Define Your Want List

Define Your Want List

Now that you have identified a Vision for each Life Zone, it’s time to open the floodgates and unleash your creativity. Answer these three questions for each Life Zone:

• What do you want to own?
• What do you want to accomplish?
• Who do you want to be?

Start with the first category, Family. Take a couple of minutes to list as many items as you can for each of the three questions. For example:

• What do you want to own? Complete the sentence, “To support the Vision I have for Family, I want to own _____________________.” For example, your list might include a pool, a top-of-the-line sports car, a lakeside cabin, a fishing boat, an RV, a tennis court, a big-screen TV, a six bedroom house, a $500,000 investment account dedicated exclusively for education, a five-carat diamond ring, and so on.
• What do you want to accomplish? Complete the sentence, “To support the Vision I have for Family, I want to accomplish _____________________.” For example, your list might include one international educational trip per year, three two-week vacations a year, having time to help your children with homework every night, being able to attend your children’s sporting events and recitals, taking your spouse on a date every week, taking the family on a monthly shopping spree, being able to deliver Thanksgiving baskets to needy families, and so on.
• Who do you want to be? Complete the sentence, “To support the Vision I have for Family, I want to be someone who _____________________.” For example, your list might include being generous, setting a good example, having flexibility and free time, being a good listener, being supportive, being able to teach values, and so on.

Write the answers to these questions on paper as quickly as they come to you. Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, priorities, or listing them in any particular order. The goal is for you to have over 20 things on your list for each question at the end of the two minutes. Force yourself to keep thinking and writing for the entire two minutes.

For this exercise, anything is possible and no want is too small, big, impractical, ridiculous, silly, or unachievable. 

There will be plenty of time to place limitations on yourself and your Want List but, for just a moment, make the commitment to dream big.

Don’t feel bad if you’ve never thought about what you want to own, accomplish, and be.

It is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day stuff. The here and now occupies so much of our mental focus and energy that we never get around to planning our future. Turn off the TV, unplug the phone, and shut your door. This is your chance to define what you want!

You have now created a Vision for each area in your life that matters most and have followed this by creating a list of what you want to own, accomplish, and be for each of these areas of your life. Congratulations, you are farther along than most people but aren’t done quite yet. The list you created in this exercise is a raw and unfinished product at this point. With a little more work, you will turn these desires into powerful goals. Not just any goals, but IMPACT-Goals.

The proceeding blog post is an excerpt from The Six-Day Financial Makeover: Transform Your Financial Life in Less Than a Week!, available now on Amazon.