Mike Abasov

What are your goals?

I remember how a psychologist would come to my class and ask this question. According to her, people are much more successful, if they have their goals written down, than those who don’t have goals at all or even have them but not on paper.

I never took her words seriously. But later, when reading many business books, I stumbled upon this advice a few times more. And so, I decided to try.

My life changed.

What’s on the list?

I don’t know how, but having goals in writing (on my creative wall) is so effective!

First of all, it feels good every time I accomplish something. Secondly, I’m always on top with what I’m doing and know how it influences my future.

Last Sunday, I wrote about The Stairway Concept of Living in my newsletter. If you missed it, subscribe for free, and I’ll send you a copy.

Combining The Stairway Concept with clear and meaningful goal-setting gives incredible results. In fact, that’s exactly what’s made my 2010 so great with all the networking, jobs, etc.

Here are a few goals from my list. Maybe, you’ll find them appealing:

Short-term:

• Go to at least 3 networking events every month.
• Read 2 books / month.
• Meat 5 awesome people / month.
• Write at least 20 blogpost / month.

Long-term:

• Become completely financially independent from my parents in less than 1 month after graduation.
• Meet Gary Vaynerchuk, Seth Godin, and Keith Ferrazzi.
• Get Canadian citizenship.

Top goal: Work as a project manager at a remarkable branding agency.

Set goals, then accomplish!

The above goals keep me up at night. These goals push me forward when I feel like giving up. These goals make me climb another step every day.

Think about yours. Can you state them clearly? Can you put a quantitate measure and a deadline? Are they achievable? Is that what you really want?

Here are a few more questions to consider:

• What’s my passion?
• What do I really want from life?
• What’s my measure of success?
• Who’s my idol? What do I need to do to reach her level?

Wanna help others? Share your non-secret goals in the comments, and let’s talk!

My story

I was 17, studying in my first year at a university in Ukraine, when I almost failed every course in that year. I was bored with school. I felt like every piece of information thrown at me in class could not be more useless.

I had no idea whatsoever about what I wanted to do with my life. For a while, before applying to study economics, I wanted to become a programmer and make video games or websites. Before that, I was fascinated with the idea of becoming a professional actor.

My parents thought differently of my future, not wanting me to turn out to be one of the many poor actors or computer nerds (in Ukraine, both of these professions usually pay badly). So I went into economics.

It was not until a year and a half into college until my life changed. I found my passion. It was marketing.

The next 3 and a half years I remember as a line of never-stopping events that have shaped and keep shaping my future, my present and myself.

Your story

Hopefully, you know by now what you want to do in your life. But there is a chance that you don’t.

Trust me that finding your passion might be one of the most important and life-changing events that you will ever experience.

You will become more productive. You will see the path clearly. You will be able to plan your life and make decisions. There will be less hesitation. You will be proud of yourself, and you’ll start to grow.

As you are still studying and figuring out your future, I advise you to think seriously about how you want to spend you life. It will be harder to do so later, having a full-time job and other commitments.

If you already know your passion, share how you have found it in the comments section. I think that other students will find it helpful.

If you are still wondering around, here are a few tips that helped me and might be useful to you too.

Action plan

1. Try
Try anything you find interesting. Join student clubs, register for interesting electives, cooking classes, anything at all. Try as much as you possibly can.

In my story, I got into a student club and started working on their marketing strategy, although I’ve never had any interest in this aspect of business before. On the other hand, I liked creating things, and this looked like a good thing to try. 3 months later my life changed forever.

2. Switch
If you don’t find something exciting or useful anymore, drop it. If you don’t like your major, change it. If you don’t see new opportunities in your Toastmasters club, try AIESEC.

It may sound radical at first, but there is nothing more time-wasting than an activity you no longer enjoy.

3. Analyze
Sit down with a piece of paper and write down answers to the following questions:

• What do you like?
• What makes you happy?
• What career paths are possible for every thing you have listed?
• Which of the paths include many of your interests compared to only one or two?

The career that gets the most points might as well be the one for you. Now find a way to try doing the job on a small scale and switch, if you change your mind.

After a few cycles, you will find what you were looking for. I strongly believe that you will find it, as long as you are actually interested in finding it.

And when you do, let me know!

Always have an opinion. Ask yourself what your gut feeling is saying, what you think about this and that, if it is good or bad. Then analyze. Then answer.

Don’t brag about your decision just yet, because you might be wrong, and you don’t want to show that to everyone. But reevaluate and review your opinion later, when more information becomes available.

Some times, you will be completely wrong. Some times, you will be right. But what is more important is that through this process you will train yourself, learn and improve your cognitive skills, as well as intuition.

Later, when you get experience, more knowledge, and access to inside information, your judgements will improve dramatically. And this is crucial for any of your decisions.

So is Blackberry Playbook going to kill Apple iPad? What do you think?

Boring ideas are born in the minds of boring people. If you spend your life in front of a monitor, closed up in a cubicle, or worshiping your laziness, there is absolutely no way you’re going to come up with anything interesting, exciting or simply awesome. This is true for ideas, for blogging, for marketing, for anything.

Stop living a boring life! If you read, read something cool and not a shitty yellow newspaper. If you work, be best at it! If you meet people, meet the interesting ones! You’ll be a better employee, a better entrepreneur, a better blogger, and a better person. People will be interested in what you have to say, because you live an interesting life. Success is exciting, and it doesn’t come to boring people. Ever.