Do you know what you want out of life? How can you lay out the steps to your future?
It’s hard to get anywhere in life if you don’t know where you want to go. Arnold Schwarzenegger argues that clearly defining your major aspirations is key to aligning your decisions and your goals.
Keep reading to learn how to define your goals and see your future clearly.
Define Your Goals
A concrete picture of the future you want will lay out the steps you need to follow for success. Schwarzenegger suggests that your childhood dreams often hint at what aspirations you should follow, but if you’re unsure what you’re striving for, setting small goals can also spark your motivation.
Schwarzenegger says that learning how to define your goals is crucial to steering your life toward the right path. Just as athletes visualize success to fuel their progress, you need to imagine, in vivid detail, what your desired future looks like. This mental image will clarify what decisions you should make to bring your aspirations closer, as well as create a benchmark against which you can measure your progress. Keep in mind, though, that even if circumstances dictate that you have to redefine success or change direction, that’s all right. After all, the experiences and lessons gained on your journey are just as valuable as reaching your destination.
To choose what you want your future to look like, you can start by revisiting your childhood dreams. Schwarzenegger writes that your early aspirations often reveal your genuine passions, giving you a starting point that you can refine and expand upon. However, don’t get stuck on minute details in the early stages of sculpting your dream. Instead, maintain a broad perspective to capture the overall image of what you aim to achieve. Your dream is unique—its only boundaries are those that outline the necessary steps to take to make it come true. As your aspirations solidify over time, you’ll hone in on specific aspects of what success means to you, which will let you establish a plan to achieve it.
| Counterpoint: Flaws in Your Imagined Future Schwarzenegger insists that being able to imagine your future is key to getting there, but not everyone agrees that that’s the best approach. In Stumbling on Happiness, Daniel Gilbert argues that our visions for the future are inherently flawed and can lead to poor decisions. Your imaginings can be faulty when they’re largely based on what’s happened in the past, when you edit out unpleasant possibilities, and when you overestimate how accurately your image of the future reflects what will actually come to be. Gilbert goes on to argue that it’s a mistake to base your present-day choices on how happy you’ll be when your imagined future happens largely because it’s wrong to assume that your feelings in the future will be the same as they are now. As you change over time, so do your emotional reactions, and it may not serve you well to bank your entire future on the idea that your childhood dreams will bring you fulfillment as an adult. However, Schwarzenegger might counter from his own life experience that it’s fine for your dreams of the future to change, but you can’t even get started toward fulfillment if you don’t have a destination in mind. |
Turning Dreams Into Reality
Schwarzenegger uses his life story to show how your dreams can guide you, though your aspirations will change over time. From an early age, Schwarzenegger, who was born in Austria, knew that he wanted to come to America, which he saw as a land of opportunity, though he couldn’t imagine exactly how far that opportunity would take him. At first, he imagined himself standing triumphant on a bodybuilding stage, which he saw as a springboard to a Hollywood film set as a leading actor, just like other strongmen he’d watched in the movies. But once he’d made his initial dreams real, Schwarzenegger didn’t stop there. He envisioned taking on more nuanced roles to show his range as a performer. Ultimately, his dream evolved into using the influence he’d garnered to make a positive impact. At every step, Schwarzenegger could see the next mountain he wanted to climb.
Unveiling a life-defining dream might take time, and that’s perfectly OK. Setting and meeting goals—no matter how small—might be the spark you need to break free from an aimless life. Schwarzenegger suggests that if you find it hard to define your ambitions, consider building them from scratch by setting short-term goals to enhance a skill or improve an aspect of your life. Once you achieve your low-level goals, you can gradually move toward bigger objectives, through which you may uncover your passions. Keep in mind that even if finding a purpose in life is hard, it’s better than feeling adrift and disconnected with nothing meaningful to drive you.
Selling Your Dream
As important as it is to motivate yourself and define the ambitions that drive you, the time will come when you have to rely on other people’s help to move forward. Therefore, a key step to achieving your dream is learning how to sell it to others. You do this to win over supporters, but you need to understand your field so you can identify your potential backers. Just as important is convincing yourself that your dream is something you can make real while also learning to ignore naysayers—or, better yet, prove them wrong.
If you’re going to achieve your dream, and especially if doing so depends on other people, then Schwarzenegger says you have to learn how to sell it. In this context, “selling” means you should present your dream in a way that encourages others to view it in a positive light so that they’ll be inclined to support you. For instance, if your dream is to be a successful performing musician, you have to sell your dream to your potential bandmates, the owners of the venues you’d like to perform at, and the people you’d like to attend your show—and that’s only just to get started.
Therefore, find out who your potential backers are. They could range from financial institutions to the people closest to you in life and on whom you might depend for support. To identify these “customers,” Schwarzenegger writes that you must educate yourself about your field and what success within it demands. Avoid guessing which people or organizations might back you—instead, invest time and conduct thorough research. Pay attention to how other people react when you share your aspirations, and use those reactions as cues on how to pitch them the idea of your dream. And never shy away from being true to yourself when sharing your dreams. Your authenticity will resonate with people better than any façade.
Own Your Sales Pitch
Schwarzenegger learned about the need for salesmanship when he first arrived in America and was shocked by the lack of public perception around his beloved sport of bodybuilding. Rather than complain, Schwarzenegger took the public’s ignorance as a challenge and made himself bodybuilding’s ambassador to the masses, highlighting the discipline and artistry of his craft. Slowly but surely, Arnold recast bodybuilding as something aspirational rather than a niche sport to be ridiculed, as it often was by the media in the 1970s. By framing his passion so positively, he built a legion of fans and supporters who helped take the sport mainstream.
When it comes to your personal aspirations, the most important person to convince is yourself. This is why Schwarzenegger insists that having a well-defined mental image of your goal is crucial. Sharing this dream with others not only helps you refine your “sales pitch”; it also publicly commits you to fulfill it, fueling your determination and giving you a sense of accountability. Also, instead of framing your dream as a distant possibility, talk about it as an ongoing reality. For instance, don’t say that you want to write a novel—instead, tell people you’re writing a novel. This shift will make your aspirations more real, which will further inspire you to take steps toward them and follow through on all the hard work that entails.
Silence the Doubters
Schwarzenegger warns that you’ll encounter cynics who doubt your ability to accomplish your goals. Their skepticism, often rooted in their own unrealized ambitions, might undermine your confidence if you let it. Therefore, your options are to disregard their negativity or use it as motivation to prove them wrong. Especially if people underestimate you because some aspect of your story is unique—such as if you’re the first person in your family to go to college—you can stun them with your unwavering dedication and maybe even win them over to your side. Proving people wrong can be its own form of “selling.”
