Are You Drifting or Driving Through Your Life Now?

Imagine boarding an airplane and hearing the pilot say: “Welcome aboard. I’m not quite sure where we’re going, or when we’ll arrive, but sit back and enjoy the ride.”

You’d be alarmed.

Yet that’s exactly how many people live. Perhaps even you, to some extent. You wake up, go to work, handle responsibilities, scroll through distractions, and repeat—without ever deciding where you’re actually headed.

Not good!

I’ve learned that if you don’t have a clear destination or goal in mind, you’ll end up somewhere you don’t want to be.

The good news is you have a choice. You can continue to drift through your life or you can choose to drive your life.

And there is no better time to start driving your life, guided by your goals, than right now, the beginning of another year.

Why Goals Change Everything

Many people misunderstand goal setting. They think it’s about pressure or perfection. It’s not.

► 1. Goals provide clarity, direction, and momentum

Ray Kroc proved that.

He sold milkshakes for years, working hard, and doing well. But then he set a goal of going into the milkshake business, creating a machine that could mix 48 milkshakes at once. He convinced two brothers who owned a small restaurant to go into business with him, eventually buying them out.

Ray kept the brothers’ name on the restaurant, McDonald’s. And during the next 20 years, Ray turned McDonald’s into a multi-billion-dollar empire, achieving more in those 20 years than the big boys like IBM and Xerox did in 50 years.

Ray Kroc was doing okay, but he did not become wildly successful until he set a specific goal. What changed wasn’t his work ethic—it was his focus. Once he set a clear vision, everything changed for the better.

► 2. Goals provide purpose and longevity. Some nuns proved that.

Years ago, I learned this lesson in a powerful way through someone very special in my extended family, Sister Esther Boor. She lived to be 107 years old and remained mentally sharp, curious, and still teaching at 98. She even became part of a national study on longevity.

When researchers asked other nuns like her what made the difference, their answers were surprisingly consistent. It wasn’t luck. It wasn’t perfect health. It wasn’t even intelligence.

It was purpose.

They had goals.

Around the same time, researcher Richard Leider interviewed hundreds of people over the age of 65 and asked what they had learned about life. One theme rose above all others: You’ve got to have goals. You’ve got to have a plan for your life.

But most people drift.
They react.
They stay busy—but not necessarily fulfilled.

Walt Disney understood this. Walking through Disneyland one day, he turned to a colleague and said, “Do you remember, as a boy, looking out a window and dreaming of the man you would become? Isn’t it wonderful when you actually become that person?”

That question cuts deep.

Because one of life’s greatest regrets is meeting the person you could have been and realizing you never became them.

► 3. Goals prevent pains, problems, and crises.

Most people plan for everything in their lives except their lives. And then they wonder why they have such “bad luck” or so many pains, problems, and crises that others never seem to have.

The reason is simple. A lack of goals. A lack of planning. Drifting instead of driving through life.

I’m sure you’ve seen it. All the people who spend more time planning their vacations than their lives. They research flights, read reviews, compare hotels, and build detailed itineraries—yet when it comes to their future, they simply hope things work out.

In the Richard Leider study I quoted above, his research subjects noted that many people never even think about planning out their lives until they were hit with a crisis. They didn’t plan out a regimen for staying healthy, for example, until they got sick.

Other people didn’t think about how to keep their marriages alive and exciting until their spouse left.

Still other people didn’t think about the impact of goofing on the job, giving 50 or 60% of what they could give, until they got a pink slip.

Don’t do that. Don’t wait for a crisis to happen before you figure out your goals.

So that brings you and me to a crucial question. If goals are so critical, if they change everything for the better, why doesn’t everyone have a clear set of goals?

Why You Might Not Have Set Your Goals

Most people struggle with goals for three reasons:

Many people misunderstand goal setting. They think it’s about pressure or perfection. It’s not.

Lack of awareness.

Chances are you’ve never been taught to step back and ask, “What do I really want?”

Most people don’t think much about “setting” goals. They just think about what they have to do today. They don’t think much about tomorrow, let alone one month, one year, or ten years from now. And as a result, they don’t make all the progress they would like in those time periods.

Of course, your lack of awareness is not entirely your fault. All through school, the teachers told you what they thought you needed to know. They never asked you what you wanted to learn.

I decided to try that at my university classes on Interpersonal Communication. The very first day of class, I put the students into small groups, gave them some markers and newsprint, and asked them to brainstorm and write down all the things they wanted to learn about communication and relationships … and the course would focus on those things.

They were dumbfounded. No one had ever asked them such a question. But they took to the task with enormous enthusiasm as they made their lists, posted them on the walls, and told the rest of us what they really, Really, REALLY wanted to learn.

I created the class around their wants, kept their papers on the wall so we could cross things off as we discussed and learned those items. And amazingly, about 90% of what I wanted to teach them was the same things they listed, but now the class had become THEIRS, and not mine to shove down their throats.

The results were phenomenal. My Interpersonal Communication classes became so popular that there was a three-year waiting period to get into them … all because they were focused on the students’ goals.

Confusing discipline with punishment.

Most people confuse goal setting and discipline. They’re not the same. Discipline is setting your alarm for 5:00 AM and making yourself get up when it goes off.

Goal setting is knowing “why” you set your alarm for 5:00 AM in the first place.

Discipline isn’t forcing yourself to suffer; it’s aligning your daily actions with what matters most.

Lack of reflection.

Too many people spend their time and energy on what feels comfortable, what comes naturally, what feels good, or keeps them out of trouble. None of which may be related to some larger, more significant goals because they never even reflected on their goals.

That’s why I tell my coaching clients, “Every choice takes you closer to—or farther from—your goal.”

The question is: “Where did your choices take you today?”

Final Thoughts: Are you drifting or driving through your life? If you’re doing more drifting than driving, be on the lookout for my new, upcoming online community called NEXT-LEVEL YOU. We’ll show one another how to drive through life with unlimited success.

Dr. Zimmerman’s Tuesday Tip Issue 1327 [Tuesday Tip] ) Are You Drifting or Driving Through Your Life Now?

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