The following is a guest post by Bojan Dordevic. Bojan is an Internet marketing professional with a passion for all things productive. You can invite him for a Hangout on Google+ and follow him on Twitter or App.net.
Almost 4 years ago, I became fascinated by the amount of the tricks I could incorporate as a computer user that would help me get things done faster. My fascination and passion for solutions became more important than actually getting work done. My hobby was looking for the problems I didn’t have, and solving them in a way that I never needed to begin with.
But than I moved on from tech tips, and started focusing on the purpose behind being productive – purpose that gave fuel to my passion – and that moved me to the next level. Various productivity books, gurus, and various bloggers made me reconsider a lot of things in my approach. My passion was productivity, but with the consumption of high quality material, I moved on to the core of the problem: my inner game.
And goals are a big part of that game.
Goals are the major mover of productivity, and unlike many people, I prefer to talk about personal goals rather than company goals. If you are employee (or if you’ve ever held a job in your life), I’m certain you noticed how companies take goals very seriously. They have their plans, executions, tactics, and strategies, and their deployment is very important for their success.
I have always wondered why people never took this approach and applied it in their own lives. All the companies that are surviving and thriving through tough economic times have strong contingency plans. Yet when it falls down back to us, we have none of those plans – and most of the goals that people have in their lives are nothing but fleeting dreams of what might happen. They are left to chance, instead of being proactively worked on.
Goals that are worth pursuing are usually long, paved with the hardship of necesary endurance, self-discipline, and delayed gratification. For a “regular joe” that is raised on the culture of instant gratification, accomplishing a dream of mastery in any certain field is simply “not worth the hassle”. Those people aren’t connected with reality…or their dreams.
But not us.
There are some accomplishments that I’ve made that have helped me become who I am today. There’s a pattern of how I’ve turned my goals into reality, and that is what defines my productivity. Here are just a few goals that I’ve turned into reality:
- Arriving to America: My lifelong dream of moving to the United States was finally realized after years of dealing with intimidating immigration policies that were designed to completely discourage me from pursuing my path.
- Keeping my body healthy: After collage I gained quite a bit of weight, and my body suffered. It took a commitment (five years and counting) that transformed my body for the better, and I’ll keep that commitment in order to achieve the dream body I believe goes well with my character. From an overweight person that sat in front of the computer every day, I’ve become a fitness aficionado, who turns heads when I walk the streets.
- Changing My Career: After I decided to leave the banking profession, I took a strong commitment to transform my work into something I truly wanted to do. Four years later, I never looked back at banking. My degree had nothing to do with my current career choice. Digital marketing and working from home was my big passion, and instead of working at the bank I’ve been successfully living from the income earned in the digital world. I am a firm believer that if you feel that something is right for you, it is worth the sacrifice. In my case that theory proved to be bulletproof.
The difference between the life you have right now and the life you want to live is the desire to craft your life as your own story. You need to dive deep down and find your purpose. People who are interested in true productivity always stay connected with their goals. They are on top of their lives. They know how to take it in the direction of where they want to go.
Productivity isn’t always the work you do; it’s more likely to be the life you live.
Photo credit: Morrhigan via SXC.HU
