Recently, I met with a mentor about some of my past and future goals. After listening and understanding my goals, he started to dive into the motivation behind my goals.

Why did I want to build that product? Why was I interested in that type of business? What did I want my life outside of work to look like? What type of people do I enjoy working with? Am I working with those people? What type of work did I enjoy? What type of work am I excellent at? What type of lifestyle do I want to live?

I had good answers to the first round of questions, but as he kept digging I realized my answers were becoming more and more thin, and I had a lot of thinking to do.

I’m a planner by nature. I’m a checklist-driven high achiever who loves to build, create, and get things done. What the questions by this trusted mentor made me realize is my thinking and planning had been very short-term and short sighted.

My goals and ideas were aimed at the next 1-3 years and not the next 5, 10, or 15 years.

He challenged me to get intentional. To be deliberate about defining what I want to achieve. To get clarity on what I want all aspects of my life to look like: professional, family, spiritual, financial, social, etc. I was challenged to define in detail what I’m excellent at, what there is a market for, and what I’m passionate about; and to develop and find opportunities at the intersections of those three things.

It’s our duty to strive towards greatness in our lives, and through my time with this mentor I realized that I was falling short. Are you being deliberate and intentional about defining and striving towards greatness in your life?