Reaching Our Goals

I’m sitting here looking at a checked-off checklist. Tomorrow I leave for Africa- Ghana, specifically. Everything work-wise is done, I’m mostly packed, and I feel as ready as I’ll ever be mentally. There are tons of things flooding through my brain as I sit down to write a quick blog post. One is how you always have time when you have a deadline. Another is how focused you can be with that deadline, or even how much clarity you have when you don’t have infinite time. Another thought through my brain is my team at work, and the community around me. A final thought-path that I could go down is the power of goal setting, and how I want to show up for the completion of a goal I have had since I was 15 years old.

I have 8 minutes before I get the kids, what do you want to talk about? What is most relevant to us Realtors, Investors, property managers and any other kind of real estate professional that might be reading this blog?

I guess where I will focus is that this trip to Ghana is pretty cool. Ghana is in West Africa, and ever since I was 15 years old, I’ve wanted to go anywhere in Africa. I can still remember where the seed was planted. It was a Newsboys Missions trip that was going somewhere in Africa in a group. That trip didn’t work out for me, but I told myself I would someday go to Africa. Starting after college when I picked up the Bullet Journaling habit, I started writing down everyday: “go to Africa.” What's crazy is that other really cool opportunities came up because of this goal. First was a trip to Turkey, then came India. A trip to Haiti is where I served with my wife, Corrie, on a medical team and also proposed to her… surprise! She said yes.

Corrie and I were so close to going on another team that would actually be in Africa (Burkina Faso) with the same team leader as the trip to Haiti. I can write more about medical missions later, but that trip got canceled. Instead, we ended up serving in Trinidad and Tobago, then again and again until we went four times. Finally, this trip to Ghana was announced at our church and Corrie and I were in!

I can’t wait until several hours from now when the wheels of our plane touch down in Africa and I get to check this off my list. It reminds me of the great Jim Rohn talking about when he finally made it to Madrid and he took out his journal and crossed that item off of his list.

Every day I wrote down going to Africa as a goal, but other things came up that aligned with my intent and that was to serve with a team in some meaningful way. So other opportunities arose that I said yes to and they are now part of who I am. I’ll never forget the mystery of Turkey, the smells of India, the ache of Haiti and the passion of Trinidad- all of those things left an impression on me. But I still didn’t lose sight of the opportunity to go to Africa. I knew that when that chance presented itself, I was going to be on that plane.

Thoughts? Check out Jim Rohn and any of his videos about goal setting and achieving success. Think about something that you have always wanted to do, have you lost sight of it? Can you reignite it? What is that crazy item on your bucket list that you need to write down every day? Thats all for now, I’m sure I’ll have more to share with you soon!