questions:
What is it that you really, REALLY want? Don’t think about the how, just focus on the what.
What do you want to do, be and have? Think about your health, wealth, relationships, experiences, education and lifestyle.
Write down whatever comes to mind. Your goals list is fluid and you can always go back and amend it. You now have the basis for creating your dream life. The next stage is to turn your list into specific, measurable, time-bound goals that will propel you into action and achievement.
In 2008, at the age of 41, I started to build my list of goals. Since then, my list has been regularly tweaked and updated as I achieve goals or am inspired to think of new goals. My list currently stands at 95 goals, both big and small, and my intention is to keep adding to it. The goals I have achieved so far are indicated in bold. I strongly encourage you to start your list right now.
Maria Elena’s Goals
August 2021
Personal Development & Achievements
1 Learn some Cantonese
2 Learn how to sail
3 Learn the different types of yoga
4 Write an article for the AWA magazine
5 Run volunteer English conversation classes for students in HK
6 Learn to play mah-jong
7 Do the B2 level DELE exam
8 Go to Zumba classes
9 Take tennis lessons and attain a good intermediate level
10 Take a Qi-Jong and a Tai Chi class.
11 Read Isabel Allende novels in Spanish
12 Do a post-graduate degree in Spanish
13 Do volunteer work in a Spanish speaking country with Projects Abroad
14 Attend a live Jack Canfield event
15 Write a book
16 Establish a meditation practice
17 Join a gym and use it
18 Speak at Toastmasters
19 Buy an ebike and start going on cycling trips
20 Own a Mercedes Coupe and an Audi TT
21 Have toned upper arms
22 Own a second home in Sóller, Mallorca
23 Learn how to make my own clothes properly
24 Read Don Quijote and War & Peace
25 Speak Spanish at C2 level
26 Write an article for ECOS magazine
27 Devise a capsule black wardrobe
28 Be an online volunteer for the United Nations
29 Do a summer course at the University of Salamanca, Spain
30 Make a short video
31 Attend a Jack Canfield Mastermind Retreat
32 Do volunteer work in Germany connected to clothing.
33 Do the Cousera Positive Psychology course
34 Do the Cousera Buddhism and Modern Psychology course
35 Learn EFT Tapping
36 Organise a Facebook Challenge
Work & Career
37 Become qualified as an English as a Second Language Teacher
38 Teach at schools in Hong Kong
39 Give adult English conversation classes at VHS
40 Devise and run short courses at VHS
41 Become a Certified Canfield Trainer
42 Teach Business English in a company
43 Teach at a German university
44 Give Success Principles workshops online
45 Set up my own website
46 Run my own business with friends
47 Teach a short summer course at a Spanish university
48 Run weekend workshops in Mallorca for women
49 Devise and run Find Your Style workshops for women 50+
50 Volunteer at a Jack Canfield event in Europe
Travel & Experiences
51 Go to the Olympics
52 Visit New Zealand
53 Visit The Philippines
54 Spend New Year’s Eve in Sydney, Australia
55 Visit Angkor Wat, Cambodia
56 Visit the Great Wall of China
57 Visit Japan
58 Visit Bangkok
59 Walk the Sydney Harbour Bridge
60 Visit Machu Picchu, Perú
61 Go the opera at The Met, New York
62 Visit the Keukenhof Gardens in Holland
63 Visit Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany
64 Spend a winter weekend in Vienna, take a waltz class and go to the opera.
65 Go on a cruise
66 Visit Chichén Itzá, Mexico
67 Go on a yoga retreat in Sri Lanka
68 Visit Dubrovnic
69 Visit Marrakech, Morocco
70 See Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer playing live
71 Stay at the Hotel Los Reyes Catolicos in Santiago de Compostela
72 Visit the Prado museum in Madrid. See Las Meninas.
73 Visit the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona
74 Holiday in the South of France and Corsica
75 Visit the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi
76 Go to a Marc Anthony concert
77 Go to the US Open tennis and sit courtside
78 See the men’s Wimbledon final from Centre Court front row.
79 See the French Open tennis men’s semi-finals from courtside seats.
80 Go on a meditation retreat
81 Cycle from Verona to Venice
82 Visit Valencia in Spain, eat paella and see Las Fallas
83 Tour Andalucia and watch Flamenco dancing in Seville
84 Holiday in The Maldives
85 Go to the opera in Verona, Italy
86 Go to India, see the Taj Mahal and take a yoga class
87 See a Mozart opera at the Salzburger Festspiele
88 Visit Sweden
89 Visit Copenhagen
90 Spend 4 days at the Ayuverda Parkschlossen Hotel, Germany
91 Go to a Kaliyoga Yoga Retreat in Spain
92 Walk the Camino de Santiago in Spain.
93 Learn to paint with oils.
94 Learn to play the guitar
95 Cycle the Loire Valley, France